Just got back from the Philadelphia Health Care town hall held at the National Constitution Center this afternoon at 3 pm. Figured I'd share a few impressions for whatever it's worth.
I didn't take a rough count, but it seemed like a decent sized crowd. They ran out of chairs, and so I took a seat on a ledge near the back of the gathering.
The anti-health care reform folks were out in force. Lots of people with blue stickers that said "Tell Washington No." I saw a few red Tea Bagger shirts and one fellow in a faux-Colonial hat wearing a T-shirt that said something about torches and pitchforks keeping America safe since 1791 or such. There were also a number of folks from the SEIU who were pro healthcare for all, and they were handing out stickers.
Speakers were Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Sen. Arlen Specter. There were a bunch of boo-birds that tried to shout Sebelius and Specter down at every opportunities with shouts of "Stop Socialism". (I'd read previously about folks being bused around to try to disrupt the town halls, so I couldn't tell if the ones at the meeting were local or imported boo-birds - Philadelphians boo Santa Claus, so anything's possible.) Like a schoolmarm trying to control an unruly class, Sebelius told the crowd that we could either shout at each other, or we could let people ask their questions and listen to the answers. This settled the crowd down a little, but the boo-birds nevertheless went off at every opportunity.
Many of the "anti-reform" questioners seemed, at least to me, to be reading from prepared talking points: you want to ration healthcare, ER waits will get longer if more people are covered, Catholic hospitals will close if legislation does not provide a conscience clause. I thought Sebelius and Specter fielded the questions, pro and anti, far more smoothly than I would have under similar circumstances - then again, that's why I'm a beancounter and they're politicians. The meeting lasted about an hour, and after Sebelius and Specter left the podium, a number of Obama supporters were shouting "Yes we can!"
I would encourage Kossacks to get to a town hall, if one is held near you, for a counterweight against the know-nothing boo-bird faction, if for no other reason.