This NH town hall meeting is fixed. I have been watching for 25 minutes, and it is already very evident that the crowd is extremely sympathetic to the President. And the first 2 questions were an absolute joke.
Maybe it will get better, but somehow I doubt it.
Check the Specter meeting today for real American feedback. This meeting here is horsesh*t.
I can’t stand to hear b.o. b.sing. I listened to the woman that made the introduction and heard the first actual question and b.o.'s answer. I agree with you that in the beginning, this “townhall” meeting is a set up. Maybe it will get better, but I’m not betting on it and I’m not going to watch the rest.
The Arlen Spector townhall meeting was more realistic.
I agree. So far it has been complete crap. I especially like that kid reading a question that she could barely read, let alone write.
And how about the “republican” that just asked a question?
The woman who is the schoolteacher just took the cake. She ought to worry about her own mental health.
This is an outrage. Our government is creating nothing more than propaganda and passing it as fact. I hope this wakes people up even more.
I would confidently assume that FOX quickly smelled a rat and went to alternate coverage. That’s how bad this shameless farce is.
Is it being streamed anywhere? I’m at work and I can watch it streaming on my windows mobile phone… Our computers are locked down for all streaming media and any sites related to things like myspace/youtube.
Not looking to incur the wrath of any fellow New Englanders, but there has always been a left-slant undercurrent in New Hampshire, courtesy of the Vermont ecohippies. Their voices have traditionally been muted, but our military involvement in Southwest Asia has brought a resurgence of their rhetoric back to the steps of Town Hall. These people are part of the community – they just are viewed as fringe players.
What is new (and troubling) however, is the vast influx of liberal-minded transplants from Massachutsetts who work in Boston, but chose to live in southern New Hampshire communities. These people are not a part of the community, but are smart enough to live in a state that historically hasn’t subjected them to the inevitable consequences of their beliefs. They have been increasing in numbers, however, and they have had a clear role in reshaping demographics in more urban areas like Nashua and Manchester.
Go further into the interior of the state, and you’re still likely to find a healthy “Live Free Or Die” mentality; that said, most of these people are borderline Libertarians who I suspect have little overt interest in going to a Town Hall meeting with the President. For the most part, the ones to want to go to something like this are the ones who helped put him into office to begin with.
How is that for a tidy collection of broad-sweeping generalizations? 
AC
So just out of curiosity - if the folks attending seem to be sympathetic, the meeting is a sham, but if they are loudly protesting, the meeting is legitimate?
And this surprises you why? They filter the WH Press Corps and pre-screens the questions they can ask; it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that they would stifle “regular citizens”.
If it is one sided… left or right… it is a sham. Why? Because you could not ever get a random group (cross-cut) of the American population together and have them all share similar feelings on ANYTHING, let alone one of the most debated subjects upon us today.
If this idiot makes this happen, I pray we are not doomed to a system like Canada has.
See, you and I are a cross cut, a small one… but one. I bet you and I do not agree. It’s cool, we don’t sleep together and we do not have to agree.
Sounds about right to me. I grew up in Pepperell MA, on the NH border right south of Nashua. I lived there from the time I was 10 to about when I was 24, with a couple years in the middle away for schooling and some missionary work. I also lived in Merrimack NH (between Nashua and Manchester) when I was about 32 to about 36 – about 4.5 years.
Lots of Massholes coming up and not wanting to pay the taxes but wanting their Nanny state to come with them have changed the dynamic. Talking with friends still in the area you can notice real “change” in the last 10 years.
The BHO “Town Hall” is filled with hand-picked people and is a sham. I know, knowing the people there, that there would be a large contingent of people asking very pointed questions if it were an open forum. I personally know some of the people who would be there. (The same guys who had ham radio patrols tracking Clinton and Gore when they were in power and would come to visit in order to position protestors and signs appropriately)
The White House specifically stated that neither the questions nor the participants were pre-screened for political affiliation. That is really the primary reason I find this event so disturbing.
Not everyone has to be loudly protesting, but having no one loudly protesting, while in the rest of the country there are riots about this, and that does not seem strange to you?
Plus, I personally know people in the NH area, having lived there before and also having grown up in Mass on the NH border, who would be there leading the protests and asking the really pointed questions, if they were allowed.
YES, it is a sham.
Absolutely not. Just like with shooting, there’s a difference between accuracy and precision. Some of the reporting is very precise, but the accuracy of that reporting is questionable, generally to the left of the bullseye. 
Editing these for newscasts allows them some amazingly precise messages. It just doesn’t always line up with the truth.
The volume(sound) at which they protest isn’t what is important, it’s the volume(of people) that will matter. Arlen Specter said it best in his town hall meeting ( and I don’t particularly care for him). “There ARE term limits…” as voters CAN limit a Congressmans terms, IF they chose to inform themselves. The problem arises when people don’t have the least bit of interest in how things happen, just that they want to complain when it happens. A lot of people are actually getting involved in the process, more so than I’ve seen in a long time. That’s a good thing… lets just hope it’s not too late.
What a flaming load of bull…
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090811/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_health_care_overhaul
PORTSMOUTH, N.H. – Braced for a fight he never got, President Barack Obama went on the offensive in support of his health care plan Tuesday, urging a town hall audience not to listen to those who seek to “scare and mislead the American people.”
“For all the scare tactics out there, what is truly scary is if we do nothing,” Obama told a friendly crowd of about 1,800 in a high school auditorium and a nationwide audience watching on cable television.
The White House had been ready for an unruly reception from opponents of overhauling health care. There was no sign of that, perhaps because of the makeup of the day’s crowd or out of traditional deference for the president.
Obama’s push came amid a string of disruptive health care town halls nationwide that have overshadowed his message and threatened to derail support in Congress. Indeed, Republican-turned-Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter faced hostile questions, taunts and jeers earlier Tuesday as he tried to explain his positions at a town hall in Lebanon, Pa. Voter fears of a government takeover of health care were on stark display.
Some lawmakers, holding forums during Congress’ August recess, have gone so far as to replace public forums with teleconferences or step up security to keep protesters at bay.
But the Democratic president faced no outbursts.
The encounter was so friendly, in fact, that by the end Obama was even asking for skeptical questioners to come forward — to no avail.
He told his audience reassuringly, “For all the chatter and the yelling and the shouting and the noise, what you need to know is this … if you do have health insurance, we will make sure that no insurance company or government bureaucrat gets between you and the care you need.”
Retooling his message amid sliding support, he addressed some of his remarks to a vital and skeptical audience: the tens of millions of people who already have health insurance and are generally satisfied with the care they get.
He said the overhaul is essential to them, too, contending it is the way to keep control in their hands. Obama said while government bureaucrats should not meddle with people’s care, bureaucrats at insurance companies should not, either.
The president accused critics of creating “boogeymen.”
“Spread the facts. Let’s get this done,” Obama implored the crowd.
The tone was set as soon as Obama arrived. He came in to applause and told one person who shouted support, “I love you back.”
One man identified himself as a Republican and said, “I don’t know what I’m doing here.” The Democratic president said he was happy to have him in attendance.
Toward the end of the session, Obama went so far as to ask people to give him skeptical questions. The best he got were queries about why he doesn’t chastise Congress more and where the nation would find the additional doctors and nurses it needs.
Heading toward a pivotal fall debate before congressional action, Obama is scrambling to get lawmakers and the public behind what would be the most ambitious and costly changes to the health care system in decades.
He reiterated his determination that the plan be paid for without adding to the nation’s soaring deficit.
He took on what he described as erroneous claims that have risen as the debate in Washington and the nation has developed.
He singled out the charge that the Democratic health care legislation would create “death panels” to deny care to frail seniors. Former Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has said the Democrats’ legislation includes “death panels” that could deny care.
Obama declared that a provision that he said had caused the uproar would only authorize Medicare to pay doctors for counseling patients about end-of-life care, living wills, hospice care and other issues, if the patients wanted it. It would not “basically pull the plug on grandma because we decided that it’s too expensive to let her live anymore,” as Obama put it.
The people Obama called on for questions asked him largely about their personal medical concerns and how any new law would affect them. “We’re not talking about cutting Medicare benefits,” he said, trying to reassure one questioner.
Obama sought to dispel talk that his ultimate goal is a single-payer federal health care system, like that in countries such as Canada.
He also disputed the notion that adding a government-run insurance plan into a menu of options from which people could pick would drive private insurers out of business, in effect making the system single-payer by default.
As long as they have a good product and the government plan has to sustain itself through premiums and other non-tax revenue, private insurers should be able to compete with the government plan, Obama said.
“They do it all the time,” he said. “UPS and FedEx are doing just fine. … It’s the Post Office that’s always having problems.”
ETA: RIF, I just saw the other thread. Please move delete…
ETA2: Funny, we both thought “Sham!”.
I think the real issue is when you have people that are supposed to be on one side or the other, but they are actually throwing up softballs. Loud yelling or not. I really don’t like all the screaming, when done by smelly hippies or smelly old people. It all stinks. I think questions from a conservative like Charles Krauthammer are far more devastating than a some of the chants I’ve heard.
"One man identified himself as a Republican and said, “I don’t know what I’m doing here.”
What a load of horse shit. Is there anyone actually that stupid on this planet that doesn’t think he was a plant.
“They do it all the time,” he said. “UPS and FedEx are doing just fine. … It’s the Post Office that’s always having problems.”
EXACTLY So why take multiple BILLIONs to create that crock of shit in the first place.
The current system isn’t perfect admittedly, but I don’t think starting ground up with their horse shit ideas and a piss poor government track record makes the least damn bit of sense,. Just make adjustments to increase efficiencies and coverages in the current system.
To expound on that, here’s what I think are some GREAT suggestions.
This thread at TOS would seem to indicate a deliberate plant:
http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=911911
Tomac