Anybody else attend tonight’s town hall @ UW with Rep. McDermott?

[TommyPaine]

It was all right, except for the constant heckling from the children in the audience. Also, I wish Rep. McDermott had answered questions in a less roundabout manner, and that the applause were kept in check--there just wasn't enough time for Q&A.

[eridani]

1. I was there

Wish he hadn't sidestepped the issue of allowing people to voluntarily buy into Medicare. The campus cops pulled a Larouchie out of the balcony, which cut down some of the noise.

I was also surprised not to see a full house. Probably people in CD 7 have been taking his support of single payer for granted for too long.

[TommyPaine]

2. So it seems LaRouche's Douches are behind this "Obama = Hitler" nonsense

Couldn't avoid those idiots outside the town hall, distributing propaganda claiming that Obama is attempting to revive Nazi policies. Why the hell hasn't this nut-job gone away? LaRouche hasn't been relevant in...well, ever. His glassy-eyed followers had the look of Charlie Manson's little stooges. Just pathetic.

[eridani]

3. A couple of blog reports

http://effinunsound.com/?p=1292

Last night was a momentous occasion in the history of EffU. Carl and I finally met this Demo Kid character for the first time. And the setting for our first round of drinks together was the University District, to get ready for Jim McDermott’s town hall at UW Meany Hall. Unfortunately Demo Kid didn’t have time to come inside, but before taking off, he walked with us to the hall to check out the scene.

Not much in the way of protests outside. The Larouchies were there with a table and their trademark posters of Obama with a Hitler mustache, but they were outnumbered by pro-health reform folks handing out flyers. And there was this poor woman all by herself providing free advertising for Planned Parenthood while grossing out passersby.


http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2009/09/01/talking-them-into-submission

More on this tomorrow morning, but it's clear that Jim McDermott's strategy at his town hall meeting tonight was to talk his hecklers into submission.

It worked.

For example, while making the case for the public option McDermott said: "The government can do things right, and has done things right.”

The hecklers laughed big, mocking, cartoonish laughs. "HA HA HA HA HA."

McDermott went right on talking: “I was noticing when I got out here that this pin on my jacket is from NASA." He pointed to his lapel pin as he said this, and continued: "NASA is something the government did… That is an example of what government can do when they think about it. Medicare is also a program that has improved the health of senior citizens, it has expanded life expectancy..."

"Bankrupt!" shouted the hecklers.

But they lost that argument, too, as people applauded for Medicare far more loudly than the hecklers could heckle. The tally? McDermott 2, hecklers 0. And he still had the mic.