Great moments in journalism. Times calls ‘death panel’ of the right’s “questionable but potentially damaging charges” that Obama must combat.
We’re watching an Arlen Specter town hall at which one protestor after another gets up with a question more unhinged than the last. I confess I hadn’t read the part of the bill which would abolish democracy in America.
The latest question is a demand that all legislation be written in junior high school level English.
Late Update: Specter finally got a pro-health care reform question, after about a dozen antis. It makes you wonder who managed getting pro-health care folks to turnout for this event.
It’s like Republicans suddenly woke up in the summer of 2009 and discovered they lost the White House.
Too bad we didn’t just have a national election where voters got to decide between health care reform or health care status quo. That would have really helped clear things up …
Late Update: TPM Reader JM does me one better:
Funny, funny but it should be: “Too bad we didn’t just have a national election where voters got to decide between health care reform proposed by both parties. That would have really helped clear things up …”
If you watch the MSM on health care you’d think McCain never even ran for President in 2008 and never even suggested taxing employer based health benefits, or never suggested a “federally supported Guaranteed Access Plan” for people denied due to preexisting conditions, or never proposed cost containment measures including coordinated care and moving away from fee-for-service, or cutting Medicare Part D subsidies for Big Pharma. One can argue whether these were good or bad ideas but Mccain did in fact have ideas to reform health care.
Scenes from the contentious heated crazy-making town hall meeting Arlen Specter held this morning in what is apparently the cranky old white people Capital of the World: Lebanon, Pa. Watch.
Late Update: Not so! says Fox News’ Megyn Kelly:
“And there you have it. An extraordinary showing out of Pennsylvania. As we watched for the past hour non-stop, an informed, articulate, and very concerned group of American people take their questions directly to their elected representative, Senator Arlen Specter, who they attempted to put on his heels with some very tough questioning. This is American democracy at work. This will not provide fodder for those who describe these folks as angry mobs or dismiss them as un-American. It will however provide a lot of fodder for debate.”
Here was one of the more entertaining moments of Sen. Specter’s (D-PA) town hall when one question went from talking about health care to how the Koran says that “all unbelievers will be executed.” The question then adds: “That’s why I cannot support Islam.”
Help me out here. Is the swastika scrawled on the district office door sign of Rep. David Scott (D-GA) in Smyrna supposed to suggest that he’s a Nazi (blacks being especially favored by Hitler, don’t you know) or is it a warning that the vandal is a fascist thug?
Scott had a town hall meeting last week that was especially heated on health care reform, but it’s not clear if the two events are connected.
MSNBC just aired footage of the crowd gathering at the Obama town hall meeting on health care that’s supposed to start later today in New Hampshire and pointed out one man in a group holding protest signs with a gun in a holster on his hip. Apparently not a law officer, but a civilian.
Whatever the concealed carry laws in New Hampshire, you have to figure guns not allowed at a presidential event. Right?
Late Update: Also important to note, the gun-toting protestor was holding a sign referencing the Jefferson quote: “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” It’s a well known quote from one of the archetypal founding fathers. And in itself it’s part of the American heritage, something that echoes with Jefferson’s always ambivalent and frequently dilettantish attitude toward political violence. But in the context of these townhall excesses and while carrying a firearm at a presidential event, it’s quite a menacing statement, in as much as it is about the need to kill tyrants. — jmm
Later Update: The local police tell MSNBC that the man is legally carrying the gun, is nowhere near where the President will be, and is “under constant surveillance.”–dk
Packing Heat Update: The gun-wielding protester was interviewed by Chris Matthews late today: “I’m not advocating violence,” William Kostric said. “I’m advocating an informed society, an armed society, a polite society.”
How long before this nationwide right-wing primal scream gets out of hand?