Tag: town halls

Sen Dorgan (D, ND)… well, he’s ducking and covering on health care.

There’s no way to sugar-coat it, although Dorgan’s certainly trying.  If his town halls are all going to be like this one:

Dorgan will be at the fire hall for only an hour, so there won’t be a lot of time for questions, Pyle said.

…then yes, he is in point of fact ‘worried.’ As well he should be: Ramussen’s new numbers are out, and they are really, really pretty.  At least, from the point of view of folks who are against health care rationing. Continue reading Sen Dorgan (D, ND)… well, he’s ducking and covering on health care.

Rasmussen: Plurality of Americans support town hall protesters.

The Democrats had best hope that this is not party-line thinking.

The results are 41% support / 35% don’t / 23% not sure, but the interesting thing here is the partisan breakdown:

Given the partisan anger prompted by the town hall meetings, it’s not surprising to see a similar divide in the survey. Fifty-five percent (55%) of Democrats have an unfavorable view of those opposing the health care reform plan proposed by President Obama and the leaders of their party. Sixty-three percent (63%) of Republicans and the plurality (48%) of voters not affiliated with either party view the protesters favorably.

Not good news for the administration. Neither is the breakdown on the “Are they fake?” question (49% real, 37% fake, 14% not sure):

The partisan divide is even wider when the motivations of the protesters are at issue. Seventy percent (70%) of Republicans and 58% of unaffiliated voters say the protesters reflect the concerns of their neighbors. Sixty-one percent (61%) of Democrats say the protests are phony.

All in all: this poll is only good news for Congressmen sitting in safely liberal districts. Everybody else favoring health care rationing? Not so much.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Anti-health care rationing legislators getting packed town halls, too.

So much for the Democratic narrative.

Now this should be what worries proponents of health care rationing: citizens showing up in much larger-than-anticipated numbers to complain about an issue – to legislators who agree with them.

U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., learned constituents were more engaged than he may have thought.

Hundreds turned out in Waycross for a town hall meeting Wednesday on House Resolution 3200, the House bill on reform – a discussion Kingston’s staff thought would draw only 50 or 60.

Kingston heard worries over the effect of the bill on businesses, lack of health care choice, and the degraded quality of coverage. Kingston himself said there was too much big government and too much cost in a universal plan.

Via The Campaign Spot.  The aforementioned health care rationing supporters – which is to say, “Democrats” – should be worried for two reasons.  First off, it helps put the lie to the Democrats’ sad allegations that the other side is also faking up grassroots support.  Jack Kingston won his R+16 district by a comfortable margin last year; GA-01 is about the last place you’d choose for astroturfing GOP support for something.  Secondly – and more importantly – stories like this indicate that the Republican rank-and-file has gotten a taste for showing up for events like these.  Which is great… for the GOP, because we don’t have to spend many resources at the moment to get them there and keep them there.  Not so great news for the Democratic party, which will have to have its union contingent spend even more resources to match what we’re doing now.  Which means that anybody from a GOP district should go to their town hall meetings, too.  Not that you should forget your cameras.

Just in case.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Jeanne Shaheen *not* at Grafton ‘town hall’ meeting, DNC claims to the contrary.

The Senator was never going to be there, in fact – as this post from August 3rd shows. It happens; after all, the Senate’s not out of session quite yet, so if you have to use staffers, you have to use staffers. Announce ahead of time, and the only people adversely affected would be abject idiots, or the people who trust the abject idiots to give them true information.

And, really, how many of them are out there?

Organizing for America distributed an e-mail around midnight on Wednesday urging Democratic activists to attend a town hall meeting in Grafton, NH with Sen. Jeanne Shaheen at 10:00 AM on Thursday.

[snip of explicit statement that Shaheen is going to be there, fearmongering, fearmongering, fearmongering, fearmongering, fearmongering, and then – just for a break in pace – more fearmongering]

There’s just one problem. NowHampshire.com contacted Shaheen’s office who confirms that the senator is in Washington and will not attend the town hall meeting. Staff will field questions in Grafton instead.

If you’re going to astroturf a town hall, Mr. President, complete with premade signs with which to have supporters wave around and everything; anyway, shouldn’t you check to see whether the person who you’re trying to cover for is actually going to be at the town hall meeting in the first place?

Ed notes that these are the people who want to run your health care. I note that there were a finite number of people in New Hampshire this morning who came away from this escapade with the reaction that Organizing for America either lied to them, or else doesn’t have a clue about what’s really going on.

Much obliged!

Moe Lane

PS: GraniteGrok is giving some interesting coverage on New Hampshire generally. Check it out.

Crossposted to RedState.