Just returned from the latest McCain town hall here in Phoenix which is the first one I've attended. And folks, boy did we dodge a bullet last November! Follow me below the fold for why I believe that as well as my impressions of this particular meeting.
As you may know, John McCain held a second town hall here in Phoenix today from 5:30 to 6:30 after one yesterday in the retirement community of Sun City, AZ. Today's meeting was held at North Phoenix Baptist church, a huge sprawling affair at the corner of Central Ave. and Bethany Home Rd. in Phoenix. It's a nice older residential area with enough grass and trees to make you almost forget you're in a desert. The church is also the one McCain considers his own although I wonder just how often he has a chance to attend.
My friend and I got there around 5 and the place was getting filled so we had to find seats toward one side and up the stairs at the rear of the auditorium. Things started pretty much on time with an introduction by the pastor of the church. The pastor said a brief prayer exhorting God to give McCain the wisdom of Solomon - a request the good Lord apparently ignored - and with nary a mention of the passing of The Lion of the Senate. Nor did McCain himself mention the loss of his colleague.
Poor McCain! He is stooped over and obviously has a few canned lines he remembers to repeat over and over. His visual aids were a couple poster boards that were virtually unreadable from where I sat. Guess they were more a substitute for notes as he pretty much read them out to the audience. I thanked our lucky stars that this old man and his idiotic but scheming sidekick Palin got no closer to the Oval Office than they did. One would have thought that in his own state and within the protection of his own church the Senior Senator from Arizona would have had a more friendly audience than he did. But he pretty much got attacked from both sides and although the audience was predominantly conservative, he got zinged from several wingnuts especially on his perceived inaction on illegal immigration. Apart from one loud heckler(who was escorted out near the start), the questions/comments from our side were generally succinct and effective. Of course it really is hard for the McCain's side because their position is basically the status quo with maybe a few perks for the insurance companies and I don't think even the conservatives in that crowd were especially happy with them. Still, the success of the misinformation campaign was evident: one ultimately had to feel sorry for the poor woman with the picture of her grandchild with cystic fibrosis. She really seemed panicked with the absurd belief that the government plan would cut the child off from any health care. I wish I could have asked her which health insurance companies she thought would be beating down her door to offer her child health insurance when she was no longer covered by her parents'? I would also have let her know that my Canadian great-niece with CF will never have to worry about her family losing insurance coverage or going bankrupt due to medical bills. A medical student from U of A questioned the perverse incentives built into the system. Another gentleman argued that we have government involved in defense, police protection,and building infrastructure why not health care. A wingnut who started railing against government health care couldn't resist calling Obama a fascist and promptly got booed and didn't get to finish the rest of his vile statement.
More people were clamoring to ask questions but the meeting had gone overtime by 10 minutes and McCain called it quickly to a close. I don't think many minds were changed but it it was an interesting 70 minutes.