Barack Obama showed his true colors during a recent trip to Montana. The president was in Bozeman, Montana earlier this month to conduct a town hall meeting with “citizens” on his health care reform plan. Naturally, most of what was really news was ignored by the press. However, I was fortunate enough to receive an email from a friend who received an email from a friend who was on the ground in Bozeman, before, during, and after Obama’s visit.
According to the account, the true details of the president’s trip were appalling. It amounted to an extravagant staged campaign stop for socialized medicine all at taxpayer expense. In the first place, the town hall forum was held in a remote hangar at the local airport even though several venues (auditoriums, gymnasiums) in town were available for the event. Thus, it was harder for average citizens to attend and seating and decorations had to be shipped in for the event. In fact, according to airport workers in Bozeman the airport was abuzz with loads of shipments for the president for most of the week leading up to the forum. One UPS employee even reported that thousands of dollars worth of lobster was shipped in for Obama and his entourage. Since Montana has some of the best beef in the nation and they are experiencing the same economic hardships as the rest of us during this recession, one would think the president would be a little more empathetic toward his hosts and purchase their product to help their local economy.
Of course, to get a ticket to see and maybe even ask the president a question was a complete runaround. Folks were not given the time tickets would be handed out until the morning before the day they were handed out. Then, not even half of the tickets printed were handed out. But, rest assured, folks with hard luck stories had their tickets. Ahead of time, the White House called Bozeman’s Human Resource and Development Committee to get the names of folks who have experienced health care woes. These folks got rides and tickets to the event all in an effort to give the impression that Montana was squarely behind the president’s plan to provide universal health care coverage to all Americans. And just to make sure the impression was perfectly cemented, any questions for the president either from the media or the loyalists in attendance were screened ahead of time by the White House.
Article comments
1 - Sean
I'd like to know who your "friend" is...since according to this article, it's a spam mail, and an outright lie at that.
2 - Jordan Richardson
Actually, Sean, it was a friend of a friend. So that makes this whole premise even more credible...nevermind the "one UPS employee" reporting on lobster. For shame.
Also, this article is proof positive that you really can overuse the word "folks."
3 - zingzing
the view from abroad is pretty damn dim. kenn, i'm beginning to think, couldn't care less what the truth is. the rest of the right has quietly shut up (as now, it seems, the right is taking its anger out on its own, shouting down its own senators as they try to explain that there aren't any "death panels" and that no one is "trampling the constitution, etc, etc"). it's just taking a while for the news to get out there, it seems.
4 - Joanne Huspek
This isn't exactly a news flash. FEW of our elected officials care one whit about the country. They're just lining their pockets for the real collapse.
5 - Silas Kain
Or going back to live at C Street because they are the "chosen ones" and can do no wrong even when they take money for personal gain, have affairs with women outside the marital bed chamber or lurk in airport men's lavatories. The majority of our elected officials are bought and paid for by special interests and we allowed it to happen.
6 - Dave Nalle
It may not be a news flash, but the situation in Montana was particularly blatant and offensive. The local folks were really outraged by it. I have a half-finished article on it, but Kenn beat me to the punch. Maybe I'll see if I can finish it up to help clarify how troubling this kind of thing is.
Dave
7 - Cannonshop
6: Dave, how on earth could it be troubling to see a chicago politician running his show the chicago way? "Troubling" would be something out of character. This is just playing to type.
8 - Dave Nalle
BTW, there are other sources than the one Kenn references in this article which confirm most of what his source reports, including this article from an Obama supporter.
Dave
9 - Cindy
Kenn,
He certainly would not tolerate organized henchmen being used to squelch First Amendment freedoms.
So, you're saying he would not tolerate counter-protest? Why? And what makes the counter-protesters thugs? Is it simply because they're organized?
10 - Stephen Nall Foster
This quote would seem to sum up the quality of your comment: However, I was fortunate enough to receive an email from a friend who received an email from a friend who was on the ground in Bozeman, before, during, and after Obama’s visit.
One more "heard it from" and you'd have the REO Speedwagon song.
By the way,what's wrong with socialized medicine. Why don't you try to address a real issue--not a political staging. Nothing you said remotely connects to your title, that Obama does not care about us.
That's gargantuan political/intellectual stupidity. You're not by any chance Glen Beck's lost son are you?
How patently dishonest to post such a piece.
Ps: I write for blog critics, too.
11 - Baritone
Yes, Kenn certainly uses an unimpeachable source as the basis of his article. And, to form, Dave manages to chime in with what he claims provides further and independent support of Ken's thesis.
Well, Dave, I read the article you cite, and it is hardly a condemnation of Obama or his health care plan. The author points up some of the difficulties he and others encountered in their efforts to attend the event. But, in the end his assessment of Obama's appearance is positive.
This entire article is another example of taking a silk purse and devolving it into a sow's ear. The article is in a word a "load."
B
12 - Clavos
Ps: I write for blog critics, (sic) too.