At the healthcare "town hall" in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Obama outspoke his audience by a margin of nearly 9 to 1. That's quite a feat.
Much has been made of the chance for true, interactive democracy offered by the freewheeling town hall format that lawmakers are using in health care forums across the country.
But what the White House is calling a "town hall meeting" does not quite follow in the tradition of the public-driven forums that sprouted centuries ago in New England.
It's more like a press conference for the public.
In an orderly fashion, selected members of the audience pose brief questions, and the president elaborates.
And elaborates. And elaborates.
A look at President Obama's health care "town hall" Tuesday in Portsmouth, N.H., shows the president out-spoke his audience by a ratio of nearly 9-to-1.
Here's the scorecard.
Obama: 8,619 words.
Audience: 1,186 words.
Obama sure is wordy.
Also loquacious, verbose, and long-winded.
And he talks a lot.
He's reminiscent of a third-world dictator who loves to hear himself talk, and talk, and talk. Nobody will interrupt him, though they'd dearly love to, because -- well, he's the Dear Leader.
Obama probably thinks he's mellifluous -- and he's right, to a degree. He delivers a line well, and quite convincingly. But there's a point at which even the most gullible begin to realize that "there is no there there" (to quote Gertrude Stein on Oakland) and that whatever follows the words "let me be clear" from Obama's mouth is at best a half truth.
You know and I know that even if Congress is dropping the "death panel" from the healthcare bill for the moment, it will be back. You know and I know that Obama also wants to end up with a single-payer (translation: all-government) health care system. Here it is in his own words:
So what will Obama accomplish with his town halls? Will the sonorous sound of his voice lull the awakening giant of skeptical public opinion back to sleep?
I think not. You can only convince the people that you are post-partisan once. And after you've already been partisan, appearing post-partisan again is a tough one to pull off. You can stack your town halls with plants but then it becomes all too obvious what's going on.
Obama has already proven himself to be a big, big spender with ideas are either not thought through or expensive clunkers. His own bad track record of his first six months rebukes him and his grandiose plans.
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