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I just got back from Jason Altmire’s town hall on Obamacare and I thought I’d report what I saw. I didn’t get much video since my camcorder crapped out on me for some reason, but here’s a text account. I’ll try to salvage what video I can and post it on youtube.

As already noted, the town hall was held in a very poor, very liberal, sparsely populated area on the far fringe of Rep. Altmire’s constituency - a complete coincidence, I’m sure. He was actually asked about that and he tap danced around an answer. From the moment I got there, I noticed people who looked like they lived around the area walking around with pre-made signs, stickers, and pamphlets with Obama’s “O” symbol promoting health care. You sure didn’t see anything like that for the people against Obamacare; they all brought homemade signs. The crowd was overwhelmingly conservative. Every questioner but one, who was seated in an area populated by people with the pre-made Obamacare stuff, grilled him on the issues. Many of the questioners said that they were afraid of the government.

The reactions of the crowd were very telling.

When the local Mayor introduced Rep. Altmire and said “I know how many people need this reform”, she was booed like crazy.

Everyone there, even the liberals, HATED Nancy Pelosi. Every time her name was brought up in a positive or even neutral context, the boos were so loud they practically shook the building. When she was mentioned in a negative context, you could probably hear the cheers from a block away. She got the biggest reaction out of anything. Cap and trade was mentioned a few times and it got almost the same reaction as Speaker Pelosi.

When Rep. Altmire said “some of you think that the government can’t do anything right”, the place was filled with cheers for several minutes. It was the biggest positive reaction of the night.

When Rep. Altmire mentioned “the role the government should have in health care”, people always shouted “no role!”

When Rep. Altmire was asked who actually wrote the health care bill, he didn’t answer the question. People all over the place started shouting at him, demanding a real answer, and he finally said - “John Dingle sponsored it”. He wouldn’t say any more than that.

What was the most telling, to me, was that a woman towards the end asked Congressman Altmire two pointed questions towards the end. I’m paraphrasing here because I don’t remember exactly what she said. “Where is the constitutional authority for the government to get involved in health care?” and “My son, a Marine, took the same oath you did - to protect this country from enemies foreign and domestic. I’m afraid of our domestic enemies in Congress; I’m scared that they’re chipping away at the Constitution. Will you re-affirm your oath here today and promise not to vote for any legislation that chips away at the Constitution?” He didn’t say where the authority came from and he didn’t reaffirm his oath.

All in all, a very interesting event.