"Town Hall" Meetings...Not

[UnrepentantUnitarian]

Don't you wish the "media" would put this idea of town hall meetings in proper context? The current McLiar/Palin "town hall" meetings are anything but. They are pre-loaded, pre-ticketed, pre-screened, and the questions that come from them are pre-destined to be softball and supportive. There's no hope for Fox, but CNN, MSNBC, etc. should remember to place those " " 's around the term town hall whenever it is designed to fall short of a true community forum...don't you think?

Now...how do we get them to do it?

[firedupdem]

1. This is exactly why he wanted Obama to participate. The

audience is stacked. It's really obvious. Palin managed to sound stupid even with softball questions. I've given up on the MSM.

[yellowdogintexas]

2. which of course is why Obama did not want to do them. He wisely chose to be

out in the real ground game, where anybody could hear and see him, and he knew the scripting would be so dominated by the GOP that he would not be able to get message out.

Fat chance the GOP would take turns with the Democrats on ground rules or do anything to insert fairness into the event; they only wanted to do them their way.

[UnrepentantUnitarian]

3. Forgot to say...

maybe the networks should add something like "Sanitized For Their Protection?"

[yellowdogintexas]

5. as illustrated here:

credit: "Motel of the Mysteries"

[Raven]

4. Town Meetings in NH are open to all residents and anyone can

be recognized to speak and ask questions. This is a real perversion of an age old and time honored tradition!

[thunderchicken]

6. last night in Grand Rapids

The "Dynamic Duo" were here yesterday for a town hall meeting. I went down to observe. 3,500 tickets were available and they were all gone within hours. Whatever. I was concerned with the demonstration area across the street from the entrance to the fieldhouse. There had to be 400 people there easily. Keep in mind this is a GOP stronghold. All kinds of signs too. I got back here just in time to see them take a couple of questions...one to Palin "what credentials in foreign affairs do you to be the vice president." She totally skirted the question and went on to say how honored she was to have been asked by McShame to be on his ticket...blahblahblah. The questioner must have snuck in there, cuz the other questions were really lame "Do you really think, as a mom, that you can handle the vice president's job and still tend to your family?" But notice, SHE NEVER ANSWERS THE QUESTION.