Scenes from the Health Care controversy: President Obama and the WH press corps flew into Belgrade, Montana last Friday, for a Town Hall, held in an airport hanger.
The event lasted an hour. The president spoke, took a few questions, then POTUSA and posse headed off to the next stops in their weekend media invasion of the West: Yellowstone, Grand Junction Junction, Colorado, the Grand Canyon, then back to DC.
Meanwhile, one half mile away, those who didn’t have or didn’t want Town Hall tickets began gathering at dawn in a farmer’s field, the designated a free speech zone. Thousands showed up: protesters and Tea Party-ers next to pro-health care reformers and single-payer proponents. They stayed for hours, thru rain, hail, and thunder. They shouted slogans. They listened to speakers. They listened to the President over the radio. Occasionally, they listened to each other. It was a day of division, debate, and democracy.
“Day of Democracy” (8:31 mp3):
Voices include Chief Bill Dove, Linda Kenoyer, Tom Hunter, Don McClarty, Bob Adney, Alene Brackman, John Chaffer, Kent Madin, Lance Criaghead, Henry Kriegel, Joanne Kessler, Tammy Hall, and Bob Folsick.
Local talk-radio host Henry Kriegel rousing the T-Party:
Here in Montana we start ’em early:
There was lotsa chanting, pushing, some shoving, and the occasional discussion, like this one between Tom Hunter and Don McClarty:
Bob and Kathy Foslick drove eight hours from Whitefish MT to support this “second revolution”:
