Obama Town Hall Charades Continue: Montana Locals Irked at Obama “Treatment”

Obama Montana Town Hall: SEUI Bussed in, 900 Tickets Disappear, Event Held in Remote Airport Hangar, “Questions” vetted by White House

We’ve got the details on what really occurred at Obama’s Montana Town Hall “event”. Remember, Obama’s Montana Town Hall was carried by the national news networks, where MSM cameras were located inside the “town hall”.

Here’s what we got from the MSM:

From CNN: “Obama seeks out skeptics at Montana town hall”

“Obama told a largely supportive Montana audience at his second of three town hall meetings this week that fixing the health care system requires improving health insurance practices and reducing the costs of treatment. He sought questions from skeptics of his proposed health care overhaul, seeking to confront some misconceptions fueled by opponents Democrats say are undermining the debate.”

Obama’s skeptic seeking powers are revealed below.

Here’s what we’ve discovered about where the Town Hall was held:

-The town hall was held at a small airport outside of Belgrade, Montana, even though Belgrade and nearby Bozeman had auditoriums that had adequate parking and where seating was already available.

-The town hall was held in a remote hangar at the airport.

-Prior to the Town Hall, everything was shipped in, i.e., seating for “supporters”. Airport employees expressed amazement at the amount of stuff that just “kept on coming”. Local UPS claimed “thousands of dollars in lobster” had been shipped in for Obama, which irked local residents as Montana is famous for its beef.

-Groups who were opposed to Obama’s healthcare reform had to get a special permit and were “roped off” outside, while the MSM was located “out of sight”, away from the protesters.

-A busload of young SEUI members, armed with bullhorns and professionally made signs, were present, along with a contingent of Planned Parenthood.

-Individuals from Montana who opposed Obama were cordoned off outside.

More info on who the “largely supportive” Montana audience at the Town Hall:

-Late Tuesday, early Wednesday on August 12, it was announced tickets for the event would be handed out.

“Details are beginning to firm up for President Obama’s visit to Bozeman later this week. Obama will hold his town hall meeting about health care at a Gallatin Field Airport hangar in Belgrade Friday, Aug. 14. Gates open to the public at 10:45 and the program starts at 12:55.

The meeting is free and open to the public but you will need tickets. Here’s where to get the tickets:

Tickets are required and will be available at the following ticket distribution location beginning at 9:00 a.m. Thursday, August 13. Tickets will be limited to two per person and will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis.

Bozeman City Hall
121 N Rouse St.
Bozeman, MT 59715

Belgrade City Hall
91 E Central Ave.
Belgrade, MT

For security reasons, do not bring bags and limit personal items. No signs or banners permitted. All attendees will go through airport-like security. Due to limited space at the event the White House will only be able to fulfill a limited number of requests for tickets. Tickets are not for sale or re-sale.”
NewWestBozeman

-1500 tickets were pre-printed at a local print shop. Only 600 were “handed out”, while 900 “disappeared”.

You both expressed concern about the fairness of ticket distribution for tomorrow’s town hall meeting. Andy, you wondered how the average person could get a ticket and Mike, you said something about Baucus and Tester sending friends at 6 a.m. to gobble up the Belgrade tickets. I was in Belgrade this morning trying to get tickets myself. I arrived at 5:45 and there were about 100 people already in line…the first 50 or so all sound asleep in sleeping bags and the other 50 having gotten there in the wee hours before me. People could arrive whenever they wanted and alot of them got there before dark last night. And we were a real mixed group, believe me. And Andy, you’re right, it’s hard to make arrangements to do something like that. I heard stories of people doing all sorts of things to get themselves there. Working people, parents, the whole lot. Some folks went to great lengths to get a chance, and most in line did not get tickets. When the tickets were passed out I didn’t get one and neither did the 300 people behind me in line. They ran out a few folks ahead of me. But that’s life. And as my 7 year old daughter and I said over breakfast when I got home, a whole bunch of nice people in front of me DID get tickets. I hope they are as friendly and respectful of the opportunity to have an audience with our president as they were to each other this morning.”
Comment posted at NewWestBozemanOnline

-The White House contacted the local HRDC (Human Resource and Development Committee) and “asked for names” of people with “health care woes”. Those people were later given a microphone at the Town Hall event.

-The local media was invited and told that their “questions” had to be approved in advance.

For those who watched the Obama Montana Town Hall, the Governor, Brian Schweitzer (D), was a fixture at the event. Here’s a little info about Mr. Schweitzer’s prior behavior regarding “putting the fix” on political “events”. The “event”: the 2006 Montana Senate race:

From the New York Times:

In a speech on July 14 in Philadelphia to the American Association for Justice, a group of plaintiffs’ lawyers, Mr. Schweitzer talked about the power of a governor to “turn some dials” for the Democrats.

He included as an example a detailed description of how he had called Indian tribal authorities two weeks before the election and warned them to be on the lookout for people who would show up at the polls on Election Day to try to discourage people from voting by asking them for identification.

Then Mr. Schweitzer described how the tribal police had closed in on poll watchers who he said had shown up.

“ ‘You can either come with us in the back seat of our car, or you can both get in the front seat of your car, and we’ll lead you off this reservation and if we never see you again, you won’t go to jail,’ ” Mr. Schweitzer said, describing the encounters. Then he paused, and said, “We didn’t lose one single vote.”

There’s more:

“The Indian vote, strongly Democratic, was important in Mr. Tester’s victory over Conrad Burns, a Republican incumbent who lost by about 3,500 votes of more than 406,000 cast.

In the speech, Mr. Schweitzer also described the county clerk and recorder in Butte-Silver Bow, Mary M. McMahon, as sounding “nervous as a pregnant nun,” when he called her late in the evening after the polls had closed, but before Butte reported its results.

Mr. Schweitzer briefly told the lawyers about the deep Democratic traditions of Butte, where the American labor movement cut its teeth in organizing mine workers decades ago. When Ms. McMahon came on the phone, he said in the speech, she told him the vote count would be ready in perhaps 15 minutes.

But that was not good enough.

“ ‘I want you to listen, I want you to listen close,’ ” Mr. Schweitzer said he told Ms. McMahon. “ ‘I’ll call you when you’re done counting — now do you understand it?’ ” The lawyers laughed. “She’s from Butte — she understood exactly,” Mr. Schweitzer said.”

Schweitzer’s remarks occurred in July, 2008, at a trial lawyer convention in Philadelphia. Included in his remarks, pro-illegal immigration.

Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer speech to trial lawyers convention, 7/14/2008 (July 14, 2008)

By LBG

Image – Montana