Senator Arlen Specter's Town Hall Meeting in Lebanon, PA., streamed on FoxNews channel for more than an hour, yesterday; and soon after that, President Obama was in Portsmouth, NH., addressing a similar crowd on the same subject, Health Care.
What a difference a few minutes made, between the two meetings, for while the President's audience was not in any way hostile, the Senator's was, in the sense that, it (audience) was so much unnerved, disorganized and showed signs of resentment. It was wholly disarrayed, and that caused the meeting to be rather confrontational. In other words, his was an angry assembly; the President's was not.
What happened in Lebanon was that, the Senator allowed himself very little room to operate, by walking the floor and going from one questioner to another, while he called the numbers that his assistants had given to prospective questioners before hand. It appeared that he wanted to get close and be more personal, which would impress the people there.
However, in a highly charged situation as an issue as Health Care was, directly facing a questioner was pretty risky. The atmosphere did not lend itself for a close contact, because it was not friendly, and any unfavorable thing could occur, almost instantaneously. That was what took place in Lebanon.
What should have happened was for the Senator to set up a podium in one corner on one side of the room; had microphones stationed in at least three points, left, right and center; and then asked the people to approach those microphones when they had a question and a number. There would be very little movement in the hall to make things look more businesslike, and that would also give the meeting a more somber appearance. The people helping him should have done all that, of course; but they left so much to chance, it was unbelievable.
Hoping he would derive something from this blog. Often times, it were the aides who should learn from their own past mistakes.
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