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After repeated embarrassments, Dems lock down town halls

By: Matthew Sheffield
Managing Editor
08/11/09 6:36 PM PDT

Tuning in to President Obama's health care town hall today, you couldn't help but notice how much tamer the line of questioning was compared to what Obama's fellow Democrats have been up against.

By and large, instead of the persistent tough queries that greeted the likes of Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Arlen Specter (D-Penn.), the president fielded much easier questions.

The toughest questioner tried to tag him on his earlier comments approving of a government-run "single-payer" system but unfortunately couldn't get the point of distinction between it and the much more amorphous "universal" health care system, thus allowing Obama to filibuster on the point and not fully answer the question.

Aside from that, however, the questions were rather tame and besides Obama's gaffe inadvertently conceding that private companies like FedEx and UPS do a better job of shipping packages than the government-controlled Postal Service (effectively undermining his entire point), the conference was rather bland and uneventful.

That's likely by design. As Roll Call reported earlier today, Democrats, at least in the House, have been making some major adjustments to their town hall strategies to ensure that opponents of Obamacare have a lot tougher time making their voices heard:

House Democrats have been talking tough about continuing to hold town halls in the face of disruptive protesters. But many are quietly tweaking their events to minimize the influence of the angry participants.

Rep. Gene Green (D-Texas) announced Monday on his Web site that he is restricting attendance to his public events to residents of his district.

“Unfortunately, due to a coordinated effort to disrupt our town hall meetings, we will be restricting further attendance to residents of the 29th Congressional District and verifying residency by requiring photo identification,” Green said.

Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) spoke on a panel at his Monday night town hall in Clarkston. He set up a designated protest area outside and had extra police on hand, although the event never erupted into shouting matches, according to local reports. [...]

Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) took a different tack: She framed an Aug. 2 town hall as a “prayer vigil,” which had the effect of warding off protesters. [...]

Other Democrats are avoiding public events altogether and instead opting for telephone town halls.

People generally are on better behavior around the president granted, but there seems to have been a distinct sight of stagecraft in Tuesday afternoon's discussion. Expect more of this as the debate moves along.

The irony is palpable in all this considering how during former president George W. Bush's time in office, Democrats persistently criticized him for "staging" events. Now, it seems, the shoe is on the other foot.