This is the land of the Frozen Tundra.
So of course President Obama would want to hold his first town hall meeting on health care in Green Bay. Doesn't everybody from Hawaii want to be in Green Bay?
Obviously, it is not every day the President visits Wisconsin, so an invitation to the event was highly coveted. But because we know people way more important than we are, Cari and I got a pair of tickets to the big event...
The day began as we ignored the designated parking lot which shuttled you by bus to the town hall meeting site. Instead we parked in a one-hour parking zone a block away. We figured that it was worth the $10 parking ticket if we even got one - which we didn't.
Parking where we did had us walk by the incredible row of television trucks. This picture doesn't even do justice to the amount of stuff that was out there...
I must say that the process of getting in the building was amazingly efficient considering the security precautions that they took...
We ran into a lot of people we knew while standing in line, but even I was shocked to see Sarah Palin standing just a few feet away from us...
That last picture was taken with my Blackberry, so the slightly fuzzy picture doesn't do justice to just how much this lady looked like the pride of Alaska.
After getting inside, we first were on the bleachers, only to get called down to floor seats. Then we were moved to the other side of the floor to the very the back row (which was still a big improvement over the bleachers). But an usher came over to us and said that the whole back row was reserved for Senator Steve Kagan's family.
Although we pointed out to the young man that Kagan is a Congressman, not a Senator, we were moved anyway. But this time ironically we were placed in the best of the four positions. We were moved to the front left of the podium, in floor seats, about the sixth or seventh row back from the stage.
Thank you for booting us Senator Kagan.
Off to the side behind us was the unwashed media horde...
Cari was counting down the minutes to when the event was to begin - and I foolishly mocked her attention to the time. In all the political campaigns and events I've been involved with over the years, I cannot recall one that ever started on time.
But I guess President Obama is a man with a schedule because there he was, exactly on time...
The President spoke for a bit about health care, but then he stepped out from behind his podium and took questions from the audience. It really was quite amazing. He called people at random, and they just asked him questions - and clearly not all the questioners were in agreement with his policies.
He took each question from the audience, then answered them directly...
Whether you agree with the man or not, you have to respect the fact that he is willing to come before a crowd and tell you exactly where he stands.
And lest you think this was a hand selected audience, it most certainly was not. Other than a certain amount of tickets given to dignitaries and other political leaders and their friends and family, the vast majority were randomly distributed to anyone who signed up. You just filled out an online form with a name and phone number (or called an 800 number), and you were contacted if your name was drawn for tickets.
This is an enormous difference from some previous Presidents who only talked to hand picked crowds that never disagreed with anything the President said.
Anyway, one of today's questions was asked by a friend of mine. Here's John on the left asking the President his question...
Now John started asking his question by telling the President that his daughter Kennedy was skipping school today to be at the town hall meeting.
So the President asked if she needed a note.
John said that he'd take the President up on that offer, but then began to ask his question anyway.
The President interrupted John by saying, "I'm serious. What's her name?"
John, being John, replied, "John."
President Obama then said, "No, her name."
John finally told him that his daughter's name is "Kennedy," to which the President replied, "That's a cool name."
Here's the President writing a note to Kennedy's teacher...
And here's the note he handed to her written on a piece of paper torn off from some document he had with him...
It reads, "To Kennedy's Teacher - Please excuse Kennedy's absence... she's with me. Barack Obama."
Very cool.
Then the President got back to answering questions...
And when he was done we all rushed up to the barrier where a grinning President was shaking hands...
It's amazing how many folks were reaching out to him...
And they wanted to shake his hand even though if you look at the last two pictures above, you can see this foreboding Secret Service agent glaring at anyone who got near the President.
On our one block walk back to our car, we passed several protesters, including some calling President Obama a Nazi...
Which is a bit confusing because there were other protesters calling him a socialist.
Someone needs to talk to the protesters about doing a better job giving us a consistent message.
My favorite sign of all is the one that is at the top center part of this picture...
It reads, "Wake up America, the Matrix has you."
Where's Keanu Reeves when you need him. Then again, maybe Barack Obama is "The One."
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