Unemployed sob story at Obama Townhall turns out to be Obama volunteer

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**Frazzled**

Just couldn't help myself.

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/07/03/welcome-to-obamacare-theater/

Welcome to Obamacare Theater
By Michelle Malkin • July 3, 2009 09:27 AM
Kodak moment: Photo source

Welcome to Obamacare Theater
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2009

The White House sure likes to put on a show. Fresh off its joint stage production with ABC News, the Obama administration broadcast another health care propaganda play this week under the guise of a citizen “town hall.” (Full video here.)

Chicago consigliere and senior adviser Valerie Jarrett managed the floor and human props for Obama. In a telling moment as the event kicked off, she protested a wee bit much: “I want to emphasize that the President has not seen the questions ahead of time.” The audience responded with polite laughter.

But the denials of pre-planning and stacked decks deserve nothing but derisive mockery. Obama’s town hall was filled with backroom players and a supporting cast of socialized medicine activists and ideologues. One of the three lucky audience members whom Obama chose for questioning was Jason Rosenbaum. Rosenbaum works for the Washington, D.C.-based Health Care for America Now (HCAN). That’s the same K Street Astroturf outfit I reported on last week – the one with a $40 million budget to lobby for government-run health care. The one inextricably linked to left-wing billionaire George Soros.

Let’s look at who else miraculously drew a golden ticket. Another one of the three, softball-tossing citizen questioners at the White House forum identified herself as a member of the Service Employees International Union. That’s the same SEIU whose president, Andy Stern, boasted of spending nearly $61 million in members’ dues to elect Barack Obama. It’s the same union that produced Patrick Gaspard, former SEIU health care lobbyist and now White House director of the office of political affairs.

But the Obama health care “town hall’s” climactic moment came when the consoler-in-chief plucked Debby Smith from the crowd to tell her personal health care horror story. She choked back tears as she talked of her battle with kidney cancer, her joblessness, and her lack of insurance. Obama hugged the trembling woman and dubbed her “Exhibit A” for his massive entitlement program.

Debby Smith, however, is no ordinary patient. While she may be “unemployed,” she has been rather busy working for the Obama campaign – as a volunteer for Organizing for America. It’s the old Obama for Change political machine now housed under the Democratic National Committee. Smith has also identified herself as a worker for the Virginia Organizing Project, which has been coordinating lobbying trips and health care forums with HCAN. Yes, that same HCAN.

In December, Smith moderated a “a community discussion on health care issues” in Appalachia, Virginia and told her local paper that the meeting “would be reported back to former Sen. Tom Daschle, who has been directed by President Elect Barack Obama to form a committee to report on health care issues.”

Daschle may be out of the spotlight since his Health and Human Services cabinet nomination fiasco. But he is in constant contact with Team Obama. As he told the Associated Press earlier this week in a media meeting on health care reform: “We interact with them daily.” No doubt.

Veteran liberal journalist Helen Thomas earned some accolades for challenging the tightly-controlled White House events. But where was she back in March, when Team Obama pulled the same stunt? At a health care event in the East Room, the questioners included an Obama donor, a Democratic National Committee member, a former Democratic candidate for the Virginia statehouse who had publicly endorsed Obama, and a member of the SEIU. Yes, that SEIU.

The growing irritation of the once-smitten Beltway media is better late than never, I suppose. But one wonders what took so long for the sedatives to wear off the watchdogs. Team Obama has screamed “Kabuki!” from Day One.

Posted in: Health care, MoveOn.org, SEIU

**Mad Rabbit**

What do you expect? You think that any "town halls" are legitimate?

Also, there's some scary headlines in the archives there. Something about HIV spitters? Eulgh.

**Orkeosaurus**

"Everybody does it!"

**Mad Rabbit**

"Oh all those children just happened to be in the White House for the signing of the 'We Should Make Stabbing Kids Illegal' Bill was signed? Crazy!"

It's all a photo op and it's all been carefully controlled since Reagan did it. Whether it's right or wrong? Honestly who cares. It's all political bs.

**Orkeosaurus**

I don't think anyone was trying to imply that the children just happened to be there.

A cheesy photo op to show that the president loves smiling children and planting a stooge in the audience while trying to maintain an image of legitimacy are two different levels of dishonesty.

Not that this kind of thing doesn't happen all of the time in politics, just that it's depressing.

**Fallen668**

Meh... It's Michelle Malkin... who cares what that lunatic rants about. Gonne pull out something from Ruxh next?

**Mad Rabbit**

Yeah, apparently she defends the imprisonment of Japanese Americans during World War Two.

Sounds like a really cool person.

**MagickalMemories**

So, the problem is that she's someone who's PRO OBAMA that this happened to and not that she's LYING about it?

If she's telling the truth, I don't care WHO she works for.

Also, did they say the chosen 3 would be RANDOM? Choosing someone who's going to make you look good is the RIGHT THING to do in politics. That doesn't make it dishonest.

If someone asked you for an example of something you've done in life that exemplifies your ethics, are you going to tell about the time you risked your life to save that drowning kid or about how you nicked a pack of chewing gum at age 12?

Same thing here... We choose the stories that make us look BEST.

Eric

**efarrer**

The best Malkin's got is that the woman was a volunteer on Obama's campaign? That one of the people is a member of a union that supported Obama? That one of them works for an organization supported by Soros?
An unemployed person worked on electing a democratic president, wow colour me shocked.

**reds8n**

To clarify : her story, regardless of her political affiliation is still true though, yes ?

**mcfly**

Lol at the governments epic fail.
So dumb... (for lack of better words)

**efarrer**

reds8n wrote:To clarify : her story, regardless of her political affiliation is still true though, yes ?

That's the fun part here. Malkin and Fraz don't care about the veracity of her story. The truth doesn't matter as much as the partisanship.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

mcfly wrote:Lol at the governments epic fail.
So dumb... (for lack of better words)

So other side partisan's criticism = automatic failure, huh? Wow, real life is just like the internet.

**mcfly**

mcfly wrote:Lol at the governments epic fail.
So dumb... (for lack of better words)

So other side partisan's criticism = automatic failure, huh? Wow, real life is just like the internet.

**ShumaGorath**

Q: What have we learned here today?

A: That Fraz gets his news from ultraconservative nutjobs, and that he can't tell when something is a smokescreen for a political attack. We can tell this from the fact that the woman was affiliated with a pro obama volunteer campaign and that her problems and what happened in the town hall meeting were real regardless given the fact that there are likely hundreds of thousands of such people and no evidence of planning is stated. Not that he probably cares, the truth has never been one of the things he relied on.

mcfly wrote:
mcfly wrote:Lol at the governments epic fail.
So dumb... (for lack of better words)
So other side partisan's criticism = automatic failure, huh? Wow, real life is just like the internet.

efarrer, Why do you care what the other peoples opinion is? I say what I believe, and people have to question that. Why?

Because you're wrong, you don't know how to defend your opinions, and you likely have no basis for them. Thats a problem.

**Kid_Kyoto**

Bush pulled this @#$% all the time, you'd think people would learn it doesn't work. In the information age the truth comes out, and it ruins all credibility for the future.

And Obama has gotten pretty darn far by showing he was credible and would talk to us like grown ups. Take that away and he's in real trouble.

**mcfly**

mcfly wrote:
mcfly wrote:Lol at the governments epic fail.
So dumb... (for lack of better words)
So other side partisan's criticism = automatic failure, huh? Wow, real life is just like the internet.

efarrer, Why do you care what the other peoples opinion is? I say what I believe, and people have to question that. Why?

Because you're wrong, you don't know how to defend your opinions, and you likely have no basis for them. Thats a problem.

**ShumaGorath**

I get so sick of having to defend my opinions all the time,

Is that why I've never seen you do it?

I have my reasons, you have yours.

At the risk of sounding harsh, this forums been getting on my nerves lately so whatever. You don't have your reasons. You don't know what they are. You likely have never thought them out fully, and I've never once seen you defend them at all successfully.

Now DEAL WITH IT.

No. I would rather tear your house down one brick at a time until you either run away or build a better god damn house.

I can't think straight right now, so I won't post anymore on this thread or OT anymore.
(Mostly because I am not wrong) STFU

Looks like you chose to run away.

**sebster**

Fallen668 wrote:Meh... It's Michelle Malkin... who cares what that lunatic rants about. Gonne pull out something from Ruxh next?

Yes, Malkin is a nutjob pretending at being a partisan hack. So forget what she's said.

But what about when Helen Thomas complained about the same town hall meeting, and said that the process was designed to remove the media from the equation. Does it become an issue then? Because Thomas did give those concerns and received a pretty crappy reply back (I'd link to the video but there is or should be Dakka rules against linking to images of Thomas - this is family friendly board).

Because the thing is that yes, Malkin is woeful and representative of the modern ugly face of the Republicans - all the ideology has fallen apart and now all that's left is rage and paranoia. And yes, Bush managed the media in exactly the same way, and the media played along and that's how so many pieces of terrible legislation got put in place without proper debate. Thing is, despite the promises of open and accountable government Obama is playing the same games. Even if the underlying policy is good, sidestepping the media and avoiding real policy debate is a bad thing in a democracy.

**Orkeosaurus**

Mad Rabbit wrote:Yeah, apparently she defends the imprisonment of Japanese Americans during World War Two.

They were all spies! Unlike the German Americans.

Seriously though, whether or not the woman's story is true (I'm sure if it wasn't they could find someone with the same story who it had happened to) isn't the issue, the issue is the president's "town hall" being a set up. Especially if people were lied to regarding whether or not Obama had known the questions ahead of time (which comes down to whether or not the bias of the article's author is twisting the facts).

Making decisions on anecdotal stories is kind of stupid anyways, but that's what the public wants, so that's what they're going to get.

**efarrer**

mcfly wrote:
mcfly wrote:Lol at the governments epic fail.
So dumb... (for lack of better words)

So other side partisan's criticism = automatic failure, huh? Wow, real life is just like the internet.

efarrer, Why do you care what the other peoples opinion is? I say what I believe, and people have to question that. Why?

**Kilkrazy**

I'm locking this thread for too much aggro.

I would hand out some warnings except it's a holiday.