Until now, President Obama has taken a relatively hands-clean approach to health-care policy, holding press conferences at times of his choosing and sending his frontman, Robert Gibbs, to respond to criticism about the president's proposal for reform. But today Obama heads into the trenches to do a town-hall meeting on his own, the first of four that the White House has planned this week. Later this afternoon, Obama will speak to residents of Portsmouth, N.H., inside a high-school gym, addressing some of the latest concerns surrounding his vision for expanding the American health-care system.
Debates on the topic across the country have been far less than civil in recent weeks. Angry mobs of people, first on the conservative side and then on both sides of the issue, have been disrupting congressional town halls with loud rants. Those people know the president's town hall today will be heavily covered, which nearly guarantees vocal displays. The Tea Party Coalition, a relatively small but boisterous conservative group, has plans to protest outside today's event, as do what are likely to be equally vocal supporters of the president. But inside the gym any overbearing fierceness could be damaging to Obama's policy goals, now in fragile negotiations with Congress. The White House says the president is prepared for loud opinions, even angry ones, being lobbed his way and will handle them with his characteristic coolness. When asked this morning how Obama will keep control of the meeting, Gibbs told reporters that the president "will turn to that person and probably ask them to be civilized and give them an answer to their question." Then, further downplaying any concerns about loud and embarrassing disruptions, Gibbs said the president "is excited" about talking with the public.
