Does anyone have proof that the Obama Town Hall meeting participants were pre-screened?

Obama's town hall meeting sure was! There was no dialog. It was a slobbering love-fest. It was nauseating that they exploited that 11-year old daughter of an Obama campaign person to ask a "question." Like that was a real question!

The angry people are real. They are not plants. They are not pre-screened.

The White House admits that they handed out tickets. And the Boston Globe identified some of the participants as Obama operatives. McCain and Palin are out of power right now, so I don't know why you are bringing them up. McCain is a Senator, and is undoubtedly having town hall meetings in his home state, but I have not heard anything about anyone doing the kind of total pre-screening done by Obama at his meeting.

People who ask questions are always pre-screened...doesn't matter where

If you want to ask a question on live television, what happens half the time is an attendee asks you to state your question, and if you don't say something that they're ok with, they can reject your questions.

On news shows they often present questions from "people" in the form of playback. People record their messages and then the channel decides whether or not to play it.

In some political debates there were occasional questions asked from YouTube...they played a YouTube video...there's no way they'd do that without screening the question first

I don't know for a fact whether or not they screened people for the meeting, but it wouldn't be all that disenfranchising because all you have to do is watch a meeting for the other side to get the exact same thing only oppositely polarized.

I will say however that I personally have little doubt that they pre-screened the attendees of the meetings, maybe not to discern supportive or not, but in the least to weed out the people who simply will not behave civilized in the atmosphere of debate or in the presence of Obama.

Consider this, let's say the only people they bar from the meeting are all people who express their opinions with rage rather than discuss and develop ideas...I'm really not trying to be an ***, but judging by what has been going on lately, who do you thing is going to get weeded out? The people who genuinely want to understand the bill and would consider supporting it if they did, or the people who will never support it and will only ever oppose it and cannot bring themselves to change an opinion after learning new facts? What about people who are just plain racist or people who are just obnoxious with their opinions?

It would only be responsible to weed out people who cannot or will not be a productive contributor to discussion

I hope they weed people out. Not because I support the bill, which I don't Yet, but because if all we have in these meetings are people who think their opinions gain ground by applying greater volume or vulgar language, we're never going to get to a bill that i would be willing to support

Some of the people who attended explained that they had followed the rules by contacting the office of the officials in charge of distributing tickets and have received their tickects in the mail. What process went into checking their background or associations they did not know.

It is customary to screen attendees to official events where the President, any president, can be harmed for security reasons. So it was not surprising to see the happy faces behing the President.

I don't have information about the first one, but the most recent two were definitely NOT pre-screened. I have heard and seen interviews with many people who attended, and they all said it was first come, first serve. I tend to believe these regular Americans. One fellow named Randy who asked Obama a question yesterday said he had driven halfway across Wyoming to get there. He and many other questioners were definitely not "friendly" to health care reform.

On the other hand, Bush's "town halls" were not only screened but only people who had voted for him were allowed to attend, and people were even excluded if they wore t-shirts Bush wouldn't like.

You didn't see the little girl who just happened to be the child of an Obama stooge? Classic propaganda. Listen, the NH town hall meeting was a VERY controlled event and came off as such. Obama was never made to be on his toes. He was allowed to stay very cool and breezy. This didn't play well with anyone other than Obama zombies. I suspect that future events will have to be at least a little more contentious, or they're not gonna matter. He ain't gonna convert anyone to the cause if he's just preachin' to the choir.

I don't want anyone screaming and ranting at Obama (...tiresome...), but I do expect more than the soft shoe approach. You will know when someone gets under Obama's skin with an incisive question (and fires up a reactionary media) when he/she gets the Joe the Plumber treatment.

HAHAHAHAHAHA...Oh gee, another super smart obummerbot that doesn't know the difference between a campaign stop and what was SUPPOSED to be a chance for citizens to peacefully assemble and redress their government with grievances. But instead turned out to be an obviously stuffed hall filled with Obama supporters. Did ANYONE even hear 1 boo? No. Use your head.

If you think this ''debacle'' of SENIORS (Conservative Right Republicans is not' Orchestrated'.you are very naive..Shouting and committing acts at town meetings which are disruptive and NOT productive,have been activated by the right talk show clowns which WANT nothing but disruption and chaos which will lead to NO reform..Most of the peoples going to these meetings are ON medicare and Medicaid. Two single payer ''socialistic' programs. Both sides will try to get THEIR people to these town meetings ! But really,,the Health Care Ins. companies are the ones who are spending BILLIONS to STOP health care reform..Or at least shape this reform to allow them to continue to RAPE America and its citizens..If little or no reform happens,,the Billionaires and the Rich Companies who control health care will be the winners..And as usual,,the average people who have the most to lose will actually have worked with them to accomplish the Health Care Companies goals,,against the average mans interests. But as I said,,that's usual !! Sad to say !! J"

Nope. And you will never find any. Too bad the the Reps and Senators can't screen out the haters and thugs. Maybe then we could have a civil discussion about healthcare reform with them.

A girl from Malden asked President Obama a question at Tuesday’s town hall meeting in New Hampshire about the signs outside “saying mean things” about his health care proposal.

Eleven-year-old Julia Hall asked: “How do kids know what is true, and why do people want a new system that can — that help more of us?”

The question opened the door for the president to respond to what he called an “underlying fear” among the public “that people somehow won’t get the care they need.”

The girl later told the Globe that picking the president’s brain was “incredible.”

“It was like a once in a lifetime experience,” she said.

Julia’s mother was an early Obama supporter in Massachusetts during the presidential election, so she had previously met First Lady Michelle Obama, the Obama daughters Sasha and Malia, and Vice President Joe Biden.

“This was my first time meeting Barack Obama, and he’s a very nice man,” Julia said. “I’m glad I voted for him.”

She said Obama won a mock presidential election at the Cheverus School in 2008. And on Tuesday, he approached her after the town meeting.

“He said ‘great question,’” Julia said. “I shook his hand and got his picture.”

Kathleen Manning Hall, Julia’s mother, was shocked when her daughter said she wanted to ask a question. They wrote it down beforehand, and Julia didn’t miss a beat when Obama called on her.

“It was surreal,” said Manning Hall, a coordinator of Massachusetts Women for Obama during the election.