Hopefully we are turning the corner in the healthcare debate. After Claire McCaskill had a townhall in Missouri where supporters outnumbered critics of Universal Healthcare, Rep. Moran of Virginia had a townhall that also boasted more supporters than detractors despite the prescence of Howard Dean.
A raucous crowd of about 2,500 people jammed a high school gymnasium in Reston on Tuesday night to hear U.S. Rep. James P. Moran Jr. offer a robust defense of Democratic efforts to reform health care.
Groups on both sides of the health-care debate had urged supporters to attend the Northern Virginia event because of Dean's guest appearance. Unlike at many town hall meetings that have received attention across the country, the crowd in the Democratic-leaning district was dominated by reform proponents, many carrying signs distributed by President Obama's political action group Organizing for America. "Standing Together for Health Care Reform," the signs read.
Dean and Moran both defended the Public Option and Howard Dean even found the time to joke about "screaming":
Moran called the public option the piece of reform that "could do the most to bring down long-term medical costs and to adequately insure every American."
"Everyone is still free to purchase private insurance," he said. "The private insurance companies, we think, will want to be more competitive, and so insurance premiums will probably go down, hopefully to the point where they don't rise anymore."
"Last time I was in front of a crowd this size, it was me doing the screaming," Dean joked as he took the microphone, referring to his infamous 2004 concession speech after losing the Iowa caucuses. That incident was thought by many to have dampened his chance at the presidency.
Like Moran, the former Democratic Party chairman endorsed a plan that would maintain private insurance but include a public option.
"A lot of this debate is about change," Dean said. "One thing any doctor can tell you about change is that you never make real changes until the pain of staying the same exceeds the fear of change."
Here is a video of Moran and the meeting:
Despite the supporters in prescense as you can hear there was of course a very vocal contingent who oppose healthcare. However, they seemed to direct most of their ire at Dean:
The event was briefly interrupted by antiabortion activist Randall Terry and his supporters, who stood and shouted from the gym floor as Moran introduced Dean.
"Now, these people aren't from the 8th Congressional District. They don't belong here, and I'm going to ask them to leave," Moran said before offering Terry the chance to remain and ask the first question of the evening if he would then remain quiet.
After Terry continued shouting, he was escorted from the gymnasium by several Fairfax County police officers. "Howard Dean is a baby killer!" Terry shouted repeatedly as he exited, surrounded by cameras.
Here is the vid of Terry getting escorted out:
All in all it was a pretty successful night for the proponents of Universal Healthcare. Moran and Dean presented their ideas eloquently and dispelled many of the myths and untruths spread by the looney tunes. They were met only with more idiocy and hatred and were not even from the district in question.
