Michell Malkin On Obo's Town Hall Fiasco

"THE White House sure likes to put on a show. The Obama administration broadcast a health-care propaganda play this week under the guise of a citizen "town hall."

It was filled with backroom players and a supporting cast of socialized medicine activists. One of three lucky audience members whom President Obama chose for questioning was Jason Rosenbaum. Rosenbaum works for the Washington-based Health Care for America Now. 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 linked to left-wing billionaire George Soros.

Let's look at who else miraculously drew a golden ticket. Another of the three citizen questioners at the 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 Obama. It's the same union that produced Patrick Gaspard, former SEIU health-care lobbyist and now White House director of political affairs.

But the 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.

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 HCAN.

In December, Smith moderated "a community discussion on health-care issues" in Appalachia, Va., 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."

In March, Team Obama pulled the same "kabuki" 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*.

*Service Employees International Union (think nurses)

Isn't all that unusual for lowlives to mark the deck, but these clumsy puppeteers take subterfuge to undreamed of heights.