Somewhere around Interstate 10’s Exit 206 in Louisiana is a tiny town called Reserve. Situated just in between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, the community is located in St. John Parish, a heavily agricultural and economically modest town known especially for its Army National Guard base.
The biggest thing ever to happen in the history of Reserve, La. occurred Monday at 11:30 a.m. Four cabinet secretaries from the Obama Administration visited the small town on their Rural Tour, speaking in 10 different communities across the U.S. The event featured a panel discussion and townhall-style question-and-answer session with Secretary Hilda Solis of the Department of Labor, Secretary Kathleen Sebelius of the Department of Health and Human Services, Secretary Tom Vilsack of the Department of Agriculture and Secretary Eric Shineski of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Cars lined the block with some people walking 15 or more minutes to park and enter the building. The overflow from the crowd led into the halls of the Army National Guard building, with some trying to get a peek into the packed room. One estimate indicated at least 800 people were in attendance. National and local media outlets lined the back of the room with cameras shoved next to each other, allowing barely enough room for all the reporters.
The Obama Administration probably didn’t expect that kind of crowd. After all, it was not until blogger Jeff Blanco, the publisher of louisianaconservative.com, broke the story that anyone knew about it all. Surely, the Administration hoped to fill the room with more supporters, likely from ACORN, which is based out of nearby New Orleans.
ACORN and a few other left-leaning groups were present, but the majority of attendees were not at all sympathetic to President Obama’s health care reform proposals, including the Tea Party organizations from around the entire state of Louisiana, the Louisiana Right to Life and activists from Americans for Prosperity. Additionally, folks who heard about it that day in the mainstream media showed up, many of whom were veterans.
Most found it an incredibly frustrating experience. Several people got up and left, explaining that they could not stomach the “spin” offered by President Obama’s Cabinet.
“I just cannot follow the rhetoric,” one veteran said as he exited the room only a few minutes into the townhall.
Lines wrapped around the room, as attendees waited their turn to ask questions of the Cabinet secretaries. One woman, Tracy Chevalier, talked about her Cuban heritage and explained that the health care in America, from her experiences, was far more accessible than what she experienced in her home country.
Then Chevalier asked if the panelists could answer her question simply with a “yes” or “no.” She requested that the American public be allowed five to seven days to review the bill before it is voted upon in Congress. The crowd broke into thunderous applause and cheering.
Secretary Kathleen Sebelius responded, “I would hope you would allow me more than a yes or no answer on this one.” The crowd then began to boo.
That was the overall tone for the entire townhall. Booing. Protesting. General hostility towards the Cabinet. All of these were further powerful after Secretary Sebelius admitted that the federal employees’ benefits would remain the same, even after a public option was added, with screaming and booing even louder from the crowd. The hour and a half-long meeting closed with dozens of people still in line to ask questions.
Glenn Ellerbe, president of Acadiana Tea Party in Lafayette, La., explained that he needed Secretary Hilda Solis to carefully review the cap-and-trade legislation, as it would greatly damage Louisiana’s energy-based economy.
“It will be a cold day in hell before he (Obama) socializes my country,” he said. This statement has been used since by the Associated Press and has been played on the Rush Limbaugh radio show and Hannity on Fox News.
The crowd went wild, with everyone standing up and cheering. Some people began chanting “U-S-A.”
It is likely that the national media outlets present were not anticipating such an anti-Obamacare display. However, there was no denying that the nearly all of the hundreds of folks gathered in that tiny room in Reserve, La., were not there to join the ranks of ACORN but instead, to show their disapproval of the health care legislation presented by the Obama Administration.
And there’s no leftist PR spin doctor who can remedy the public opinion ill that is plaguing them more and more as the debate continues.
