Meeting the People Vol 13

Things must be getting tough for Obama if the liberals of Boulder, CO aren't buying Obamacare:

U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, D-Boulder, was swarmed by people Friday morning when he dropped by the Vic’s coffee shop in north Boulder, expecting a friendly chat with a couple dozen constituents.

But the event, the first of a series of meetings dubbed “Congress on Your Corner,” drew hundreds of people, many with health care issues on their minds.

“The idea is that it’s so hard to get your average constituent to make it out to a public meeting, that the congressman goes out to where the people are,” said Lara Cottingham, Polis’ press secretary. “Usually it’s 12, maybe 30 people who show up.”

“Obviously,” continued Cottingham, turning to look at the crowd spilling into the parking lot, “all bets are off today.”

Polis spent nearly two hours dug in behind a table set up on the sidewalk outside the popular morning coffee shop, and a crowd of people jostled around him, waiting to ask a question and straining — hands cupped to their ears — to hear his answers.

“He basically hid from us,” said Richard McCurdy, who had given up on talking to Polis. “He passed out cards and didn’t let us speak out in a real town hall.”

Cottingham said that the event wasn’t meant to be a town-hall style meeting; it was designed, instead, to allow people to speak to Polis one-on-one. And, she said, anyone who filled out a card — and who didn’t get a turn to speak — will get a personal phone call from the congressman in the coming days.

“This is what democracy is all about,” Polis said as he left, already late for his next appointment. “I did a lot of listening, a little bit of talking, and it's great to see this kind of engagement.”

There's a video of the action you can see at the Daily Camera website.

I'll bet if Polis was honest, he didn't really think this engagement was all that great.