The Democrats are on the offensive, and they’re trying it out in Phoenix. A pro-health care reform campaign rally, sponsored by the Democratic National Committee, drew hundreds of supporters to the first of a campaign that Democrats promise will include more than a thousand pro-reform events across the country, Dan Nowicki of the Arizona Republic reports.
The event opened with a moment of silence for Sen. Edward Kennedy, whose death may galvanize the pro-reform movement, pundits across the nation are theorizing. Take your pick — the New York Times or the LA Times. The Daily Kos says name the so-called ‘public option’ part of the plan after Kennedy and be done with it.
The Arizona Republic says emotions ran high at the rally.
Outside the union hall, supporters of Obama’s health-care-reform overhaul and critics of the Democratic plans squared off along both sides of North Seventh Street.
Reform backers expressed support for a government-run “public option” and carried signs with slogans such as “Health care can’t wait,” “Insurance profits are bad for my health” and “Opponents only have scare tactics.”
Sen. John McCain, who opposes the Democrats’ health care reform proposal, had his own health care town hall earlier that day in Phoenix, an event that interestingly enough drew large contingents on both sides of the debate, including one woman so angry she had to be evicted. After the meeting, as McCain spoke to reporters, one person accused the senator of “getting hundreds of thousands of dollars” from insurance companies every year, the Huffington Post reported.
