GITMO the New Health Care

There is going to be a town hall meeting in Standish, Mi. today.

Michigan citizens concerned about the controversial federal plan to transfer Guantanamo Bay terrorist detainees to the Standish Maximum Correctional Facility will hold an emergency town hall meeting this Thursday, August 20, at 12:00 noon, in Resurrection of the Lord Church, 423 W. Cedar St., Standish, Michigan. The meeting is open to the public and press.

The town hall meeting will address legal, economic and security issues that could affect the Standish area community, the State of Michigan and the nation as a whole. Slated to speak are U.S. Representative Peter Hoekstra (R-Holland), ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee; David Littmann, Senior Economist, Mackinac Center for Public Policy; Debra Burlingame, Founder of 9/11 Families for a Safe and Strong America and sister of the pilot of the plane which was crashed into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001; and Thomas Kerrins, chief steward for Standish for the Michigan Corrections Organization. Invitations were also extended to Governor Granholm and other state and local officials

Boy, doesn't this sound familiar? The administration is determined to impose upon the country a very unpopular idea. Now, the folks are ready to rebel in a very public way against the administration.

The trajectory of health care and GITMO are awfully similar. Both health care reform and the closure of GITMO are favored by the public in theory. Most folks would say that they believe that health care must be reformed. Most folks would say that they would like to close GITMO.

The problems come in the details. Once the public took a look at health care they firmly rejected it. The public sees this as a budget buster, a highway to rationing, and a massive expansion of government power. With GITMO, the public wants GITMO closed just as long as no one shows up near them. That's what will potentially happen in Standish, Mi.

In August, protesters overflowed town hall meetings with Congress people to display their displeasure with health care reform. We've all seen the video of angry voters challenging their elected officials. Well, now you are likely to see the same scene regarding GITMO.

To understand just how corrosive this is, just imagine having non stop news coverage of angry voters rebelling against the President's central domestic policy for a full month. Then, for three to four months after that, you will see another set of angry voters rebelling against a center piece of his foreign policy. Visuals are a powerful thing and after the round of town hall debates on GITMO end, it will be hard to imagine the president's popularity being more than the low 40's.