Not surprisingly, crowds were reportedly big, and not 100 percent receptive, for U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan’s town hall meetings in four area communities, including Oak Creek, on Thursday.
Check out coverage from the Journal Sentinel and Oak Creek Patch. From Patch:
An overflow crowd listened to U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan lay out his plan to fix the country’s financial problems in an Oak Creek town hall Thursday afternoon.
Ryan spoke in the municipal courtroom at the Oak Creek Police Department, a space which turned out not to be big enough to accommodate the huge crowd that showed up.
Many people were turned away at the door, and police eventually closed the driveway to the station. Others stood in the hallway outside the courtroom and struggled to hear what the Congressman said.
Ryan has held several town halls in the last few days, and some were moved to bigger venues because of the crowds.
The largely-elderly crowd seemed mostly friendly toward Ryan. Many gave him a standing ovation when the meeting was over, though there were scattered boos, as well.
Did you go? Post your comments below!
South Milwaukee Blog 
Why do you feel that you have to state “and not 100 percent receptive”? Would you really expect that any politician speaking to a group would have EVERYONE agreeing with them? I thought you were going to stick to REPORTING newsworthy local events and hold off on the editorializing?
Randall: Agreed. I am sure all of these events in the past have included supporters and opponents. It just sounds like these were more divisive, at least based on media reports, with booing, etc. That’s certainly not surprising given the political climate we’re in. So I thought I would reference it in the post. It’s hardly editorializing — which I argue I have done a good job of dialing down in the past six weeks. That said, I am not going to eliminate editorializing on my blog entirely. I don’t want that, and I don’t think my readers do either. I’m supposed to have a point of view, and this blog gives me a forum to share it. My pledge is to avoid some of the over-the-top rhetoric that we continue to see on most issues these days.
OK. Fair enough. I don’t expect you to have no opinions. It’s just that the media has emphasized the astro-turf opposition to Ryan’s plan where, when you talk to the majority of people attending these meetings, there’s wide-spread support. There’s a dearth of objective reporting around here and I don’t want another parrot of their bias.
Thanks for being an outlet for news on what’s happening in SM and vicinity. Keep it coming!
Frankly, Eriks blog was alot more interesting when we could argue with him!
Nothing like a lively debate on the topics of the day, huh? ;>)
I’d be happy to start flaming about Scott Walker and collective bargaining again, but, alas, I think I’d lose as many readers as I’d gain in doing that. And I’d probably lose some credibility. That said, I did enjoy John Gurda’s piece in Sunday’s paper 🙂
http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/120994669.html
I always like his historical perspective on the issues, especially when I agree with him.
Please don’t start flaming about Walker again, Erik. At least wait until the big recall!