President Obama recently e-mailed followers to attend local town halls, and his deputy chief of staff promised to “punch back twice as hard” in the health care debate. Neither of them probably expected their backers to “get in the faces” of their opponents quite this much. Or to punch anyone — not literally, anyway.
In Saint Louis, the Post-Dispatch reports that Kenneth Gladney, a conservative activist, was distributing Gadsden Flags at a town hall meeting for Rep. Russell Carnahan, D-Mo., when he was allegedly beaten by a group of Obama supporters. One of them reportedly flung racial epithets at him (he is black). Gladney ended up in the Emergency Room, and six people ended up in jail, including a reporter for the Post-Dispatch whom police accused of interfering. Carnahan was not present at the town hall when the incident happened.
The details of this incident are still being sorted out this morning.
