Yesterday afternoon at Netroots Nation in Providence, RI, I attempted to ask the embattled Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) about his campaign, specifically his record as the deciding vote for Obamacare. Ohio voters passed an amendment to their constitution outlawing the Democrats’ health care law by a wide margin in 2011:
Ohioans overwhelmingly rejected the healthcare mandate provisions of Obamacare.
They did this by handily passing an amendment to the state’s constitution that reads, in part, as follows:
No federal, state, or local law or rule shall compel, directly or indirectly, any person, employer, or health care provider to participate in a health care system.
My own state’s senator, Claire McCaskill (D-MO), championed Obamacare while Missourians overwhelmingly (by over 70%, 3-1 in every county) passed the Healthcare Freedom Act, which excluded Missourians from the penalties of Obamacare, including jail time and fines. I wondered how Brown was going to reconcile this troubling disparity in his state.
Unfortunately, while the Senator stood and took questions from a number of progressive attendees, when I finally had an opening to ask my question, he refused.
Later, Al Gore Tweeted in response “Awesome.” (See image above.)
He later deleted it, but not before I and others screencapped it.
Brown can’t rely on Gore to bail him out of his situation, and he would do well to not run from honest, politely asked questions from those who simply want answers.