Tonight State Representative Wayne Schmidt, and State Senator Howard Walker held a town hall event in Traverse City Michigan.

I was able to witness firsthand, how a discussion can be hijacked by emotion and a few tools in the box of labor specialists.  The educators and real workers for the most part were willing to listen, and were civil, but given the opportunity, a slick haired (mob looking) gentleman and his concubine were able to personally use up at least 20 minutes of our local town hall time.  Out of 2 hours, that doesn't seem like much, but it set the tone for the rest of the discussion.

The two sat separately, and refused to let their part of discussion end. they hit the union talking points, and most of the workers in the room bought those points as fact.

Schmidt and Walker handled themselves quite well actually, had as good a set of facts, and spoke to solid and logical conservative principles, but the message control of the townhall went to those two, and a couple of (apparently from) Lansing visitors. The mobster and his moll left the event high fiving and butt groping knowing they won.

Lesson: Strict moderation of these affairs.  We had over 200 people there, 60 or so wished to talk, and less than 10 controlled the conversation.