McCaskill town hall at UMKC: No fights; classic Claire

The health-care town-hall meeting yesterday at UMKC’s Swinney Rec Center was classic Claire “Bear” McCaskill.

The senator from Missouri, having already stood through enough angry town-hall meetings to witness a white hillbilly tear up a black woman’s Rosa Parks poster, knew how to handle the crowd.

Signs weren’t allowed inside the gym, so at first glance it was a little hard to tell who was on what side. (“This looks like an Obama rally,” griped one guy dressed in all black in front of me, though I wasn’t seeing all the Obama T-shirts he was seeing.) Tension built a bit before McCaskill arrived, when some partisans started chanting, “Health care now!” and were met with, “Just say no!” This petered out after a few rounds.

Walking into the gymnasium, which had been set up with chairs and bleachers to accommodate 1,300 people, McCaskill was greeted with a standing ovation. She stood onstage and tapped her chest in one of the universal signs for “Oh, I love you guys, too.”

Then came the prayer.