I’m sure the danger of possibly violating fire code restrictions was uppermost in Jerry’s mind when he decided to have the telephone town hall where all calls could be screened by loyal staffers.

That is one of the more ludicrous propositions I’ve ever seen on here.

Sorry AJ, but I attended one of his personal town halls at the Dougherty Station public library in San Ramon just a couple of months ago. It was very well attended by supporters and foes alike. Most of the foes were polite; a few not so much. To make it even more personal, he broke it down into several meetings of smaller groups of 20 or so. That meant everybody got a chance to introduce himself or herself to McNerney and to the group. Everybody got to ask a question. AJ, you’re entitled to your opinions, but how about getting your facts straight? I’m a Democrat but do not necessarily agree with McNerney on every position he takes. However, I find him very down to earth, very straight-forward and not full of himself. He also did not suck up to the group and was not afraid to tell people things they did not necessarily want to hear.

As far as allowing more people to participate, I would dare say that more people would rather attend a town hall meeting in person than to listen to some canned and planned “feel good” presentation. You can count on the McNerney flappers to prevent real questions from reaching the phone line. They are knowledgeable enough to do that, even if they can’t count.