Right on Clinton. (CNN, healthcare, solution, speech)

[Mr. Opinion]

President Clinton Heckled in St. Petersburg (VIDEO) - CNN iReport

[mhouse2001]

He handled that quite well.

I strongly support dissent and I think that elected officials should address those who ask difficult questions. If a politician is reading a prepared speech, it should be common courtesy for the attending public to not heckle them. But I think once the 'event' is complete as planned, there should be a time where those with dissenting views get to be listened to. Today, they are ignored and that serves to promote the kind of heckling this guy did to Clinton.

If you missed the asterisk in my ideal above, it's that those who express dissenting views should also accept the responsibility for communicating not just what their problem is, but also what their solution is. Or in the case of an inquiry (like "Why didn't you...?") the politician should address the issue without redirecting. Without guidelines or mutual respect by both parties, dissent serves only to create anger and chaos. Dissent should be embraced and brought into the process.

[Isitmeorarethingsnuts?]

I don't believe that if if someone has a question about a policy they don't like that it's necessary for them to be able to "solve" the problem. They haven't been "hired" to solve the problem...the politician has. One of the things Washington does best (or most often) is to form committes to research problems. I sure wish they had taken time to do this with healthcare instead of making it up as they went along. And they are acually doing a study on DADT but they're having a hard time waiting for the results? What's up with that?