Oregon Senator Ron Wyden's last county town hall at Yamhill County at McMinnville - at events where the topics come from the audience - covered a broad range of topics. Tonight's at Newberg included a variety of subjects but the focus was clear: Iraq.
That wasn't for any lack of clarity on Wyden's part. Asked about the recent Bush Administration talk of a "surge" in troop levels around Bagdad, Wyden replied that "I cannot conceive of any rationale that would justify an escalation." And he showed no qualms about calling it an "escalation." (Wyden is in the minority of senators who needn't exert himself too much with calibrations on Iraq; he was in the opposition from the beginning.)
Mostly, people wanted to talk about Iraq. Newberg is a conservative Republican city, and that only a few people in the audience seemed to support the war - or, more precisely, not so much that as simply criticize the critics - may have been an indicator; in the group seemed clearly anti-war. Some wondered why more effective anti-terrorism measures aren't taken in-country, while $400 billion has been spent in Iraq; others noted that a single serious illness could wipe out his health-uninsured life as a fast as any terrorist could.
The crowd was divided, but Wyden seemed to hold the majority of it. That also seemed true on the second-most mentioned subject, immigration; and here too, there were fewer final, definitive positions than there were concerned and general principles.