WH disputes transparency at townhall

The White House disputes the notion that the President's health care town hall Wednesday is anything but open and transparent."I think will be a representative sample of the issues in this debate that we're dealing with," explained Press Secretary Robert Gibbs in response to concern that the event would be tightly controlled.

Over the weekend, the White House website solicited Americans to submit questions for the town hall via social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. According to the site, hundreds of entries were received.

Press Secretary Gibbs denied that the questions would be staged, but acknowledged that members of the White House's New Media office would be "shuffling through questions." And a White House website entry dated July 1st reads: "Today's the day where the President will get to answer some of the best submissions."

"Even if there's a tough question, it's a -- it's a question coming from somebody who was invited or who was screened or the question was screened," argued a reporter.

Gibbs wasn't convinced. "How about you can ask me that question tomorrow based on what questions were asked rather than preselecting your question based on something that may or may not come through?" he replied.

President Obama's town hall meeting in Annandale was designed to be a conversation with the public about the Administration's proposed health care reforms. The town hall format is something the President has consistently relied on - both during the campaign last year and through the first few months of his presidency.

Mr. Obama has another town hall scheduled for July 14th in Michigan.