http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/03/AR2007080302132.html?hpid=topnewsDiner Exchange Underlines Voters' Health-Care Concerns
By Perry Bacon Jr. and Michael D. Shear
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, August 4, 2007; Page A04
MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Michele Griffin didn't want to hear Mitt Romney talk about how to fight the spread of AIDS around the world.
"What about our nation? How 'bout the USA? C'mon!" yelled Griffin, who has worked for more than 12 years behind the counter of the Red Arrow Diner, a popular stop for presidential candidates.
For the next 10 minutes Romney tried to respond, describing his approach to health care when he was the Republican governor of Massachusetts, while Griffin kept interrupting him with comments such as "After we pay our huge deductibles for our insurance and our cost for our prescriptions, there's nothing left."
Eventually, Romney's message -- criticizing European-style "socialized medicine," attacking Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's health-care efforts in the 1990s and praising the virtues of private insurance -- got through.