The Real Battle Begins

Obama's town hall in Belgrade, Montana gets underway at 3 PM EDT, and I'm really, really hoping he gets some rough, brutal questions. I don't expect any screaming and craziness, but I do expect him to have to deal with some rough patches both today and tomorrow in Grand Junction, Colorado.

We'll see how it goes. CNN's Ed Henry expects the President will have some confrontations.

I arrived here a couple of days ahead of the president in order to get a better read on his reform effort by talking to people like Sonja McDonald, who told me her husband's job as a diesel mechanic doesn't provide health insurance for them and their two children.

So I found McDonald at a remarkable local clinic getting a low-cost tooth extraction because she has not been able to afford a trip to the dentist in a couple of years. She voted for Obama and agrees with him that reform is needed, but said she's worried about the details.

"I believe that there is a health care crisis, I really do," she told me from a dentist chair in the clinic. "Do I believe that the government needs to be more involved? No! Because I think that they just -- whenever they get their fingers in the pot it just kind of turns black."

It's a common sentiment in this part of the country. There is great distrust for the federal government, especially after the string of bailouts, and that fatigue is clearly hurting the president's push for health reform. Just ask another Obama voter, David Lewis, whom I met in the quaint downtown here.

Lewis is publisher of The Mountain Pioneer, a monthly newspaper focusing on the outdoors, and he says people around here are just fed up with the mounting federal tab that's being racked up in Washington.

"We've just spent so much money on the stimulus and the TARP," Lewis said, noting that Social Security and Medicare are projected to be bleeding red ink soon too. "And then we're going to add another huge entitlement in terms of the public option."

Obama will have to answer these questions. But if he does well, it could be something of a turning point. If he blows it however, it could be the final nail.