Americans for Prosperity sponsored a "Hands Off My Health Care" rally Wednesday night at the State Fairgrounds. More than 1,000 people attended. The event featured speeches, including one by Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, who congratulated the crowd for getting Washington to listen to concerns about a Democratic plan to reform health care.

"I am convinced that had not the people spoke out in this extremely personal issue, the president would not be giving a speech tonight because the bill would have already been passed," McCrory said. "You did your job."

Staff photo by Ethan Hyman 

As a sort of opening act to the "Hands off My Healthcare" rally, video clips played on the big screen.

The first clip featured a speech by Dallas Woodhouse, state director of Americans for Prosperity, which sponsored the rally. The second clip featured Woodhouse's appearance on CNN in which he debated health care with his brother, Brad Woodhouse, who is communications director for the Democratic National Committee.

Woodhouse knew there were a lot of good applause lines in his performance. Like when he said that unlike his brother, "I'm just a little simple community organizer."

Or when anchor John Roberts asked the brothers how could the nation agree on health care reform plans put forward by Democrats if two brothers couldn't. 

"I think the rest of the country has agreed on it. They don't like it," Woodhouse said. 

The videos done, it was time for Mr. Woodhouse to get to speechifying. 

"Mr. President when you take the podium tonight, we will be listening," Woodhouse said to the crowd. 

Walter Boyer turned 65 Tuesday.

That's part of the reason he showed up Wednesday evening at the "Hands Off My Healthcare" rally at the State Fairgrounds.

"I'm here to save Medicare," Boyer said. "We've entered into a Twilight Zone. It's just too much too quick." 

A couple hundred chairs were already filled a half hour before the event began. Americans for Prosperity parked it's "hands off My Health Care" tour bus behind the stage. which was next to a large video screen. 

Boyer said the Democratic plans to reform health care would drain resources away from Medicare, and hurt that plan, his health insurance plan.

So he showed up to the rally to be seen and heard more so than to listen to the president's speech.

"It won't change my mind. And he lies," said his wife, Delores Boyer.   

Americans for Prosperity will hold a rally at the N.C. State Fairgrounds on Wednesday night ahead of President Barack Obama’s address to a joint session of Congress.

The rally will take place at 8 p.m. at the Kerr Scott building at the fairgrounds in Raleigh, reports Barb Barrett. Then, the group — which opposes Democrats' proposals on health reform — will watch Obama's 9 p.m. address live on a big overhead screen, said Dallas Woodhouse, state director of the N.C. chapter.

The rally will follow two more days of Americans for Prosperity's bus tour, which plans stops in the districts of Democratic U.S. Reps. Heath Shuler, Mike McIntyre, Larry Kissell and Bob Etheridge.

North Carolina's Woodhouse brothers will square off, again, on CNN Tuesday morning.

Brad, who is communications director for the Democratic National Committee in Washington, and Dallas, who heads the North Carolina chapter of the conservative group Americans for Prosperity, will debate President Obama's health care reform proposals.

The ideologically fractious freres are slated to appear at 7:30 a.m. on "American Morning."

Brad Woodhouse previously worked for U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge and then-U.S. Senate candidate Erskine Bowles, both Democrats, before beginning a string of high profile communications posts in Washington. Dallas Woodhouse is a former television reporter in Raleigh.

With the critics of President Barack Obama’s health care proposals having finished their bus tour, supporters of the president’s plan will begin theirs.

Beginning tonight in Greenville, the State Employees Association of North Carolina will host a series of town meetings on health insurance reform across the state, Rob Christensen reports.

“State employees are concerned about health care,” SEANC executive director Dana Cope in a statement. “Many of them can’t afford to cover their spouses or children on the State Health Plan, adding to the growing number of uninsured North Carolinians.”

The tour by SEANC comes after the “Hands Off My Health Care” bus tour ended Saturday in Raleigh with a rally of 1,000 people. It was sponsored by the state chapter of Americans for Prosperity, a conservative advocacy group.

More after the jump.

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The “Hands off my Health Care” tour bus made its final stop Saturday at a hardware store in Raleigh, where more than 1,000 protestors turned out to voice opposition to President Barack Obama's efforts to reform health care.

The bus traveled 1,370 miles across North Carolina over the last six days, reports Ray Martin. It made 30 stops, collected more than 10,000 petitions and encouraged more than 25,000 phone calls to Democratic U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan, said Dallas Woodhouse, program director for Americans for Prosperity, an organization that promotes free-market ideas.

Woodhouse, who drove the bus, said Saturday’s crowd was one of the largest.

Teenagers, young adults and senior citizens cheered and held up signs that denounced socialism, higher taxes and the national deficit.

Read more after the jump.

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The Hands off My Health Care rally is taking its show on the road.

The tour, organized by the conservative advocacy group Americans for Prosperity, is designed to get people active in calling for less government involvement in health care. The bus tour will make more than 30 stops across the state over the next week.

“Americans are fired up about health care, and the bus tour gives more people the opportunity to come out and get involved,” said Dallas Woodhouse, State Director of Americans for Prosperity, in a press release. “They’ve heard enough proposals from Washington that give government all the decision-making power."

The rally is also designed to get people to sign a "Patients First" petition, which the group will send to congressmen.

See the schedule after the jump.

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As President Barack Obama arrives in Raleigh for a town hall meeting, opponents of his plan for health care reform will hold a rally.

Americans for Prosperity's "Patients First" campaign will rally at 10 a.m. Wednesday at the North Raleigh Hilton, 3415 Wake Forest Road in Raleigh. The event is free and open to the public.

"While we welcome President Obama to our great state we believe people in North Carolina will not be persuaded to support a government run healthcare system that will require billions in new taxes and does not offer free market health care solutions,"  said a statement by Dallas Woodhouse of Americans for Prosperity.

The event is dubbed "Hands Off My Health Care" rally, and participants will be asked to sign a petition and contact their representatives in Washington to push for free market solutions.

The group will also announce details of a 6-day statewide bus tour across the state.

There was a sea of fans Tuesday night, all with the same logo: a picture of a pair of hands and the slogan "Hands off My Health Care."

That was the scene at at dinner at the RBC Center, meant to generate opposition to efforts by President Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats to overhaul the nation’s health care system, Rob Christensen reports.

About 350 people packed into a club room for a buffet of Mexican food, and to hear speeches and videos in which Obama’s health care proposals were portrayed as similar to nationalized health care plans in England and Canada.

Americans can expect long lines to see doctors or to get surgeries, and government bureaucrats telling them what medications they can receive, according to the portrayals.

"Politicians want to control who lives and who dies," said Dallas Woodhouse, the head of state chapter of Americans for Prosperity, a Raleigh-based conservative advocacy group.

More after the jump.

Correction: Post originally misstated when the rally was held.

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