Want a video definition of “clueless”? Watch John Dingell’s reaction to the massive outpouring of opposition to the ObamaCare bill he authored, which comes at the 2-minute mark. With not one but two SRO crowds at Dingell’s home-town meetings shouting “Kill the Bill,” what conclusion does Dingell draw? The bill is not terribly popular? It’s going to create a big problem for him unless he retires in 2010? Not exactly:

I keep looking around the halls on these videos to see those “well-dressed” imposters that Barbara Boxer insists keep infiltrating town halls of Democrats who back the nationalization of health care. I’ve yet to see a single tie or wing-tip shoe, but I certainly see a lot of people with some very good questions for ObamaCare advocates. Just before Dingell chalks up a room full of people chanting “Kill the Bill” to the efforts of a few infiltrators, one woman angrily asks Dingell who will pay for ObamaCare. “Will it come out of my paycheck?” she demands, and Dingell has no answer.

Hey, lady, Dingell wrote the bill. Don’t expect him to actually know what’s in it.

Dingell and Boxer can claim that all of this comes from some sort of odd phenomenon organized by a handful of powerful interests, but that doesn’t explain either the rapid fall in public support for ObamaCare, nor the decline in Obama’s approval numbers in general or on health care specifically. Americans would like to see some of the shortfalls in the system fixed, such as the difficulty in getting insured with pre-existing conditions and the lack of interstate competition for coverage plans, but they don’t want government running their health care. If Dingell and Boxer really believe their press, they’re in for a rude awakening in 2010.