In response to an ill-framed question - one of only two that were not from Obama supporters - asked of him at the Potemkin Village-style health care "town hall" in Portsmouth, New Hampshire on August 11, President Obama said this:

"I have not said that I was a single-payer supporter, because, frankly, we historically have had a employer-based system in this country, with private insurers, and for us to transition to a system like that, I believe would be too disruptive."

"I happen to be a proponent of single payer universal health care plans. . . A single payer health care plan, a universal health care plan. And that's what I'd like to see. But as all of you know, we may not get there immediately. Because first we have to take back the White House, we have to take back the Senate, and we have to take back the House."

"If I were designing a system from scratch, I would probably go ahead with a single-payer system."

"They [Americans] need relief now. So my attitude is let's build up the system we got, let's make it more efficient, we may be over time-as we make the system more efficient and everybody's covered-decide that there are other ways [single payer?] for us to provide care more effectively."