re: #539 Walter L. NewtonThis might be true, but other eyewitness accounts, including one caller on the Limbaugh (with Mark Steyn) show who was actually in the protest group opposing Obamacare, said that the Obamacrat was in the man’s face and wouldn’t leave him alone - he made it a point to say that while the Obamacrat wasn’t “attacking” him, he was very confrontational, “unpredictable” and within the man’s personal space (practically standing on his shoes).

Doesn’t justify violence at all. It does explain why the Obamacrat may have gotten an initial shove as a warning, though. Which is, IMHO, completely justified. In the heat of the moment, this old man had no idea what this clown was going to do, so he probably overreacted to the provocateur. I wasn’t there, so I can say for sure, but this is what I’ve gleaned from reading and hearing about this all mourning.

The Obamacrat was the provocateur here, not the old man. The old man initiated the violence because he probably thought there was some danger to his person (which obviously was the goal of the provocateur), and the old man got his finger bitten off by the Obamacrat who then fled the scene.