The most telling moment in Representative Eric Massa's health-care town hall meeting last night was when he asked for a show of hands on whether he should support the bill. Almost every hand went up as a "no."

The problem, though, was that there was no delineation between those who didn't like the bill because it expands the government's role, or because it didn't give the government enough of a role. It was just a simple yes or no vote.

But so goes the health-care debate, which last night was more of a shouting match. Take this little gem: One guy asked how private insurance companies can compete with a government plan, and someone else yells "Be better."

Across the country, conservative groups have been mobilizing speakers to go to these meetings with the sole purpose of disrupting them or embarrassing members of Congress. At Massa's meeting last night, pro-health care reform groups, like Health Care for America Now, came out to show support for reform. In the end, it was hard to tell if any "average citizens" came out and spoke, or if it was a lot of people acting on behalf of one campaign or another.

The hecklers may have underestimated their target, however. As Massa made his opening remarks, some guy yelled out, "Can we ask a question soon?" to which Massa simply replied, "In a few minutes," and kept going. And when other people yelled things like "Tell Nancy Pelosi," he simply kept talking in his booming voice.

Really, Massa came out of this looking better than anyone in the crowd. When the two sides started yelling at each other, he urged them to calm down and to let the person with the floor speak, and he reassured them he'd take as many questions as he possibly could. He answered uncomfortable questions honestly - he refused to commit to not raising taxes to pay for health care, for example.

For a good nuts-and-bolts summary of the meeting, check out this Politico story.

Massa tried to drive home a couple of other points: He trying to slow down a current health-care bill, H.R. 3200, because he has concerns about it: a cost share for states was one problem he has with it, but he's also unhappy that it lacks a strong public option.

A single-payer health care system would still be best, Massa said.