It's their first major activist event of the year and Columbia Dems, in an effort to increase funding for children's healthcare, are taking advantage of the famous Price is Right gag now that Bob Barker has retired. Bwog had newbie reporter Justin Vlasits see the spectacle.

This afternoon at the Sundial, the Dems brought out a crudely constructed Plinko Board and invited students crossing Low Steps to play a butchered version of the game and afterwards call congressmen King and Walsh (both R-NY) to vote for the conference version of the Children's Health Insurance Program.

"Tell Congress to get its priorities straight!"

"Tell Bush that the Price is Wrong!"

"This issue is totally nonpartisan issue," said Jonathan Backer, Media Director for the CU Dems, reminding passers by that the original bill in 1997 was a collaboration between reactionary Utah Senator Orrin Hatch and super-liberal Ted "Chappaquiddick" Kennedy (whom Backer interned for this summer).

However, the event failed to draw massive crowds, due to the Plinko board's shoddy construction and a lack of creative free food. Pegs were unevenly spaced, pucks got stuck in almost every game and the Dems were not even prepared with a Plinko stick to properly unlodge them. Worst of all, players couldn't even win, all of the slots at the bottom of the board were dedicated to alternative ways to spend the $7 billion that the club says is necessary to maintain the program for the next five years.

To make a bad thing worse, the meager chips and salsa were obscured by throngs of club members manning the Plinko board. The Dems should learn from a more successful gimmick in the guise of progressive activism: CQA's delicious and plentiful Queer Sushi, which attracted an enormous line in Lerner 555 last Thursday.

Backer said that this year the club's vision was to get students more engaged in activism so that they could bring about a tangible change in policy. Just no more game shows, please.