Posted on 11/11/2007 10:28:50 PM PST by neverdem
At two campaign events in Iowa this year, aides to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton encouraged audience members to ask her specific questions, a tactic that drew criticism from an opponent for the Democratic presidential nomination and led her yesterday to promise that it would not happen again.
Mrs. Clinton, speaking to reporters in Iowa, said she was unaware that her aides had ever planted questions.
“It was news to me,” said Mrs. Clinton, of New York, “and neither I nor my campaign approve of that, and it will certainly not be tolerated.”
Staff members have been told to avoid doing so in the future, advisers said.
Planting questions with audience members, while not unheard of in political campaigns, is generally avoided because of the embarrassing image it suggests when the tactic becomes public: that a candidate is uncomfortable facing tough questions or campaigning in unpredictable settings.
Iowa’s presidential caucuses are less than two months away, and Mrs. Clinton is in a tight race there with Senator Barack Obama of Illinois and John Edwards, a former senator from North Carolina.
Political analysts said that while planting questions is not the worst sin of a campaign operation, the practice could reinforce negative opinions about Mrs. Clinton.
“The problem for Hillary Clinton is the whole spin that’s going to happen — that she and her campaign are manipulative and scheming and that she is essentially trying to bend the rules to maintain her lead in the polls,” said Steffen W. Schmidt, a political science professor at Iowa State University.
The practice came to light late last week when a student at Grinnell College in Iowa, Muriel Gallo-Chasanoff, told her campus newspaper that a Clinton aide had asked her to pose a question to Mrs. Clinton about global warming...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Here's a good one:
"Senator Clinton, which States border Iowa?"
She’s like the Monty Burns of the non-cartoon world.
Do these incidents and Hillary’s response suggest how she would govern if elected? Hillary is so willing to blame Bush for all the problems she perceives and yet she is unwilling to accept responsibility for these flaps. Both Clintons have perfected the blame game to heights never to be seriously challenged again. Hillary’s campaign slogan should be “rule by blame”.
I can imagine being at a HRC event and meeting her staffers.
“Sir, we would like you to present this question.”
“Hillary, do you want every child to be guaranteed health care no matter their income, and when was the last time President Bush beat his wife?”
Boy, it's a struggle to resist screaming at the monitor!!! I just can't imagine giving this...person 4 - 8 years of aboslute control. It just freezes my heart to think about it!!!
Interesting the optyher NY area papera already covered this and the NY Timnes could have put it as page 1 in the Sunday edition...but held it until Monday (even lower subscription).
So Hillary claims she did not know what her aides were doing!! She can’t have it both ways. Either she was crooked or incompentent as a leader.
Bravo Sierra would be soldier speak for the alpha digits B & S
Wikipedia explains several versions of spelling alphabets. A Soldier might spell his/her ABCs as Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta. A WW II soldier would have said Able, Baker, Charlie, Dog. You might remember the old T.V. Show, Adam 12, They would have said Adam, Boy, Charles, David. These are all ways that one could send alpha letters over a poor radio connection and have some hope that the other end could make it out. Thus the use of Niner for Nine, which could be mistaken for Five. When you are sending coordinates for an artillery barrage, you want the numbers to be right on. Hopefully, I did not come across as an Adam Henry. Just trying to help the understanding.
The “Smartest Woman in the World” can only answer planted questions.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over?
I agree!
You have to expect that someone is coaching the aides to pass out the questions. Her appearances have been far too structured and scripted for far too long.
If it happens across the board at all her events, it leads back to her campaign managers. Either they are running amok or they are following orders. Either way, it speaks to that in her which many of us can not stand.
1) She is not willing to stand vulnerable before this nation and answers questions boldly and bluntly.
2) She thinks if she can craft and script her appearances then just enough of us will see her as a capable leader.
If she thinks she can craft and script the events of this world (akin to the events surrounding the TWA 800 investigation) to suit her fancy, then another four or eight years of these two are intolerable
http://www.preventtruthdecay.com/mainmiscfuneral.htm
Rule of thumb: Bill is bad. Hillary is evil.
Here we go again:
“MISTAKES WERE MADE”
Avoid??
Perfect response. :-)
Hillary’s minions are almsot as frightening as she is.
That's the same thing they said about Reagan during Iran-Contra.
I’m still not convinced that the tell-all plants aren’t Obama supporters, but I’ll take it—it’s always good to see them eat their own.
I wonder if Hillary fired anyone for planting questions,...a practice which she deplores.
It is to be avoided. Unless it's unavoidable.
Vote for Shillary Clinton.
(She was named after Edmund Hillary and for Shirley Chisholm, who was the first woman to run as a Democrat for the presidency.)
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