Clinton 'yields' to the crowd

To take audience questions or not?

As she wrapped up a frenetic day of campaigning in Iowa Saturday, Hillary Clinton began leaving it up to those who had come to see her.

In Dubuque, The Times' Seema Mehta reports, the Democratic presidential contender asked a crowd of hundreds of supporters spilling out of a ballroom whether they wanted to ask questions or take pictures and sign autographs. One man shouted out “autographs!”

“Okay, ask me your questions at the rope line,” she replied.

At the next rally -- the day's last -- in Manchester, Clinton offered the same choice, and the result was never in doubt.

"I can take a few questions, or I can come out and shake hands," she said. "What do you think? Come on out? Okay!"

Earlier, at an event in, appropriately, the town of Clinton, she veered from the "don't ask" policy she's followed of late and let the audience fire away. One of the queries focused on Pakistan, and she used the occasion to scold President Bush. His dealings with the country, she said, have "put way too much emphasis on [President Pervez] Musharraf instead of dealing with broader Pakistani society."

-- Don Frederick

Comments

[PrairieRobin]

I was at the Manchester event. The choice between shaking hands and asking questions was asked so quickly, there was barely time for a breath before she said "Ok, let's shake hands." No chance ever for asking questions.

[Joseph]

Great leaders don't give know it all answers to questions from those they would serve.

The great leaders ask questions of those they would serve and listen closely to the answers. The essence of a great leader's question is always that of Parzival's question to the grail king, "What ails you?" It is only by listening to those he would serve that a leader learns of their difficulties, their dreams, and their great ideas to solve current problems.

Tom Peters made this clear in his book "In Search of Excellence". The leaders of the most consistently successful companies "manage by walking around" and ask questions while they do it.

Winston Churchill ,when he was First Lord of the Admiralty equivalent to being U.S. Navy Secretary, would visit the British fleet at Scapa Flow at 1am in the morning. He did this in order to avoid command officers so that he could visit the enlisted sailors in their bunks to ask them how was the training, how was the food, how reliable was the equipment. He didn't go there to prove how smart he was by answering any question thrown at him. He wanted to find out by questioning the front line sailors how prepared they were to fight. When Churchill was an infantry officer in the trenches of World War I, he would tour his charges positions at least twice a day to gauge their morale and preparations by asking questions. The whole time he was non-chalantly oblivious to the bullets whizzing through the air.

At least one candidate has acquired the habit of asking questions of the nature, "What ails you?", and listening closely to the answer. He had to ask them in order to serve his patients. Dr. Ron Paul who served 4,000 mothers and their infants has the questioning skills, not the answering skills, to be a great leader for a country that faces a plethora of major ills.

[Keith]

Ooooh! Aaaaah! She scolded Bush! How original and insightful as to what her own actions would be.

As lame as can possibly be.

[pAULA DOULE]

hillary in control - of the crowd, of the country? she now claims that she never knew bill was cheating on her at any time in her marriage... DUH. Come on folks - what kind of message is this lying skank sending to young women in this country - pretend no to know? or if you do LIE about it? she is beyond sickening.

[ReadingBetweenLines]

There is much more that can be said about Hillary: – forgiving an unfaithful husband that mirrors her capacity to heal a nation’s wounds; – raising a decent daughter that mirrors her capacity to restore respectability to America; – showing personal strength and discipline that mirrors her capacity to be commander-in-chief; – keeping generational bonds in the family that mirrors her capacity to inspire bipartisanship.

Obama is running for the presidency now, not because he is called for a vision, but because he is compelled by a favourable condition. His candidacy is not about hope. His hope is about his candidacy.

[Steve]

Hillary will do what Hillary wants to do. She is scary as a person and much more as a leader of this country.

[Robert Laughing]

Of all the political contenders, only ONE, owes her Senate seat to her husband's pardon, of not just a felon, but a FUGITIVE felon, living the good life in Switzerland. I'm not discussing the Rose Law Firm or Whitewater - probably 'dirt' from the bush-freak-fringe of the Rabid Party - but IF one is a thinking person, would he or she want someone so AMORAL in the White House, again??

Personally, I LOATHE the pathetic Bush - I didn't think it possible to go any lower on the evolutionary vine, or be betrayed so throughly, but Hellary truly frightens me...she has NO morals, no scruples and all the (mechanical) heart of a Dick Cheney. Are we sure Hellary isn't Dick Cheney in a Pant Suit? Is that where he 'hides' in Washington?

[Stephen]

This Clinton is possibly slithering into the Whitehouse. People must be pretty stupid if they can't see through her. The also forgot that she took ( Stole ) many items from the White House when she and her husband left the first time. The Clintons came from their home state with legal problems which did not
just dissappear. While Bill was in the Whitehouse Mrs. Clinton made a huge chunk of money from futures trading. This trade was difficult for professional
traders to understand. It looks like every year of their lives has been covered with some type of questionable activity.
If we examine the Hillary file it looks like a put up job. She is trying to coast into office on the women's vote. I have heard interviews with people who
want to vote for her simple because she is a woman. This is not just short-sighted it is proof that she has simply gained votes by emotion. The same voters
will suffer greatly at the hand of Mrs Bill.
Maybe you think that NewOrleans was a fiasco. Wait until these Arkansas hicks start placing their cronies in office, making laws, creating rampant theft of public lands, and spending money they don't have to support causes nobody wants.

[jule]

Another poll shows HILLARY LOSES TO THE REPUBLICANS.

Hillary loses to everyone but ROMNEY!

AM I THE ONLY PERSON WHO CARES IF THE DEM NOMINEE CAN WIN THE GENERAL????

[Mr. Unite Us]

Okay, ask me your questions at the rope line,” she replied.

[Off mike an inaudible to most]

At the next rally -- the day's last -- in Manchester, Clinton offered the same choice, and the result was never in doubt.

"I can take a few questions, or I can come out and shake hands," she said. "What do you think? Come on out? Okay!"

Slick Hillary?

Thank you PraireRobin for reporting this fact

"I was at the Manchester event. The choice between shaking hands and asking questions was asked so quickly, there was barely time for a breath before she said "Ok, let's shake hands." No chance ever for asking questions.

Posted by: PrairieRobin | December 29, 2007 at 09:56 PM"