Clinton takes 3 whole questions ... at one stop

Reversing the no-question approach she had adopted mid-week, Hillary Clinton invited queries from voters at a campaign stop Friday in Story City, Iowa. But the change was short-lived.

She took three questions before leaving her first campaign event of the day. But at two later stops, the Q-and-A was dispensed with. Clinton spokesman Jay Carson said she was running behind schedule as the day proceeded.

After she had finished her speech in Story City, Clinton told her audience that the best questions she gets tend not to be those asked for all to see.

"I want to meet as many of you as possible and have a chance to hear from you," she said. "I often hear the best stories and the best questions one-on-one.''

Of course, when she takes questions while working the rope line -- with campaign songs typically blaring in the background -- it is difficult for the media to hear the exchanges.

Clinton's three questions in Story City dealt with education, the cost of the Iraq war and depleted uranium. Carson said he anticipated more opportunities for audience questions before the Iowa caucuses next Thursday.

One of Clinton's main rivals in the state, John Edwards, put out word -- perhaps with a contrast in mind -- that he is open to as many questions as voters want to ask as next week's big day nears. His campaign, in fact, not only announced that voters were welcome to ask him questions directly at rallies, but they could pose them through a new website or by phoning his Iowa headquarters.

-- Peter Nicholas

Comments

[grace alexis]

you do realize that they are doing like 6 stops a day, and there is a time restraint? come on give me a break, she can only be super human to a certain extent.

[chris kenny]

I clicked on the link for "an amusing update."

What exactly was amusing?

[Eric]

First of all she did not stop taking questions at these events but was taking less public questions and doing a lot more one on one discussions.

Second of all she is not the only candidate to cut back on the questions she was taking and it should be reported that all candidates are doing the same so that they can get to all the events that have on the schedule for that day.

Third of all if the media cannot hear her answers but the voters can which is truly more important? Is the media playing this up because Hillary is not giving them special treatment?

[john]

SENATOR HILLARY CLINTON IS GOING TO MAKE A GREAT PRESIDENT.

[Roy]

It's amazing how cynical the Clinton campaign is. Hillary's likability hasn't been good for a decade and a half? We'll fix that with a likability tour. She hasn't taken questions (that weren't planted) for months? Let's take a few int he final days of the campaign!

Thankfully the good voters of Iowa have been progressively seeing their way through the smoke screen. That's the contrast between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama: the more you see Obama, the more you like him. The reverse is true of Clinton.

[LT]

She doesn't want to say something "stupid" the last days before the election. Anyway, she may not have her people "planted" in the audience and we all know she cannot answer questions that are not scripted.

[Katherine Wellington]

Americans need to wake up. Hillary Clinton can not win the White House in 2008. Why? Half the country will never vote for her and she cannot draw crossover voters (Republicans and Independents) that is necessary to win the general election. Why are Hillary's negatives so high? They're high because the American public knows Hillary all too well and know exactly what they would be getting with a Clinton administration - more lies, corruption, scandals, dishonesty, partisan gridlock, special prosecutions, higher taxes, big government and the continued exploitation of the urban poor for political gains.

Hillary is a Republican dream come true. She will galvanize the Republican base and the Democrats will lose the general election in 2008. The woman is hated by half of the country and for good reasons. After “35 years” of supposedly working on the behalf of the working poor, disenfranchised and powerless, she still has the highest negatives of any politician in the country with the exception of GW. Why? Because we know her, don't trust her and surely do not like her. She's a fake. She panders to interest groups, lies to get ahead and is so power hungry that she would ride, unlike truly self-made women, her cheating husband’s coattails to seek the highest office in the land. Where is the self-respect?

As a woman I feel like she an embarrassment to woman everywhere. Throughout Bill Clinton's adulterous affairs, she organized against, demonized and ran a comprehensive nullification campaign aimed at destroying these women lives and forcing their silence. Why? She did so to protect Bill Clinton and preserve her own insatiable political ambitions. Further, at the center of every Clinton scandal in the 1990s is Hillary Clinton, e.g., Whitewater, Travelgate, Filegate, Vince Foster, Paula Jones, Jennifer Flowers and Monica Lewinsky.. As a woman I can tell you that she doesn't represent the best of us but rather the worse. I'd choose any of the Democratic candidates (even a Republican) over Hillary Clinton.

Hillary can not win in 2008. If through some miracle she is able to lie herself to the nomination (the woman has no relevant experience to speak of - foreign or domestic), then she will be trounced by the Republicans (you haven't seen negative ads until you see footage of Bill and Hillary lying to the American people on national television). Also, the smart money has it that NYC Michael Bloomberg will run as an independent if Hillary pulls away from Obama. If so, he splits the Democratic vote and Huckabee or Giuliani wins. Hillary should just drop out for the sake of the party. Any candidate that needs to embark upon a Likeability Tour simply needs to pack the bags and go home.

[jane]

Hillary Clinton thinks that we suffer from amnesia. We must not believe any of her promises. 1) She sold her Health care plan to Pharmaceutical companies, receiving big money for it. The more she talks about "her health plan being better," the more she reminds voters of her selling it out to Big corporations, her dear friends whom she is running for now. The more she talks about “her better plan”, the more voters are turned off because she remind us of what kind of lady she has become. She has created much doubt about her real intentions for all Americans. 2) PACS, lobbyists, and corporations are giving her money with the certainty that she will take care of them. She openly and publicly has declared that they are people like us, thus she will always support them and fight for them. She is in the wrong party. She is dressed like a Democrat, but underneath, she knows that she owes much to her benefactors. Thus, she supports them to get their money as she needs to preach that she favors change within the Establishment so nothing will be touched and things will run just the way they are, only for the benefit of her friends. 3)To answer the question about Mrs. Clinton's Experience, all we need to ask ourselves is: Who has been favored and benefited up til now by the system she is fighting for? Who has made the rules and regulations for so many years?. Who has benefited the most out of the same old ways of doing things? To defend their interests will make her say whatever fits the moment. At heart we all know that she is not the best for this country. It is time for us to wake up.

The Clintons have governed with dishonesty, deceit, and much corruption. At least with Bush, we know where he stands, but with the Clintons, we do not. While he buttered us up, in practice, Bill Clinton paved the path for his successor: Mr. Bush. 4) Not only is Mrs. Clinton being opportunistic by telling people that she has the most "experience", counting as experience her years of a simple wife, but she is deceiving and using women as a tool to get fans and votes. Being in the White House for so long and having her big chance to do something good for this country and its people, she did not. On the contrary, she wants to go back there to ruin this country even more. Her history tells us that she does not understand people, much less our needs. 5) All this time of election that candidates have declared the amount that they have collected, Mrs. Clinton has not been open, honest nor transparent. She has been secretive about giving voters a complete result of each quarter about how she got her money, the number and actual contributors, and more. Everything goes for her to get to the White House, even to invent dirt against her opponents with the sole purpose of getting the nomination. She is an expert at hurting people to get her way as well as flip-flopping. She is not afraid of bullying anyone that crosses "her path". She has no respect for anyone and cannot help being what she actually is, even with botox, big smiles, and cleavage, in addition to being unethical as she wants to deceive and manipulate voters to her favor with empty promises. 6) The Clintons are the last people who should talk about truth and honesty. They will always be the same no matter what. If they were open and transparent, why did they close their library for people to find out about them ? They have much to hide and cover. Expecting change of any sort with the Clintons would be deceiving ourselves very greatly. Hillary Clinton is not the right person for this country if we want to see real change for the benefit of all. Now in desperation, she has been dragging her mother and daughter to reach innocent and uninformed voters so they caucus for her out of pity and ignorance. This tells me that they have lost any sense of reality, respect, and honesty. We need to realize that they are not the best for this country.
She will continue using her husband to campaign for her. 7) It is paradoxical and deceitful that a liberated woman would use her husband to speak for her. 8) What is the most bothersome for other countries is the fact that her husband has supported secret wars in the third world countries with mercenaries who have killed innocent women and children and destroyed entire towns all over the world. Mrs. Clinton will continue supporting the same policies that have hurt those countries. She says she has visited many countries and that she is an expert. I wonder about her ability to unite this country and her truthfulness and understanding of other countries. Her affiliations with corporations and lobbyists contradict any good possibility to bring peace around the world. 9) She has put up with and borne much infidelity with her ambition to inherit the presidency to continue harming this country and the entire world even more. We need to stop the Clintons at any cost. As voters, we need to make sure that their dirty tricks and weapons do not work this time.

[A. Person]

Looks like "the conversation" has ended. Just in time too, beause now shes enequivocally wrong about Iran, Iraq, lebanon, and Pakistan too.

Obama was chided for suggesting that he might actually go after al qeada in pakistan right at about the same time Hillary was war mongering against Iran and calling them the biggest threat to the US and Israel as she spoke to throngs of her hawkish admirers at AIPAC.

Now, with the entire US intelligence community saying that Iran is a non nuclear country that has not attacked anothre country in about 250 years,
Hillary switches her tune to saying that Pakistan is the biggest threat, and now that al qeada has assasinated Bhutto, Obama looks SO much more capable of making good decisions on the fly than her.

If i were here, I wouldnt answer any questions either.

[Joe Ryan]

Despite the Hot stock tip scandal, travelgate and other matters Hillary is still the most likely Democratic Party nominee, and despite being exposed as a complete fraud (I'm a hunter, I marched with MLK, etc, etc) Romney still leads the Republicans (with a 911 profiteer close on his heels). So it looks like a race between two habitual liars. Nice job my fellow citizens. Would all my fellow Americans who plan to vote for any Republican or Democrat do me a favor and just quit voting and get yourself fixed?

[Danny Campbell]

Katherine:

I disagree with you - Hillary CAN win and the Republicans know it. While many voters remain fixated on Bill's adultery, most of us look at the bigger and more important issues that face us. Mainly, health care, the economy, national security, education, etc...

Hillary has shown an amazing ability to tackle these issues with actual PLANS (which matter more to us than your assertions of her character or her marriage stability in the past). She has also shown she has ability to reach across the political aisle and work with GOP leaders. These are the things that matter to 'most' voters. At least those who vote on issues, rather than campaigns designed to attack someone's character. Having said that, many of us view her character as one that women can be proud of. Not only can she be strong and uncompromising on some important issues, she can also be 'forgiving'. The so-called 'scandals' you cite above are baseless. Just because a small handful of GOP operatives classify something as a 'scandal' does not give merit to them. Besides Bill's stupid affair, not one of the issues you state above had any merit to them.

Maybe its ok for you to watch 10 - 20 million of tax payer's money spent on stupid witch hunts - which resulted in nothing more than the Lewinsky affair -- and maybe you allow yourself to buy into the anti-Clinton hype that was intended by the entire fiasco -- but many of us don't. And, I'm one of them.

[Susan Kachmar]

I am not a Hillary supporter, but frankly I see little difference between her and the rest of the pack. They all have flaws, secrets, mix-ups, brain farts, and most likely at this point lack of sleep. The democrats can convince themselves that electing "one of their own" will fix many of our problems, but the last time I looked our many enemies do not care which political party the president belongs to. Massive unemployment in the ME allows young men and women to get quickly sucked up by extremists that give them money, education, jobs - even if only as a suicide bomber, that makes it impossible for any US president to make a dent in all the hate. Presidential candidates always bash the heck out of the current administration and yet oddly do almost the exact same thing when they get elected, which is near to nothing. Every newly elected president realizes quickly how little actual power they have, or I should say how few choices they really have. There are just so many people and positions to satisfy and so it is reasonable to expect that half the population will be disappointed. Barack is just like the rest, it is just that at the moment he has a better delivery.

[larry]

I assume, from the overwrought posts from Katherine Wellington and Jane, that the Republican right is really worried about Hillary. If she was going to be such a marshmallow candidate, I think they would be promoting her, not attacking her.

[East Side Love]

Wow... the grass is always greener... The same old Republican Party poopers - focus on your own party. Whoops? What Party? You gotta a three timing Mayor, a Flip Flopping Gov., and and a Lazy Actor.... and those are the front runners.....
Where's the Republican Leadership? Whoops! They're spending their free time in Airport bathrooms and calling escorts! Awh - whats it like to be the Party of Hypocrites?

[faithful skeptic]

Yes, all well and good that Hilary took three questions.

I assume she gave three answers
(or non-answers, as politicians and pollie-wannabees often do).

What did she say?

[Will]

Why just being around a Neurosurgeon for 5 or 10 minutes makes you suddenly understand the complete workings of the human nervous system so I guess it is just a given that the same holds true for political spouses.

Drat, I wasted all that money on School when I could have simply married UP as Senator Kerry claims to have done. I could have been President twice by now.

When is Laura Bush's turn and we bypassed Mother Bush all together.

[Throckmorton]

Promising something which can't be delivered is a Democratic mantra.

Healthcare to Jobs, whatever they promise you can bet that it won't come out that way and here's why.

It was so cold in Iowa the other day that I say every Democratic candidate with their hands in their OWN pockets!

[Onusomos]

I find it interesting that Hillary Clinton forgot she was a millionnaire talking to the members of the union in California on January 11th! Why do I say she forgot? She began going on about the need for homeowners to weatherize their homes! Her plant asked the question about green jobs but Hillary wanted to share with her hourly wage earning audience that her country home was leaking and in need of repairs. So, she had to have forgotten her audience since most people are struggling paycheck to paycheck with no hope whatsoever of the threat that their country homes will be free of leaks.

She is scripted to the point of making her points while arrogantly thinking her country home issues matter to us. Pitiful. Pitiful, sad, and utterly terrifying. The Stepford Wife and her husband -- pull the plug!