The town hall tradition in American politics is a revered one, where the people can come together with elected officials or with candidates for those offices and interact, asking the important questions and evaluating the answers for themselves. Or in Marco Rubio's case, just listening.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, the Florida senator's campaign held four events — all dubbed ahead of time as "town halls" — but the candidate didn't take questions from voters at any of them. He did stick around each time to mingle and take selfies with audience members after delivering his roughly 40-minute stump speech. He also took questions from reporters after an event Wednesday.
A campaign spokesman said the events were changed from town halls to rallies. That more controlled setting allows Rubio to limit the possibility of a bad moment in the home stretch to Saturday's primary.
Rubio has had a few of those "bad moments," so the caution is certainly understandable. Cowardly bullshit, but understandable. Not very presidential, however.