The news this Saturday morning is that, after first denying it to the Grinnell Student Newspaper, Senator Clinton's Campaign admits planting questions in audiences this week and handpicking the questioners.
The Clinton campaign has admitted to planting questions in Iowa. They have confirmed that a campaign staffer approached a student to ask Sen. Clinton a question about global warming during a campaign stop at a biodiesel plant in Newton, Iowa, on Nov. 6.
"In light of a weak debate performance, not to mention a persistent inability to answer the tough questions, it appears the Clinton campaign has adopted a new strategy of planting questions," John Edwards’ Communications Director Chris Kofinis said.
"It’s what the Clinton campaign calls the politics of planting."
You may remember when an an Iowan asked Clinton why she voted for Kyl-Lieberman and she verbally berated him as a "plant" from another campaign.
Friday afternoon brought a report that her campaign is planting some of her questions. Maybe that's why she assumed the Iran question was a plant?
On Tuesday Nov. 6, the Clinton campaign stopped at a biodiesel plant in Newton as part of a weeklong series of events to introduce her new energy plan. The event was clearly intended to be as much about the press as the Iowa voters in attendance, as a large press core helped fill the small venue. Reporters from many major national news outlets came to the small Iowa town, from such media giants as The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, the Associated Press, and CNN.
Senator Clinton must have been afraid of real questions from the audience.
Clinton called on Gallo-Chasanoff after her speech to ask a question: what Clinton would do to stop the effects of global warming. Clinton began her response by noting that young people often pose this question to her before delving into the benefits of her plan.
But the source of the question was no coincidence—at this event "they wanted a question from a college student," Gallo-Chasanoff said. She also noted that staffers prompted Clinton to call on her and another who had been approached before the event.
snip
[A]ccording to Grinnell College student Muriel Gallo-Chasanoff ', some of the questions from the audience were planned in advance. "They were canned," she said. Before the event began, a Clinton staff member approached Gallo-Chasanoff to ask a specific question after Clinton's speech. "One of the senior staffers told me what [to ask]," she said.
At first the Clinton campaign denied it to the Grinnell newspaper:
But the Clinton campaign also denied the practice of planting. "It’s not a practice of our campaign to ask people to ask specific questions," said Mark Daley, Clinton’s Iowa Communications Director. Daley said that when an event is focusing on a specific topic, such as health care or Iraq, "people are encouraged to ask questions in these regards," but denied that they are given specific questions.
But late last night the Clinton Campaign came clean:
The Clinton campaign has admitted to planting questions in Iowa. They have confirmed that a campaign staffer approached a student to ask Sen. Clinton a question about global warming during a campaign stop at a biodiesel plant in Newton, Iowa, on Nov. 6.
snip
Clinton Campaign spokesperson Mo Elleithee tells ABC News that "on this occasion a member of our staff did discuss a possible question about Sen. Clinton's energy plan at a forum. However, Sen. Clinton did not know which questioners she was calling on during the event. This is not standard policy and will not be repeated again."
The staffer still remains with the Clinton campaign and they would not reveal his or her name. The campaign did not comment on whether this is the only time they have planted questions among audience members.
I wonder how long this has been going on? How many questions were planted? Remember Yearly Kos? A few people who attended her session told me that it looked like the questioneers were pre-selected at her break out session. Don't know, I went to John Edwards' session. Those questions definetely came from real kossaks and Edwards took whatever was asked.
Why does this matter? It's a funny story, but by itself does not mean a lot. Campaigns try to manage their message.
But when one steps back and looks at the Politics of Doubletalk, a pattern emerges: time after time, Clinton muddles her message with evasive non-answers. Now we have a FEMA-like controlling of message by planting questions.
If Senator Clinton cannot handle questions in debates and cannot handle questions from real citizens, her prospects in a general election are less than optimal.
Furthermore, her campaign keeps screwing up. The tip kerfluffle never should have happened and then the campaign staff made it worse with conflicting stories: was it on a credit card, was it cash, did it happen at all?
And after the Politics of Parsing (TR not pending)(Part I and Part 2), the Clinton campaign should have known better. These are the best operatives money can buy and their ability to contain these problems is poor. Perhaps it's because they have to do so much damage control and work so hard to obscure the candidate's positions?
Here's what they said about former Senator Edwards:
Edwards gave an excellent answer," said Huppert. "He said we have to stop buying into their frame which equates spending money on the Pentagon with keeping us safe. He also said we can't have a Democratic candidate who cowers and runs away from this issue."
Although Clinton filled out the group's detailed policy questionnaire, she was not among the final two candidates under consideration for the endorsement.
"She didn't answer any questions 'yes' or 'no,'" said Huppert. "She has a refusal to commit to anything."
DES MOINES, Iowa (CNN) — Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign admitted late Friday that a staffer spoke to potential questioners at a recent event, but denied that the New York Democrat had any knowledge about what she would be asked by the audience.
snip
"On this occasion a member of our staff did discuss a possible question about Senator Clinton's energy plan at a forum," campaign spokesman Mo Elleithee said in a statement.
They chose not to include the Kofinis quote on the Politics of Planting, though.
Update III: FoxNews had the story at 1 am last night. Because of a few comments offended by a link to FoxNews, which they did not have to hit on and follow, but merely showed I was not making this up, I have revised and removed all non-necessary FoxNews links. FoxNews is the only ones to have quoted Chris Kofinis, so I have left his statement in there. Live with it.
Update IV: Finally have a replacment for the FoxNews link:
Edwards, in a press conference after his speech to the Farmers' Union, hit Hillary for planting a question at an Iowa event.
"That's what George does: George Bush goes to events that are staged where people are screened," he said. "That's not the way democracy works in Iowa."
"That's what George Bush does," the former senator from North Carolina said. "George Bush goes to events that are staged, where people are screened, where the'yre only allowed to ask questions if the questions are favorable to George Bush and set up in his favor."
snip
"That's not the way democracy works in Iowa," Edwards said in response to questions on the topic, "and it's not the way it works in New Hampshire. I mean if you actually want to be president of the United States, you go out, you face people-which I've done-in every one of the 99 counties in Iowa and answer their questions."
This is looking big now!!! Looks like it was done more than once and maybe routinely.
Sorry about the FoxNews Link, but they have the story and it is their exclusive interview. [Replaced FoxNews Link. Turns out Ben Smith had this story long ago] Where the hell is msnbc and cnn on this story?
After referring to the FoxNews story, Ben notes that he "first reported this same incident in Politico on April 3."
On a two-day swing through eastern Iowa this week [April 3, 2007], Clinton has put the idea of a confrontation with Bush on Iraq – and the implicit distinction between her and Obama – at the heart of her stump speech.
One local Democratic Party official told The Politico that a Clinton aide had also suggested that he and other audience members ask questions about the confrontation.
[Update by Ben today who talked to Mitchell today]
"I thought it was inappropriate," he said. "The tradition of the Iowa caucuses is the ability to ask the questions of the people that are on the ground, that are living in Iowa, as opposed to talking about what they already want to talk about. It just lacks authenticity."
Hat tip by Ben Smith ("Also, a lone DailyKos diarist picked this up, and expressed outrage about it, way back when it happened.") and me to CPDem81, who wrote this diary at the time:
Hillary planting questions at rallies
by CPDem81 [Subscribe]
Tue Apr 03, 2007 at 03:56:35 PM PST
There's long been evidence that Bush has planted questions at campaign rallies and town hall meetings, throughout his presidency.
Now, it appears Hillary is doing the same thing -- to get slams in on Obama.
More from msnbc:
Geoffrey Mitchell told NBC/NJ in a telephone interview that a Clinton campaign staffer approached him at an event in Fort Madison, Iowa, to suggest he ask a question about the senator standing up to President Bush on Iraq war funding at an event.
Mitchell, a 32-year-old minister, said he was not and had never been a Clinton supporter and stressed that he had moved to Illinois since the April 2nd event and, so, could not participate in the caucuses. He said being asked to ask a certain question was not the way things were supposed to go.
And it's getting worse:
Campaign Spokesman v. Minister: Who is telling the truth?
The Clinton campaign's Mo Elleithee said earlier in the day that Mitchell and the staffer, Chris Hayler, were acquaintances.
"They knew each other and bumped into each other at the event," Elleithee had said. "During the course of their conversation, the topic of Iraq came up. Our staffer suggested he ask a question. That's all."
Mitchell disputes Elleithee’s account. "That is incorrect," Mitchell said. "I did not know him. I met him that day."
