Webloggin » Talking to Hillary

Hillary opened her campaign by proposing a “conversation.” Ed Morrow explains what this “conversation” is all about:

The “listening tour” device worked well for Clinton when she first ran for the Senate. She traversed New York State, asking questions and nodding much like the queen of England does when she tours a new widget factory or a modernized chicken hatchery in Britain. The locals are delighted to be noticed by a celebrity and they never ask her any questions about how to devise a better widget or how to encourage more eggs out of the average hen. With the queen, this is a consequence of polite patriotism. The queen isn’t expected to know those things and it would be rude to ask and expose her ignorance. With Hillary, it’s because she just doesn’t answer questions. One of the most remarkable things about her political career is the way she rarely takes anything but puff questions. Those chat sessions her staff stages seem spontaneous, but the fact is that ordinary audiences, especially when they’re composed of supporters, ask ordinary, easily expected questions that rarely strain the abilities of the ordinary politician. The mainstream media, who are supposed to ask her tougher questions and to challenge her answers, don’t do so for reasons similar to those motivating those patriotic Brits. The media, which favors her politics, don’t want to rudely reveal her inadequacies. With this in mind, it’s easy to see how Hillary’s invitation to “Let the conversation begin!” was supposed to be the first step in her march to the presidency. If anyone ever asked a hard question, she could deftly counter with “I’m here to listen, today.” She’d omit the rest of her thought: “I’ll get back to you later after a round of focus groups and polling tells me what America wants to hear.” Unfortunately for her, this evasive strategy has come up against something that can’t be easily evaded, Barack Obama.

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