Hillary Clinton Plants Audience Questions

Hillary Clinton speaks at a campaign stop in Iowa. (Photo by REUTERS).

Planted questions written by a presidential campaign lobbed softly to the candidate with a prepared answer. Sounds like George W. Bush right?

Yes it does, but this time it was Hillary Clinton who was found to have planted questions in her audience.

Last week Clinton campaign aides urged a student from Grinnell College to ask a question about global warming. The student reportedly told her college newspaper that Senator Clinton was also instructed by her staff to call on her during the question and answer session.

Senator Clinton has also been campaigning on the promise to be different from the current administration and this move can only be seen as the smitten image of George W. Bush.

The Clinton campaign admitted to planting the question on Friday but denied that Clinton was aware of the situation. This is not the first time that the Clinton campaign has been accused of planting softball style questions in her audience.

In April, another audience member claimed that they were approached by Clinton aides and asked to propose a question about Iraq that would give a favorable comparison for Clinton to Barack Obama.

John Edwards went after Clinton on this issue while campaigning in Iowa. Edwards told reporters, “People expect you to stand in front of them and answer their hard questions – and they expect it to be an honest process. What George Bush does is plant questions and exclude people from events, and I don’t think that’s what Democrats want to see in Iowa.”

"George Bush goes to events that are staged, where people are screened, where they're only allowed to ask questions if the questions are favorable to George Bush." Edwards also went on to say, “I stand and answer questions, and I think that’s what presidential candidates are responsible for doing.”

Iowa is a state that loves living-room chats, meeting candidates face to face, and asking questions to candidates. In a place where John Edwards, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton are in a virtual three way tie, this could hurt Hillary Clinton in Iowa.

This series of incidences by the Clinton campaign just shows that she is more of the same and does not represent real change for Democrats over the current administration. While dodging positions for political gain throughout the campaign, she is now practicing the same tactics of President Bush.

Sources: DesMoinesRegister.com, “Edwards criticizes Clinton for planted question” by Tony Leys.
NewYorkDailyNews.com, “John Edwards blasts Hillary Clinton over planted questions” by Michael McAuliff and Celeste Katz.