Clinton Campaign Mistakes Grinnell College Students For Hicks

epistrophy · November 12, 2007, 2:58pm

At two campaign events in Iowa this year, aides to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton encouraged audience members to ask her specific questions, a tactic that drew criticism from an opponent for the Democratic presidential nomination and led her yesterday to promise that it would not happen again.

Mrs. Clinton, speaking to reporters in Iowa, said she was unaware that her aides had ever planted questions.

It was news to me, said Mrs. Clinton, of New York, and neither I nor my campaign approve of that, and it will certainly not be tolerated.

Staff members have been told to avoid doing so in the future, advisers said.

Planting questions with audience members, while not unheard of in political campaigns, is generally avoided because of the embarrassing image it suggests when the tactic becomes public: that a candidate is uncomfortable facing tough questions or campaigning in unpredictable settings.

Iowas presidential caucuses are less than two months away, and Mrs. Clinton is in a tight race there with Senator Barack Obama of Illinois and John Edwards, a former senator from North Carolina.

Political analysts said that while planting questions is not the worst sin of a campaign operation, the practice could reinforce negative opinions about Mrs. Clinton.

The problem for Hillary Clinton is the whole spin thats going to happen that she and her campaign are manipulative and scheming and that she is essentially trying to bend the rules to maintain her lead in the polls, said Steffen W. Schmidt, a political science professor at Iowa State University.

The practice came to light late last week when a student at Grinnell College in Iowa, Muriel Gallo-Chasanoff, told her campus newspaper that a Clinton aide had asked her to pose a question to Mrs. Clinton about global warming.

The request came during an event Tuesday in Newton, Iowa, where Mrs. Clinton outlined her plan to create five million jobs in renewable energy sectors.

In a question-and-answer session with the audience, Mrs. Clinton called on several people with raised hands; some of them asked friendly questions about policy, and one man pressed her on trade issues.

At one point Mrs. Clinton called on Ms. Gallo-Chasanoff, who asked for the senators ideas for combating global warming.

Ms. Gallo-Chasanoff did not return phone messages over the weekend seeking comment. But the Grinnell College newspaper reported her as saying that the Clinton aide told her the campaign wanted a question from a college student, and that campaign staff members had prompted Mrs. Clinton to call on her.

A Clinton spokesman, Mo Elleithee, denied that Mrs. Clinton was aware of the planted question or that she was directed to call on Ms. Gallo-Chasanoff. But he confirmed that the campaign aide planted the question.

<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/12/us/politics/12clinton.html?_r=1&oref=slogin[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/12/us/politics/12clinton.html?_r=1&oref=slogin</a>

curmudgeon · November 12, 2007, 3:24pm

Where was the part of the article that matches the title of this thread? Or that matched it even a little bit? May I take it from this disingenous post that you are not a big contributor to Ms. Clinton’s campaign effort? LOL.

You can bet that the Clinton Iowa campaign knows a great deal about Grinnell and the students who attend Grinnell.

1of42 · November 12, 2007, 3:35pm

curm: My thoughts exactly.

epistrophy · November 12, 2007, 3:40pm

Hey, I would have found this of interest no matter who the candidate was. It just happens to be Clinton.

Any presidential campaign that goes to a college campus thinking that they can use the students as mouthpieces for planted questions, thereby manipulating the content and tone of the supposedly spontaneous q-and-a session, is, I think, yes, mistaking the students for patsies, chumps, stooges, suckers, dupes, easy marks - or, to use a word that has particular resonance for Iowans, hicks.

curmudgeon · November 12, 2007, 3:42pm

<pssst. epistrophy.=“” grinnell=“” is=“” not=“” in=“” newton.=“”></pssst.>

curmudgeon · November 12, 2007, 3:50pm

Any political poster that goes to college confidential thinking that they can use an article about politics, by manipulating the content and tone of the supposedly fair news report, is, I think, yes, mistaking their other posters for patsies, chumps, stooges, suckers, dupes, easy marks - or, to use a word that has particular resonance for the cc community, hicks.

And BTW, my boy Arnold and me prefer “corn-monger”. Mr. Ziffle.
;)

epistrophy · November 12, 2007, 3:53pm

I’m afraid you’ve got the wrong guy. I have almost never posted on any of the “political” threads - and am more agnostic-anarchist-libertarian-socialist-Rastafarian than anything else.

curmudgeon · November 12, 2007, 3:55pm

But not a fan of Ms. Clinton? Some on our board would think a couple of those were great , almost required, credentials. LOL.

sunnyflorida · November 12, 2007, 3:57pm

Arnold and Mr Ziffle…ROFL…I guess it shows my age.

curmudgeon · November 12, 2007, 4:00pm

For me , unfortunately, it speaks more to my intelligence and taste in art. ;)

bethievt · November 12, 2007, 4:07pm

Green Acres was one of my favorites. My uncle loved it too and he was a farmer–he said the county agent character was drawn perfectly.

I certainly heard about this story from my young Grinnellian.

curmudgeon · November 12, 2007, 4:09pm

The county agent, the peddlerman, the female handyman, the farmhand, the phone on the pole. Lots of greatness there .

epistrophy · November 12, 2007, 4:23pm

As for Ms. Clinton in particular and politicians in general, I defer - for the moment, anyway - to our nation’s new Poet Laureate, Charles Simic (and, yes, while I deny having posted with any frequency on any of the many “political” threads, I plead guilty to having posted, often, on the “poetry” thread), who once observed:

curmudgeon · November 12, 2007, 4:33pm

epistrophy, we may then be “soulmates” of a kind.

It could be my position that we have reached a point where we are ungovernable in any meaningful sense, with meaningful being defined in this instance as " a goverment’s ability to make life better for it’s citizens and the children of it’s citizens". It could be the process is just a part of a bi-annual national farce.

But of course, I’m just joshing with you.;)

epistrophy · November 12, 2007, 4:44pm

Yes, it would all be just absurdly hilarious, an absolute scream - and, indeed, it often is - if it weren’t also so terribly tragic, at least for those who can’t get a decent education at one of our desperately underfunded “public” schools, can’t get decent health care (especially if, God forbid, they should have a chronic mental illness, for which even the best insurance policies tend to have more limitations and exemptions and caps than there are cornstalks in all of Iowa), can’t dodge our military’s bullets and bombs, etc., etc. etc.

But, hey, in any event, a potential “soulmate” (“of a kind,” anyway) is certainly one of the nicer things I’ve been called on CC.

curmudgeon · November 12, 2007, 5:00pm

You’re welcome. And I didn’t mean to intimate that I always found the farce humorous.

epistrophy · November 12, 2007, 5:13pm

No, I didn’t think that you were . . . .

barrons · November 12, 2007, 5:28pm

Others find Clinton’s media management challenging

[Bunker</a> Hillary](<a href=“http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=6e01fdce-ad97-4dab-a07d-bf98dc52f681]Bunker”>http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=6e01fdce-ad97-4dab-a07d-bf98dc52f681)

mythmom · November 12, 2007, 6:07pm

LOL Curm. I thought Arnold was Schwartznegger. Haha.

citygirlsmom · November 12, 2007, 6:10pm

well, at least she has people within 100 yards of her who disagree, unlike BUsh who has WHOLE audiences of his people…and baracades those that don’t miles away

Clinton Campaign Mistakes Grinnell College Students For Hicks

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