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Sunday, November 11, 2007

Staged Questionnaires?...Big Deal

Hillary Clinton's campaign has been accused of planting people in crowds during her campaign stops. Presumably, they were meant to allow her to avoid the tough questions. Fox and CNN have posted articles as well as made the story a part of their broadcast. Anchors and reporters are making a big deal out of what should come to no surprise.

Mrs. Clinton is a politician, and no politician wants an embarrassing scene while on the campaign. I would be surprised if a presidential candidate did not have plants in the crowds. If they control the questions that are asked, then the candidate can guide the event to focus on their key issues. This strategy should be expected from both democrats and republicans, and it makes sense as bad publicity leads to bad pull numbers.

The news is reporting on the fact that Clinton's campaign has apparently been caught in the act. Much like Clinton wants to avoid tough questions, the news appears to be avoid tough reporting. Instead of finding real issues to talk about, they create issues out of what is probably common political ploy. The news will go on about the incident as if it is a shocking revelation that a politician would stage a public appearance, whereas I say, big deal.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Political candidates planting questions is no different than me choosing which questions I can have on the exam, and answering only those. Even though it may be common throughout politics, reporting on such matters and making it a big deal brings it into the limelight, forcing politicians to reconsider incorporating pre-selected questions into a public event.

I read the article that you were referring to, where the student was screened and told not to ask her original question, but was given a list of questions to choose from. My question is, how can the true voice of the American people be heard if we are being told what to say?

Anonymous said...

I agree that this happens all the time and it is not a big deal as far as the current standards held by u.s. politicians go. I do see this as a major flaw in the american political system though. Politicians should not be allowed to do crap like this because in the real world, they cannot plant the real tests and trials that they will face as leader of the country. If our president cant handle a few questions from 19 yr old college students, how can they be expected to make crucial decisions for our country and interact in the real world with reeeaaaallllll questions, if they always put themselves in a padded bubble?