# Hilary Clinton And The Planted Question **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 15, 2007, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hilary-clinton-and-the-planted-question/426472 "2007-11-15T02:19:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hilary-clinton-and-the-planted-question/426472/21 "2007-11-15T06:12:00Z")
[QUOTE=blondebear] All of this just confirms what I already knew: the whole thing is a a puppet show put on by the proverbial powers-that-be. \* Please\*, somebody, show me it isn’t true. [/QUOTE] It isn’t true. The powers-that-be are quite a bit more than proverbial. ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hilary-clinton-and-the-planted-question/426472/22 "2007-11-15T06:21:22Z")
Another liberal, chiming in to say I deplore this practice and think Hillary deserves any bashing she gets over the pathetic incident. Jesus, you think you’re going to win points by _emulating_ Bush? Still, this seems more like a Pit or IMHO thread than a debate. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hilary-clinton-and-the-planted-question/426472/23 "2007-11-15T06:50:17Z")
[QUOTE=elucidator] We live in interesting times, and can ill afford the politics of piety. My sympathies and convictions are much in tune with Green, but this is no time to be a Nadering nabob. The stakes are just too damned high. [/QUOTE] Uh…that would be “Nattering” nabob. If you really want people to belive that you’re [smarter than **Lib**](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=9172669&postcount=363) you’re going to have to watch this sort of thing. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hilary-clinton-and-the-planted-question/426472/24 "2007-11-15T07:28:40Z")
[QUOTE=Starving Artist] Uh…that would be “Nattering” nabob. If you really want people to belive that you’re [smarter than **Lib**](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=9172669&postcount=363) you’re going to have to watch this sort of thing. 😉 [/QUOTE] Check your hairdo **SA** , you´ve been wooshed something fierce. Hint: Nadering ---
**Author:** ![Polerius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d78d45/32.png) [@Polerius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polerius)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hilary-clinton-and-the-planted-question/426472/25 "2007-11-15T07:33:50Z")
[QUOTE=Bricker] Did I miss the similar condemnations of Senator Clinton’s campaign? I may have, I admit. [/QUOTE] Did I miss the similar condemnation by you of George Bush, when he had a fake journalist ask softball questions? I may have, I admit. In any case, this practice is just stupid, and no public official should do it. The recent fake news conference by FEMA was just unbelievable. Regarding the dumb bitch who asked the planted question for Hilary, from the CNN article [QUOTE=Dumb Bitch] And while she said she would have rather used her own question, Gallo-Chasanoff said she didn’t have a problem asking the campaign’s because **she “likes to be agreeable,”** adding that since she told the staffer she’d ask their pre-typed question **she “didn’t want to go back on my word.”** [/QUOTE] WTF? You want to be “nice”, so you ask a question you don’t want to ask, and then you tell everyone about it? How about saying ‘no’ in the first place? (like that other dude who was approached by Hilary’s staff did) ---
**Author:** ![Charger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df788c/32.png) [@Charger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charger)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hilary-clinton-and-the-planted-question/426472/26 "2007-11-15T07:37:32Z")
Making this standard practice out to be a horrible evil comes across as desperate. If this is the trendiest new dirt on Hillary, good for her. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hilary-clinton-and-the-planted-question/426472/27 "2007-11-15T07:37:37Z")
[QUOTE=Ale] Check your hairdo **SA** , you´ve been wooshed something fierce. Hint: Nadering [/QUOTE] Drat! I knew I’d have to eat it somehow (you know, Gaudere and all), but I checked my spelling over and over and thought I was in the clear. Guess I’ll just slink off to bed now. Thanks for setting me straight. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hilary-clinton-and-the-planted-question/426472/28 "2007-11-15T12:29:59Z")
I rather doubt Hillary herself is enough of a micromanager to have been part of the charade. But she’s still responsible for the bonehead moves of her staff and it still reflects very poorly on her. So yes, she deserves to have the heat turned up on her over this. I hope it causes her enough grief that a real Democrat wins the nomination, not this Bush in a donkey pantsuit. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hilary-clinton-and-the-planted-question/426472/29 "2007-11-15T12:52:39Z")
[QUOTE=Polerius] WTF? You want to be “nice”, so you ask a question you don’t want to ask, and then you tell everyone about it? How about saying ‘no’ in the first place? (like that other dude who was approached by Hilary’s staff did) [/QUOTE] So you are condemning her for blowing the whistle? To hell with that. Yeah, she shouldn’t have gone along with the planted question, but good on her for having a bout with her conscience afterward and spilling the beans. > [@Charger](#): > > Making this standard practice out to be a horrible evil comes across as desperate. If this is the trendiest new dirt on Hillary, good for her. If it’s “standard practice,” why aren’t people coming forward to rat on the other candidates? ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hilary-clinton-and-the-planted-question/426472/30 "2007-11-15T12:55:11Z")
[QUOTE=elucidator] Hillary ain’t doing it on our dime. [/QUOTE] In all the similar criticisms I have read about the Bush admin’s tactics, I really don’t remember reading condemnations based on the fact that they were doing it “on our dime”. I seem to remember objections based on the dishonesty. Again, perhaps I am mistaken, and if so I welcome correction. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hilary-clinton-and-the-planted-question/426472/31 "2007-11-15T13:02:05Z")
[QUOTE=Polerius] Did I miss the similar condemnation by you of George Bush, when he had a fake journalist ask softball questions? I may have, I admit. [/quote] No, you didn’t miss it – it didn’t happen. _BUT_ – as I said about Senator Clinton in the OP: > [@](#): > > Now, I have no heartburn with this practice. It happens. So I don’t condemn Clinton for it, either. My approach is consistent, judging the behavior similarly, regardless of who does it. One point of this thread is to suggest that others here are not acting consistently; they are judging Bush with harsher standards than they judge Clinton. > [@](#): > > In any case, this practice is just stupid, and no public official should do it. The recent fake news conference by FEMA was just unbelievable. > Regarding the dumb bitch who asked the planted question for Hilary, from the CNN article > > WTF? You want to be “nice”, so you ask a question you don’t want to ask, and then you tell everyone about it? How about saying ‘no’ in the first place? (like that other dude who was approached by Hilary’s staff did) So it’s abysmal when done by a public official - like a Senator? Oh, no. I’m sure you meant that if done in their public capacity, it’s stupid. But since Mrs. Clinton was acting as a candidate, she’s OK. Or something. But yeah. The dumb bitch who asked the planted question… she’s something, eh? What an idiot! ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hilary-clinton-and-the-planted-question/426472/32 "2007-11-15T13:28:03Z")
[QUOTE=spoke-] If it’s “standard practice,” why aren’t people coming forward to rat on the other candidates? [/QUOTE] I personally saw it happen (planted question) at a presidential candidate’s news conference I was covering years ago. I’d bet this is fairly common practice and that most of the questioners keep their mouths shut, unlike foolish college students with delayed-action consciences. What makes this sleazier for the Clintonites is the clumsy attempt to shut up the student after the beans were already spilled. The campaign spokesman who tried to portray the incident as an anomaly is lying. What else is new? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hilary-clinton-and-the-planted-question/426472/33 "2007-11-15T13:42:23Z")
[QUOTE=Bricker] if this had been a Bush event, or even a GOP event in general, there would have been threads of condemnation here, frothing indignation over the duplicitious practices of the Evil Republicans. [/QUOTE] I don’t know. It doesn’t seem like it would be noteworthy alongside the other Bush-related causes for pointing and jeering. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hilary-clinton-and-the-planted-question/426472/34 "2007-11-15T13:44:48Z")
[QUOTE=Bricker] In all the similar criticisms I have read about the Bush admin’s tactics, I really don’t remember reading condemnations based on the fact that they were doing it “on our dime”. [/QUOTE] HRC’s not collecting her Senate salary while she campaigns? > [@](#): > > But any honest observer of this message board should be willing to admit the following: if this had been a Bush event, or even a GOP event in general, there would have been threads of condemnation here, frothing indignation over the duplicitious practices of the Evil Republicans. Of course, but IOKIADDI. It would have gone into the memory hole. Just like this will in a day or so, unless the Usual Suspects find a way to turn it into attacks on Republicans, or on you. > [@Plan B](#): > > To me this is one of the more damaging facts: > > “a Clinton intern spoke to her to say the campaign requested she not talk about the story to any more media outlets and that if she did she should inform a staffer.” As is often the case with a Clinton, it isn’t so much the scandals as the cover up. Business as usual. I guess Hilary is letting Slick Willie manage her campaign too closely. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hilary-clinton-and-the-planted-question/426472/35 "2007-11-15T13:47:37Z")
[QUOTE=Bricker] But since Mrs. Clinton was acting as a candidate, she’s OK. Or something. [/QUOTE] Very few people, even in here, this veritable bastion of communism, have said it’s OK. ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hilary-clinton-and-the-planted-question/426472/36 "2007-11-15T14:26:20Z")
She has undoubetedly answered many many unscripted questions in her career- has Bush ever done it just once in eight years, outside of a debate? Seriously. ---
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hilary-clinton-and-the-planted-question/426472/37 "2007-11-15T14:46:43Z")
[QUOTE=Blalron] Maybe things will have to get even worse before they get better and people will be fed up with it. [/QUOTE] Pray tell, what would cause the average man on the street to be “fed up”? And what would they do if they reached such a state? Vote for another D or R promising them a chicken in every pot? [QUOTE=woodstockbirdybird] Jesus, you think you’re going to win points by _emulating_ Bush? [/quote] I realize this was most likely rhetorical in nature but the answer is yes, she will win points. Points of an electoral nature. [QUOTE=Charger] Making this standard practice out to be a horrible evil comes across as desperate. If this is the trendiest new dirt on Hillary, good for her. [/QUOTE] The logic behind this is murky, being as it is buried under five feet of silt in the Tigris. Indeed, why criticize the state and the establishment parties for anything? They’ve been up to their old hijinx for a little over a hundred years now. It’s all written up in laminated brochures. It’s old news. [QUOTE=BobLibDem] So yes, she deserves to have the heat turned up on her over this. I hope it causes her enough grief that a real Democrat wins the nomination, not this Bush in a donkey pantsuit. [/QUOTE] Yes, a Real Democrat™ could come and save us! Wait, what the hell is a real Democrat? Are we talking about actual Democrats and their stated positions like Obama or Edwards or fantasy Democrats as imagined by the Little Orange Footballs? You do realize Mrs. Clinton is and has been ahead of all other candidates by a considerable margin for quite some time now, yes? I may get ahead of myself by declaring her reign inevitable but if she manages to lose the nomination it will be less due to her popularity nationwide among the rank and file Democrats and more to do with our bizarre primary system. To quote IOZ for the umpteenth time: > [@](#): > > Clinton. Kennedy. Truman. Roosevelt. These were mean motherfuckers. Clinton would’ve eaten an infant alive for a vote, and Kennedy would’ve sold Jackie O. as a cocaine sex slave to Kruschev to win the big one. America is an empire, boys. Grow up and get used to it. Not even Jiminy Carter was a nice guy, although he played one well on TV, and in the end he lost for it. > > David Geffen, the über-Donkle, once-Clinton, now-Obama partisan said “I think that America was better served when the candidates were chosen in smoke-filled rooms.” Digby and the Donkle phalanx finds this unconscionably crude coming from some billionaire. Wake up; smell the cigars, bubba. The smoke is just a metaphor. It’s the room that counts, in this case the boardrooms of government-subsidized corporate America, the anti-free-market free-market economy at work. This “process,” another word much in favor, is designed to preserve a patina of choice while finding a candidate most palatable to a very particular group of people. This is a profitable fucking gig for the dude or dudette who wins it, and they will say or do anything to get it. If you must be Democrats, at least grow up. They would kill each other in an arena if that’s what it took. They are crazy. That’s what it takes. As for the OP: Hey **Bricker** , you should want Hillary Clinton to win in 2008. Think of the entertainment you’ll get from online Democratic partisans. The cognitive dissonance will be palpable as they rush to defend practices which they’ve been railing against for eight straight years. It will be similar to the 110th Congress, only moreso. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hilary-clinton-and-the-planted-question/426472/38 "2007-11-15T14:51:08Z")
It is stupid, and I agree. I wonder if a lot of us are just burned out of the whole political machine. I for one will not be voting Dem or Repub this time. I am sick unto death of both parties and their bullshit and I think it’s bullshit that we only _get_ two real choices. WTH is that all about? More people should vote for other parties IMO. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hilary-clinton-and-the-planted-question/426472/39 "2007-11-15T15:06:23Z")
[QUOTE=marshmallow] Yes, a Real Democrat™ could come and save us! Wait, what the hell is a real Democrat? Are we talking about actual Democrats and their stated positions like Obama or Edwards or fantasy Democrats as imagined by the Little Orange Footballs? You do realize Mrs. Clinton is and has been ahead of all other candidates by a considerable margin for quite some time now, yes? I may get ahead of myself by declaring her reign inevitable but if she manages to lose the nomination it will be less due to her popularity nationwide among the rank and file Democrats and more to do with our bizarre primary system. [/QUOTE] A real Democrat would have voted no for the war in Iraq, or at the very least have the integrity to admit that voting for the war was a colossal mistake. A real Democrat wouldn’t have signed on to the flag burning ban. A real Democrat woulnd’t have bought into Bush’s saber-rattling over Iran. She isn’t a real anything, her one and only conviction is that she should be president and will take any position on any issue that will maximize her chances to win. ---
**Author:** ![Sophistry\_and\_Illusion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Sophistry\_and\_Illusion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sophistry_and_Illusion)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2007, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hilary-clinton-and-the-planted-question/426472/40 "2007-11-15T15:13:33Z")
I’m too weary to pit shit like this. I think Hilary is a political whore who will do what it takes to get elected. And, unfortunately, she seems to have the nomination sewn up. So next November, we will be choosing between a democratic whore and whichever pubbie manages not to gag while deep throating the religious right. :sigh: : starts looking for jobs abroad again : [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hilary-clinton-and-the-planted-question/426472.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hilary-clinton-and-the-planted-question/426472.md?page=3)