Hillary's Plants

I love this non-denial denial from Hillary Clinton's campaign over the planted-question brouhaha:

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.

“It’s not something we do; it’s not an official campaign policy,” Mr. Elleithee said yesterday. “But it is now an official campaign policy that we will not do this moving forward.”

So the flak says 1) Yes, we planted the question, but 2) No, we don't plant questions. Positively Clintonian.

Then there's Clinton's own comments:

“It was news to me, and neither I nor my campaign approve of that, and it will certainly not be tolerated.”

Well, OK, maybe it really was news to you. But according to the college student/plant, she was one of about 200 people raising her hand, and only one of four to be called upon -- seems like quite a coincidence, at best, that Clinton would have chosen her. And if it's not a coincidence, then Clinton was in on the racket.

My favorite part of this amusing sideshow, though, is Hillary's response to the question itself:

"Well, I find as I travel around Iowa, it's usually young people who ask me about global warming."

Gee, maybe that's because your campaign keeps choosing young people to pose the question!

Still, almost as funny as the episode itself is other candidates' and some journalists' shocked response, as though staged campaign events and plants are something new. Please. The whole campaign charade is choreographed -- down to the chants that crowds "spontaneously" break into when the candidate arrives. Equally amusing was all the hand-wringing over FEMA's recent faux press conference.

Not that I approve of this dishonesty, but it is a fact of life in politics. And if you think only the "other side" does it, you're living in an ideological bubble.