Hillary Clinton Not Taking Questions From Audience Anymore

As the Iowa Caucus and New Hampshire primary draws near, the Clinton campaign has tightened up its operation by ceasing Hillary Clinton’s practice of taking questions from the audience after she delivers a speech. After being asked about the new practice, the campaign cited the Senator’s desire to meet as many people as possible and hinted at the intention to control the message:

Clinton campaign officials said that she may take questions in the coming days. But her focus is on seeing as many voters as possible before the caucuses next Thursday — and spotlighting the messages she wants to deliver.

This new practice, which I strongly disagree with even though I understand it’s political utility does seem to support a recent criticism that Barack Obama levied against the Clintons:

“If they’ve been secretive in the past, they’ll be secretive as president. If they haven’t been all that strong on lobbyists in the past, [it] doesn’t matter what they say in the campaign, they won’t be that strong about it when they are president.”

At the very least, this new practice will not make Iowa voters happy. One Iowa voter after an event said:

“I was a little bit underwhelmed. The message was very generic — and no questions.”

I’m sure others are picking up on the new practice as well.