Town hall or pep rally? Hard to tell, judging from the first half-hour of Hillary's appearance on Good Morning America today. Host Robin Roberts lavished praise on Hillary, suggested there's unanimous support for the Dem Iraq policy, and fielded only one audience question -- which came from someone who worked on Hillarycare in 1993 and beseeched Clinton to try it again as president.
GMA today kicked off its series of Town Hall meetings with the presidential candidates. This one, featuring Hillary, was located in Des Moines, Iowa. During the opening schmooze, Hillary, speaking of Iraq, stated: "I'm very proud that all the Democrats are saying the same thing and that's what we should all be working toward, and that's to begin to change this policy and get us on the right track."
ROBERTS: That is something that I think the country completely agrees on, on both sides about that.
Sorry, Robin, but not everyone "completely agrees" with the Democrats on withdrawal and surrender. Many people want to give the new policy for victory in Iraq, which is showing some hopeful-if-early signs of success, a chance to work.
Later, discussing health care, Roberts enthused: "what you said then, in '93, many people felt it was just in some way ahead of its time." Yes, tragically, too many Americans back then were insufficiently enlightened to embrace socialist utopia. But let's keep hope alive. The one audience question in that first half-hour came from a doctor who in 1993 worked on the Clinton Health Care Task Force. His heartfelt plea: "if elected president, Senator Clinton, would you be willing to try again?"
Talk about your hard-hitting question!
And yes, Hillary allowed that indeed, "I certainly would."
Can we expect to see similarly sypmathetic treatment when Republicans eventually get their Town Hall turn?
UPDATE: It wasn't until the second half-hour that ABC disclosed that 45 members of the audience had been hand-picked by Hillary's campaign. I'm going out on a limb and guessing that among them was that first questioner, the former member of Hillary's health care task force.
Every question was of the "how can government grow and give us more?' variety. Again, that first doctor wanted to know if Hillary would "provide" health care to all Americans. The second questioner, in the 7:30 AM ET half-hour, asked what Hillary would do "to make sure that no American has to choose between bankruptcy and basic health care?"
The next question was from a teacher who described herself as "a working-class woman, a typical underpaid teacher." She wanted to know "why do the people of Congress get the Cadillace of medical policies and pension plans whereas there's a lot of us struggling to get by?" Hillary answered that she wants to open the congressional plan to everyone.
Later, a college student, in a video clip, asked Hillary what she would do to provide health care coverage to students. Among other things, Hillary suggested forcing insurers to extend the period during which they cover children.
Turning to veteran's health care, a veteran asked "What type of a plan do you have in place to ensure that the overwhelming number of injured service members that they're going to remain a top priority in 10, 15 years?" Hillary proposed "guaranteed, mandatory funding for the V.A."
Every audience question was right in Hillary's wheel house. If this was as tough as it was going to get, Hillary could have stayed home on her Georgetown couch and taped another one of her chatty spots. Again, we'll see if things stay as copacetic when Republican candidates have their GMA Town Hall moments.
Note: the closest ABC came to tough treatment was running the clip of Hillary in 1993, from which the second screencap here is taken.
Contact Mark at mark@gunhill.net
