BASH: And what she has to say is still carefully scripted and her events tightly controlled. Even these home made looking yellow signs were distributed by the campaign.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BASH (on-camera): Now Palin at her two rallies spent as much if not more time signing autographs furiously for voters as she did speaking to them and she stayed far away from those us in the press corps traveling with her and she also hasn't taken questions from voters yet as she's been campaigning but that is going to change this week. In fact, on Wednesday she's going to have a joint town hall meeting with her running mate John McCain in the state of Michigan. Lou.
DOBBS: I have to ask you, that's a terrific report. But you said she was tightly scripted and the event controlled. In what ways does that, for example, depart from the scripting and the control of say Senator McCain or Senator Obama?
BASH: Well, Senator Obama, that's an excellent point. In fact, we looked into this. Senator Obama used a teleprompter today as well as he has in the past. So in that sense it is not that different from candidates in general. But in terms of the difference from Senator McCain, it's probably best to look at how that difference is from Senator McCain say a month ago. Because basically about a month ago, he stopped doing press conferences.
In fact, he hasn't done one for those of us in the press corps for about a month. And he didn't do a town hall meeting until today. Again, in about a month. So his events have changed dramatically and Sarah Palin's events are basically mirroring the change in Senator McCain's events. Lou.
Note how Bash tries to switch the subject to holding press conferences. However, Dobbs does not let go as he brings it back to the topic of reading from a script:
DOBBS: So just to be clear so that I understand you, Senator Obama is on teleprompter. His events are also tightly controlled, is that correct?
The obviously uncomfortable Bash reluctantly confirms that Obama does indeed use a teleprompter but desperately tries to switch subjects again:
BASH: That's right. He has teleprompters at some of his events. I can tell you by way of comparison, though, and this is probably an important point as well. I looked into this as well, Joe Biden, Barack Obama's running mate, the very first day he was out campaigning alone, he had two press conferences with reporters and he does that quite often -
DOBBS: -- you brought up press conferences, when is the last time both of these candidates, McCain and I'm really getting to a point here, both Obama and McCain, when is the last time they each had a press conference and were accessible to the press?
BASH: I don't know the answer to that with regard to Obama, because I don't cover him on a day to day basis. But with regard to Senator McCain, August 13th in the state of Ohio. So, it was a month and a day now.
DOBBS: I think you'll find just about the same on both of these candidates and I think you'll find that we're watching the same amount of control and scripting on the part of both of these campaigns. Thank you very much. Dana Bash, appreciate it.
Thank you very much, Dana Bash, for entertaining us with your laughably uncomfortable attempts to change the discussion from candidates who use scripts.
