Jason Horowitz at the New York Times thinks that Hillary Clinton shouldn't bother dealing with the press.
In describing Hillary Clinton's campaign effort in Iowa, Horowitz wondered how, in "a carnival atmosphere," Hillary Clinton "gains politically from playing the freak" by deigning to take questions from the press, thus clearly suggesting that she would be better off if she didn't bother, and that he has her back if she continues on that route. But at the end of his report, Horowitz allowed Fox News's senior correspondent Ed Henry to essentially confirm something I suspected when it occurred, namely that Mrs. Clinton's condescending remarks to Henry about taking questions from the press caused her campaign to decide, likely contrary to her plans, to take some questions.
Horowitz, working for a publication which desperately wants Democrats to hold the White House in the next election, went out of his way to compliment Mrs. Clinton for moves which would clearly be seen negatively if a Republican made them (bolds are mine):
Hillary Clinton, Acutely Aware of Pitfalls, Avoids Press on Campaign Trail
... Unlike in 2008, when Mrs. Clinton’s regal bearing was brought low by Barack Obama’s insurgent campaign, there is no one to force her out of her Rose Garden. Neither Bernie Sanders, the socialist senator from Vermont, nor Martin O’Malley, the former governor of Maryland, has applied significant pressure on her. That leaves the news media as her only real opponent so far on the way to the Democratic presidential nomination, and while it may not be great for an educated populace or the furtherance of American democracy, it makes all the political sense in the world for Mrs. Clinton to ignore them, too.
... Mrs. Clinton had her own rocky introduction to the 2016 press corps when she gave defensive and not entirely convincing answers at a news conference prompted by the revelation that she had used a private email server as secretary of state. But as reporters have dug deeper into the emails, the financial conduct of her family’s foundation and the character of the company she keeps, Mrs. Clinton has only seemed more comfortable and dominant on the campaign trail.
... unlike in 2008 — when the battle between her and Mr. Obama forced Mrs. Clinton to do events late into the night, and she often slipped up or held forth about brain science — she is keeping her campaign schedule to a bare minimum.
This week, as she campaigned in Iowa, Chicago and New Hampshire, where on Friday she again took questions from reporters — a relative flurry of activity — she generally filled each day with one event open to the news media, a smaller one with a pool reporter, and then some unexpected stops where she ordered coffee or bought toys for her grandchild. Always the grandchild.
... When it finally came time to ask their questions, the reporters seemed more agitated than the candidate as they pushed against a rope line for the impromptu news conference and gasped when her traveling press secretary, Nick Merrill, joked, “Wouldn’t it be funny if she walked off?”
... “Tell me — tell me something I don’t know,” she said, almost musically, as she snapped her head to the left in a Janet Jackson-era dance move. “Ha, ha, ha, ha.”
The smile on Mrs. Clinton’s face slowly faded as she nodded and replied and obfuscated in response to the half-dozen questions asked of her.
... both Mrs. Clinton and the news media have changed. She seems less a presidential candidate than a historical figure, returning to claim what is rightfully hers. And the press corps, both blessed and cursed with live streaming, tweeting and Snapchatting technologies, is armed with questions devised to win the moment. The result is a carnival atmosphere. It is not clear what Mrs. Clinton gains politically from playing the freak.
Ah yes, Mrs. Inevitable, claiming what's "rightfully hers," based on no accomplishments anyone can name — not even Hillary herself.
As to Henry, who has been at Fox News for four years after seven at CNN — characterizing the move as the equivalent of joining the New York Yankees — Horowitz noted his claim to have drawn her into taking press questions after this exchange:
It's more than reasonable to contend, following that condescending answer, that Team Clinton felt it necessary to change their plans and field a few questions from the media to keep the above video from going completely viral.
Horowitz acknowledged that likelihood by noting how Henry reported the encounter on Fox:
Outside, by the steps of the bike shop, Mr. Henry did a stand-up in front of his Fox camera. “The reason she had a news conference is because I started shouting questions,” he crowed to his viewers. He called that the day’s “bottom line.”
Small victories.
But an acknowledged "victory," nonetheless.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
