Hillary Clinton - So Transparent, She Won't Talk to the Media

Originally published by Voices of Liberty

Sometimes candidates want to keep their cards close to their chest while they wear a poker face. They do this when they have strategies they don’t want to give out to the public. They especially don’t want their game plan leaked to competitors. Then there’s the self-appointed champion of transparency, Hillary Clinton, who’s not talking to reporters AT ALL.

National Journal and NPR reported that, since launching her presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton has answered a whopping 13 questions from reporters. The fact that some of these are softball questions is obvious.

Q: “How are you liking Iowa?”

A: “I’m having a great time.”

This is one question that Hillary chose to answer directly, as opposed to questions she’s deflected or dodged altogether.

ABC News’s Cecilia Vega asked Hillary a real question: “Did foreign entities receive any special treatment for making any kind of donations to the foundation or your husband?”

Clinton’s response: “Well, we’re back into the political season and therefore we will be subjected to all kinds of distraction and attacks. And I’m ready for that…”

THAT’S NOT A DIRECT ANSWER!

How is that question a distraction, anyway? The American people have a right to know that a potential President hasn’t been using the power of federal office to sell political favors. It’s a simple “yes” or “no” answer. Perhaps I’ve been a Boy Scout way too long, but any answer other than “Hell no!” is unacceptable for someone who wishes to hold the highest office in the land.

Clinton campaign spokesman Nick Merrill calls this the “ramp-up period” of Hillary’s campaign. In this ramp-up phase, Hillary will completely avoid talking to the media and instead she’ll be “engaging in hours of public question and answers sessions,” which are not public but actually closed-door events. NPR’s Tamara Keith has been following the Clinton campaign and attended one of these Q&A sessions with “the public.” Says Keith, “All we saw was the back of her head as she walked out of the room, to applause from a small hand-selected group of participants and observers.”

At another occasion in Iowa, Cecilia Vega asked Clinton a vital question: “What would you say to Americans who want to know why you are running?” The deep, thoughtful response was this: “I’m running to be the champion to Americans and their families, so that we cannot just worry about treading water, but you can get ahead and you can stay ahead.” (It sounds as if Hillary has been borrowing from the Barack Obama campaign play book of empty slogans.)

If someone were to ask Rand Paul why he was running, he would give specific policy goals and milestones like “I want to audit the Federal Reserve, I want to abolish the TSA and the NSA so the government stops spying on American citizens, I want to end America’s drug war which is killing the black community…” The list goes on. Hillary, on the other hand, will be “the champion” so you can “get ahead” and “stay ahead.”

All these forehead-smacking pearls of wisdom have been brought to you by Hillary Clinton, self-appointed “champion of Americans and their families.” She also holds the reigning (self-awarded) title of champion of transparency. As we can see from her conduct in Iowa (and the federal investigation on her 18 minutes of missing tape—err, make that 32,000 missing emails and a server)—she is so transparent, she won’t talk to the media and keep everyday Americans informed.

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First Hillary Clinton image courtesy of Voices of Liberty.  Second Hillary Clinton image courtesy of Voice of America and in the public domain.