NH-1: Behind the Music

At Romney's 11/24 town hall in Bow.



A campaign doesn't have to have actual plants asking questions. It's enough to have campaign staffers screening and choosing the people permitted to ask them. It's a form of sleight of hand, with the candidate saying, "You, over there," as if he's picking a random voter with a question, at which point -- and not before -- the audience swivels to see who it is. It's not a flawless tactic, and it doesn't guarantee the perfectly scripted questions the candidate would like, but it's pretty darn effective at avoiding unfriendly questions. It also allows the campaign to truthfully say, "We do not screen questions," when in fact they're screening questioners.

Nobody ever appreciates Stalin paraphrases, but...

The people who have questions decide nothing. The people who choose the questions decide everything.

Also, uh, Mitt? When you're trying to convince evangelicals that you're really one of them, kinda, you should probably be reeeally careful talking about the Bible. Specifically, you shouldn't describe it as a great cure for insomnia. This is known as a gaffe.