Hilary Clinton: not interested in guns or churches

It must be frustrating when - as a politician - someone keeps questioning you about an issue you'd like to avoid. A prime example being, of course, Jeremy Paxman's head-to-head with Michael Howard on Newsnight, in which the same question was asked so many times it began to resemble an abstract piece of performance art. Featuring Dracula.

Hillary Clinton now shares that annoyance. She'd like very much to stick to topics of her choosing, except the pesky residents of Scranton, Pennsylvania - setting for the US version of sitcom The Office - had other ideas. They want to know - above all else - when Hilary last went to church or fired a gun. Because - let's be brutally honest - there probably isn't much else to do in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Describing the query as irrelevant, Clinton told an assembled press conference that:

“We can answer that some other time. This is about what people feel is being said about them. I went to church on Easter. I mean, so?
“We have been working very hard to make it clear that we have millions of Democrats who are church going and gun-owning. And we are tired of having Republicans, or frankly our own Democrats, give any ammunition to Republicans because what happens then is Republicans take advantage of the situation.”

One has to wonder whether other areas of the USA are going to have such regionally specific questions. Therefore Virginia residents are soon to be asking for Hillary's thoughts on the tobacco industry, the inhabitants of Tennessee will be chomping at the bit to find out her views on country music, and people from Alabama would like to know if she done got any tips for fixin' up that busted pickup truck they keep in the yard.

Written by C J Davies on 13 Apr 2008 10:18 PM. Permalink