Hi Gang:

Shades of Bill Clinton's presidential run.

During the debate the other night, how many of
you noticed the softball question to Hillary,"Which do you prefer,diamonds or pearls?"

Sounds like a rerun of Bill's softball question,"Which do you prefer,boxers or briefs?"

Seems as tho we're running Bill's campaign all over again ...only for Hillary.

hippolips

'According to the spokesperson, as the debate drew to a close, CNN wanted to ask one last question. A CNN employee (it's unclear who) asked the girl if she wanted to ask the "diamonds and pearls" question. She said yes.

A CNN official is already on record telling Marc Ambinder that she chose the question. But as the above makes clear, CNN's spokesperson is confirming that the network in fact chose it.

So this is both better and worse for the network. On the one hand, it's better because the question was originally submitted by the girl, and it's obvious that the girl was hardly "forced" to ask this; rather, she was offered the opportunity and took it. The network wanted to close on a light question, and they chose this one.

On the other hand, the network is confirming that it did in fact choose a question that quizzed the first credible female Presidential candidate on her taste in jewelry. That's confessing to some pretty questionable taste.' tpmelectioncentral.com

It was a dumb question, but maybe understandable in wanting to close the show debate on a light note.

But how does asking Clinton about her jewelry count as a 'softball' question? It's more of a sexist put-down or trivialisation, isn't it?

Did it, in fact, help her much - maybe give her an opportunity to look a little more human?

That was likely one question that Hillary's people instructed members of the audience to ask.

A person's underwear preference has nothing to do with his ability to be president, nor does a woman's jewelry preference. These are ridiculous questions, but they are also telling. We would rather belittle our candidates than engage them in serious debate -and then we wonder why they are hesitant to answer any of our questions.

quote:

Originally posted by Elexina:
A person's underwear preference has nothing to do with his ability to be president

Maybe not, but our past Prime Minister, John Major's, image suffered greatly when it was discovered that he wore his shirt tucked into his underpants.

'Mr Major has never confirmed that he tucks his shirt into his underpants and refuses to answer questions on the subject.' 'Steve Bell' wikipedia entry