By Post Editorial Board
Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont socialist, is confused by the carefully packaged rollout of the Democratic front-runner’s presidential campaign.
“Why don’t you tell me what Hillary Clinton is campaigning on?” he asked on MSNBC of Clinton’s “Scooby van” trip to Iowa. Sanders, who’s eyeing his own 2016 run, then echoed Mayor de Blasio’s now-famous doubts: “You don’t know, and I don’t know, and the American people don’t know.”
Clinton’s two-day tour sure didn’t fill in any blanks, because it was crafted for the cameras, not for the (few) voters she met.
At one stop, she sat with a few small-business owners and sang their praises — then ignored one woman’s complaint that high tax rates hurt her business.
Still, the businesswoman’s question was a notable departure from Hillary’s script, which ran to hand-picked participants and, by some reports, pre-screened questions.
At Kirkwood Community College, her public contact was limited to seven students and teachers tapped for a camera-friendly roundtable with 15 others in the audience.
Questions from journalists? Few and far between — and any that went off-script also went unanswered.
One reporter asked Clinton to reconcile her vow to purge “unaccountable money” from campaigns with the super PAC now raising hundreds of millions for her. She shrugged and said, “I don’t know.”
This may be only the start of a long campaign, but Clinton needs to do better — unless she wants to work the miracle of convincing America that Bill de Blasio makes sense.
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