Behind the Pantsuit Media Strategy

Looks as if this is carefully designed to avoid ever having to answer a difficult question again.

What a shock.

When Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton wants to get a message out, her presidential campaign handpicks news outlets. Or, in some cases, bypasses the media entirely.

The New York Democrat's third-quarter fundraising blowout was leaked to the Drudge Report. She made sure an Iowa newspaper printed her comments that she found Sen. Barack Obama's answer to a foreign-policy question "irresponsible" and "naive." She also uses her "Hillary Hub" campaign creation to break news.

The strategy allows Mrs. Clinton — who rarely holds press availabilities — to avoid taking questions from reporters who cover her campaign and who might have detailed follow-up queries to her carefully planned policy announcements.

Jim Geraghty wonders if she'll ever be asked a certain question.

While talking about the D.C. gun ban case with an informed observer, we both agreed that we would love to see Hillary Clinton deal with real questions about whether or not she believes the Second Amendment guarantees an American citizen's right to own a gun. If she said no, the natural follow-up would be to ask what other parts of the Bill of Rights she felt were optional. If she said yes, the natural follow-up would be to ask why she has lived in Washington, D.C., for fifteen years and never once complained about the city's blatantly unconstitutional abridgement of part of the Bill of Rights.