Don't Ask and I Won't Tell

Hillary Clinton has finally figured out that questions are not her friend:

As she races through Iowa in the days before next week's caucuses, Hillary Clinton is taking few chances. She tells crowds that it’s their turn to “pick a president,’’ but over the last two days she has not invited them to ask her any questions.

Before the brief Christmas break, the New York senator had been setting aside time after campaign speeches to hear from the audience. Now when she’s done speaking, her theme songs blare from loudspeakers, preventing any kind of public Q&A.

She was no more inviting when a television reporter approached her after a rally on Thursday and asked if she was “moved’’ by Benazir Bhutto’s assassination. Clinton turned away without answering.

Her daughter, Chelsea, had the same reaction when a reporter approached her with a question.

Hillary Clinton’s no-question policy didn’t sit well with some of the Iowans who came to see her speak.

“I was a little bit underwhelmed,’’ said Doug Rohde, 46, as he left her a rally in a fire station in Denison. “The message was very generic -- and no questions.’’

This convinces me even more that the poll numbers that came out earlier this week were wrong. Clinton is not running away with the race, but is in a very tight battle with Obama, and may even be trailing. She knows that the slightest unscripted gaffe at this point could kill her chances in Iowa, and a bad showing in Iowa will hurt her elsewhere.

This is not a courageous campaign.