When Hillary came to Charlottesville, Virginia, a few weeks ago, she was on stage with the noted author (and Charlottesville resident) John Grisham to talk before a crowd of well-heeled Cvillians (many of whom had paid at least $1,000 just to sit toward the front of the auditorium). Although the conversation was supposed to have a living-room atmosphere (despite the fact that a number of high-rolling supporters were also on stage, albeit in the background and out of the stage lights), it was clear from the beginning that even the most casual forays into human territory (Hillary as a Cubs-but-also-Yankees fan, as foil both to Rudy's New York obsessiveness and Grisham's understandable die-hard St. Louis Cardinal mania) were in fact very well set up. No one seemed to mind, since this was clearly a fundraiser, not a press conference. At the end of the event, there were people in the aisles lined up behind microphones, who were selected by John and Hillary, seemingly at random, to deliver their questions. Alas, the illusion of randomness quickly disintegrated (even for cynical me) when I noticed a question was asked by the young son of the former mayor of Charlottesville ("If you're elected, what will they call your husband?"), and the final "spontaneous" question was asked by a clean-cut young man wearing a T-shirt who admitted to being a recipient of a development program that Hillary had sponsored in the Senate. His question concerned expansion of the plan, which of course gave her an opportunity to wax prolific on how young people were the future, there would be more such plans if elected, blah blah.

At the end of this "event," it was clear that at least two, probably more, of the audience questions had been planted. But the fact is, it didn't seem to bother me or anyone else. Everything is planted these days, and Hillary herself is attributed with (accused of) running a well-oiled political machine, which naturally implies controlling the media. I can't see how a national politician these days, regardless of their claims to Integrity, can avoid engaging in the kinds of media manipulation that involve creating the illusion of spontaneity and naturalness. I suspect that if Hillary got real, tough questions, we wouldn't generally be pleased with the result. Recall that this is a country that loves "reality programming," which is about as authentic as a Hillary response to a planted question.

Bruce McClelland

Gordonsville, VA