MSNBC reports that potential Presidential hopeful Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin is starting to avoid questions after recent misstatements:
The whole point of a presidential candidate going to the border and taking a tour alongside a far-right Republican governor is its symbolic value – public relations is the sole purpose of visits like these. It’s Republican Presidential Campaign Politics 101: the candidate shows up, he or she looks concerned, he or she shakes some hands with border guards, and he or she tells reporters about the importance of “getting tough.
But Walker has decided to remove political reporters from the equation. As Byers noted, this isn’t limited to Friday’s border tour – last weekend, the Wisconsin Republican became the sixth national candidate to visit Greenville, S.C. but the only one of the six who wouldn’t take questions from the media.
So my question is, does the press think about just not reporting on candidates who refuse to take questions? Of course, there was the Sharron Angle candidacy of 2012, wherein her terror-stricken run from reporters resulted in nasty news reports; but you have to wonder if a public campaign, asking all news organizations to sign a pledge to not cover candidates who refuse questions, might be in order. Sure, that’ll lead to ‘reasonable vs unreasonable’ questions, but, hey, we all need a little entertainment during the political season – and we don’t need candidates who can’t field questions and at least get the simple ones right – and know enough to say, like Governor Ventura during his candidacy, “I don’t know, but I’ll find the best person to answer that question.”
