Justin Webb's America

Anger control

• Justin Webb
• 18 Jan 08, 02:47 PM GMT

There is a risk, is there not, that the "anger" issue - I see it has made the New York Times today - slightly masks the more important question of what a legitimate question is, and whether presidential candidates (and presidents) are ludicrously over-protected from the perfectly reasonable cut and thrust of debate, and ludicrously over-react when someone presses them.

This video of Mitt Romney and the man from AP has been widely circulated, although on this occasion the candidate keeps his cool, it seems to me. The interesting bit comes at the very end, when the press officer attacks the reporter for "arguing".

He should go to Britain, where "arguing" is exactly what interviewers are meant to do, at least that has been the fashion of recent years. Americans looking for real political cut and thrust should take their cue from this clip of the BBC's best known interviewer and (until recently) its best known politician...

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