Hillary Dodges the Keystone XL Question Again and Again

Hillary was asked about her position on the Keystone XL pipeline Monday during an interview that took place in Canada. Rather than answer the question by simply saying what she believes, she chose to dodge.

“Well, you know I can’t really talk about it because I was in the office that has primary responsibility for making the decision,” Hillary offered.

This is not the first time Hillary has been asked about Keystone XL. In every case she has dodged the question in the same way, even when the interviewer points out that her answer doesn’t make any sense.

Here’s another interview from June (also in Canada) in which Hillary says absolutely nothing. “However this Keystone decision is finally made, you know, some people are going to be very happy relieved and think it was the right decision and other people are going to be distraught even angry and upset thinking it was a terrible decision,” she explains. Well, yes, that’s probably true of every major decision. The question is what do you think?

And another, also from Canada during the month of June:

There is no reason Hillary can’t answer these questions. No reason other than the fact that she is running for President. For now she wants to stay friendly with big money donors on the left, like billionaire Tom Steyer, without turning off the majority of Americans (including Democrats) who overwhelmingly support the project. Americans really do want an all-of-the-above approach to energy even if that’s not what national Democrats want.

But what works for now, won’t work next year when Hillary is the front-runner for 2016. Republicans have a good chance of taking the Senate next month. And they have already discussed plans to fast track a bill that would allow Congress to approve the pipeline. That means Keystone XL could once again become a big political issue early next year. If so, Hillary will find it increasingly difficult to remain on the sidelines. Awkward tap-dancing around a major issue may work for a former Secretary of State on a book tour but won’t for a leading candidate for President.