Since you don’t mention it in your blog, it was: “Under which conditions would you accept the election of Ahmadinejad, and if you do accept it without any significant changes in the conditions there, isn’t that a betrayal of the — of what the demonstrators there are working towards?”

Obama’s answer betrayed the fact that, even if the administration truly believes Iran’s election was a fraud, they aren’t willing to stand by that conviction and refuse to recognize Ahmadinejad’s election, just as the administration is happy to publicly denounce the coup in Honduras but is unwilling to officially call it a coup (in that case, because then we’d be legally bound to stop sending military aide to the new junta).

My point to you is that it is seems inaccurate to title your post with a mention of “planted questions” only to clear up later that it’s only a preplanned questioner asking an unplanned question. Then you describe as hypocrisy the reaction to the previous administration when it quietly got someone who wasn’t even a blogger (let alone a journalist) to ask a preplanned question — a scenario that is far more of a “plant” than Nico Pitney, not to mention the fake press conference after Katrina where ALL of the questions were preplanned. Aside from the fact that Pitney’s question was not a disgusting softball, another striking difference that deflates your hypocrisy charge is the fact that the arrangement was up front and instead of unspoken with the hope no one would notice.