town halls for re-election vs. difficult policy issues

Our elected representatives are quite capable of staging and semi-controlling town halls.

For Baron Hill, our elected rep in the 9th District, failure to engage in this context is obviously selective (since he's done them before, especially during campaign seasons). At least for him, this is simply cowardice and crass politics.

All that said, this may be his best move politically, since he's trying to defend an indefensible position-- and is not all that good in the town hall format.