Yesterday in Dover, New Hampshire, Hillary talked about the economy and took a range of questions from the audience. She did well on all kinds of issues (including the longest question ever asked, at 1:01:55—can someone please make me an animated gif of Hillary saying "it's really annoying, it's really annoying" at 1:04:00? I feel like that could come in handy).

But there were two questions about climate change, one at 32:30 and one at 1:13:35 and Hillary okayish on the first answer and seemed to lose the room on the second answer. She slipped into contemptuous mode, which can be a pleasure, especially if it's contempt for something you yourself are contemptuous of, but when it's climate change, and she's contemptuous of climate activists, it starts to feel gross and weird, like her contempt is carrying water for the other side. The part where the crowd seemed to turn against her is at 1:15:30—in reality it was just the three loudmouth climate activists—but now the outbursts are the only thing about this town hall anyone is talking about.

The first question, at 32:30, is:

You talked a lot about building our infrastructure and building our future in this country, and as a young person I'm really concerned about the threat of climate change—the threat of climate change to a families and to our country and around the world. And scientists have shown that we need to keep 80 percent of fossil fuels in the ground to prevent a two-degree celsius warming, which would be really dangerous for women and for families around the globe. And so my question is will you commit to banning fossil fuel extraction on public lands in this country, which is where 70 percent of fossil fuels lay underground? Yes or no. Will you ban this?

That is a tough question, and Hillary takes a tough road with it, answering, "The answer is, not until we've got the alternatives in place. And that may not be a satisfactory answer to you, but I think I would have to take the responsible answer. I am 100 percent in favor of accelerating the development of solar, wind, advanced biofuels, energy efficiency, everything we can do... But I will say this: We still have to run our economy, we still have to turn on our lights..." Then she launches into a legitimately rousing soundbite at 34:14 or so, about how if people who deny climate change tell you "I'm not a scientist," your response should be, "Well then why don't you listen to the scientists?"

Unfortunately, she went on to elaborate further, an elaboration was made out of weird, vague, nonsense clouds of words about "consensus" and crap like that, which probably just stirred up the questioner's worries even more.

Then, at 1:13:35, another young woman says, "I'm going to be honest, I was disappointed by the answer you gave to the earlier question about climate change... Is your answer and your refusal to take leadership on climate change due to the fact that you have contributions from the fossil fuel industry in your campaign?"

This is where Hillary can't hide her contempt. "No, no, it's not," she says, adding:

Look, I understand—I know what the right answer in terms of getting votes would have been. The right answer would have been, "You bet I will ban extraction on public lands!" And then if someone said, "How are you going to do that?" "Well I will advocate for it." "And how are you going to get it done?" "I will keep advocating for it!" We have to change our energy policy. I have been clear about that. I have been repeatedly clear about that. And we also have to do it in a way that doesn't disrupt our economy. I mean it's really easy to say, yeah, let's ban all these fossil fuel extractions, and forget about all the people who are employed, who have jobs, who rely on the energy, so I am a strong believer in tackling climate change in the very strongest way we can to have it transition away from it into clean, renewable energy, solar and wind and advanced biofuels and the like, so I will have to say to you I am sorry if the specific answer—


And then a third woman shoots out of her seat and starts yelling, 1:15:30, joined by the previous two questioners, "Act on climate! Act on climate! Act on climate!"

Something tells me right now the Hillary camp is working on better answers to outbursts like this—better answers than "I am a strong believer in tackling climate change in the very strongest way we can." We have huge Shell vessels on their way to the Arctic. We're setting hottest-weather-ever-recorded records. Rhetorical tautologies like "I am a strong believer in tackling climate change in the very strongest way we can" aren't going to cut it.