Congress was considering a vote last summer on Trade Promotion Authority, a fast-track process in Congress under which one or two trade deals would be considered.

According to emails leaked by WikiLeaks, this put Hillary Clinton and her surrogates in an awkward position, and they pondered how they could have the candidate “dodge” (their word, not ours) the issue. Should she try a “pure dodge” or a “full dodge,” meaning she would avoid addressing the question altogether? Or should she talk about TPA as a neutral procedural issue, and take the line that the only important question was what sort of trade deal it produced?