Ask Obama

#1
T

therealUT

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#1
1. You’ve stated that as president you’d transcend the sharp partisanship that pervades Washington, but you favor a rapid pullout from Iraq, plan significant tax increases, oppose any and all restrictions on abortions, and favor Supreme Court justices in the mold of Stephen Breyer — positions strongly opposed by most Republicans. Accordingly, on which of these issues would you be willing to compromise, and to what extent? Which Democrats do you think would give a little, and how would you convince them? How would you get interest groups and donors to go along?

2. Do you dispute the National Journal’s assessment that you’re the nation’s most liberal senator? If you do, which senators do you consider to be more liberal, and why?

3. Could you please cite three things you’ve done as senator to help win the war in Iraq?

4. Your campaign stresses your leadership abilities. Please provide specific examples of your leadership, either in the Senate or Illinois legislature, on the following issues: The War on Terror, taxes, immigration, health care, energy, and education.

5. Recently, one of your supporters appearing on the cable news show Hardball seemed blindsided when asked to name one of your legislative accomplishments. Please identify each and every Senate bill you’ve authored that has been passed by Congress. Also explain any benefits the country has derived from your legislation.

6. Stephen Moore calculates that your tax increases would result in a 52.2 percent income and payroll tax. Moore also states that your estate tax would be 55 percent, the dividends tax 39.6 percent, and the capital gains rate 28 percent. Do you dispute these numbers? If so, please provide your respective rates.

7. You admit that you won’t extend the Bush tax cuts. What’s the highest personal-income-tax rate you’d support?

8. You’ve been campaigning on a theme of “change,” yet your stated positions on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, taxes, education, income redistribution, affirmative action, tort reform, and reducing poverty aren’t appreciably distinguishable from the positions Democrats have maintained over the last 40 years. What specifically would you change, beyond shifting nomenclature and tinkering around the edges?

9. When asked about posters of Che Guevara and the flag of Communist Cuba that were hanging in two of your campaign offices, you described the displays as “inappropriate.” Would you use the same adjective if it had been a picture of Pol Pot and the flag of the Khmer Rouge, P.W. Botha and the flag of apartheid South Africa, or Mullah Omar and the Taliban?

10. Which of the following, do you maintain, poses the greatest threat to America? Please list in descending order of danger: Global warming, lack of health insurance, radical Islamic terrorism, loss of manufacturing jobs, and nationalist Russia. As president, to which threat would you devote the most energy and resources?

11. You advocate a rapid pullout from Iraq, voted against FISA reauthorization, support unconditional negotiations with state sponsors of terrorism, oppose offering lawsuit protection to telecommunications companies that help the government monitor communications by suspected terrorists, and demand that Guantanamo be closed. Given our enemies’ mindset, isn’t it likely that they’d interpret your record as a sign of weakness — thereby strengthening their resolve and/or increasing the probability of attack?



12. There’s a good chance that sometime during the next administration, Iran will have the ability to produce nuclear weapons. Will you permit this to happen? If not, (without divulging specific tactics) what would you do to prevent it?

13. The Clinton campaign insinuates that you’re an empty suit. What’s the most important bill that you’ve authored on each of the following issues?: Health care. Intelligence. Education. Anti-terrorism.

14. You maintain that the Constitution is a “living document” that must be interpreted in the context of the times. Given the times in which they were decided, why wouldn’t your interpretive approach justify Plessy, Lochner, and Korematsu?

15. During the February 21 Democratic debate, you stated that “Washington, D.C., is where good ideas go to die” due to the influence of special interests and lobbyists. Please recite three instances in which you, as senator, stood up to left-leaning special interest groups. Please include only significant substantive concerns of such groups, not, for example, whether you should appear on Fox News.

16. While in the Illinois state legislature you voted against the Induced Birth Infant Liability Act, a measure designed to prevent abortion providers from withholding care and sustenance from infants who survive abortion attempts. Please explain your criteria for providing sustenance to certain infants but not others. Also, at what point after birth is a baby who survives an abortion entitled to protection? Does your rationale apply to any other babies that are born but unwanted?

17. Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell and other intelligence experts maintain that failure to pass FISA reauthorization prevents our intelligence agencies from monitoring communications by terrorists in foreign countries regarding plots against our country formed after February 15. You voted against reauthorization. Why shouldn’t voters conclude that you’re less than serious about national security?

18. You maintain that the surge is a “complete failure” and that it hasn’t produced stability or political reconciliation. Yet for several months now, most objective accounts have shown that the surge has produced a dramatic reduction in violence, Iraq is becoming stable (albeit tentatively so), and significant political progress is occurring. Why do you refuse to acknowledge these facts, and why do you insist on pulling out of Iraq on the verge of what could be a significant and historic victory? Why shouldn’t voters infer that winning the war may be less important to you than scoring political points?

19. You support giving driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants and letting them participate in the Social Security system. Why won’t this encourage more illegal immigrants to come to the U.S.?

20. Could you please describe how your policies on Iraq, national security, taxes, immigration, education, and global warming differ substantively from those of Rep. Dennis Kucinich?

Peter Kirsanow on Barack Obama on National Review Online
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Just a guy looking for answers...
 
#3
#3
The toughest question Obama has yet had to answer was the one about whether or not his daughters like Paris Hilton.
 
#4
#4
what is the deal with all of you wanting specifics? details are for the minions to deal with, not the Chief.
 
#5
#5
That is an insane statement. All the candidates are interviewing for the job. Do you think anyone would get a job if every question they were asked during the interview process was answered with " I'll let the minions handle that".
 
#8
#8
KB5252 said:
That is an insane statement. All the candidates are interviewing for the job. Do you think anyone would get a job if every question they were asked during the interview process was answered with " I'll let the minions handle that".
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this is not a job interview. this is a campaign and the least transparent, best obfuscating type wins. Get over it. You don't need details, just broad strokes about change.
 
#9
#9
BigPapaVol said:
this is not a job interview. this is a campaign and the least transparent, best obfuscating type wins. Get over it. You don't need details, just broad strokes about change.
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If they are not in an interview process then why are we, the American people asking the questions that will shape and have impact on our future. Call it what you want, campaign or interview it is still the same thing. You are right about our democratic candidates not being transparent, and that is a very bad sign for us all.
 
#10
#10
KB5252 said:
If they are not in an interview process then why are we, the American people asking the questions that will shape and have impact on our future. Call it what you want, campaign or interview it is still the same thing. You are right about our democratic candidates not being transparent, and that is a very bad sign for us all.
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The questions we're asking have no impact on our future. We're all hoping to find the best candidate that fits our own ideals. I have a hint for you: you won't.

So get over the details and forget that Obama has no credentials. Just understand that he has brand new ideas, he is the agent for change and that we will have a bright new America shortly after he's elected.

I believe he can make those changes because he says so. Why do pesky little details matter?
 
#16
#16
BigPapaVol said:
this is not a job interview. this is a campaign and the least transparent, best obfuscating type wins. Get over it. You don't need details, just broad strokes about change.
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Agreed. Campaigns are like coloring books...Outline first, then fill in the detail later.

Or break all the crayons and quit.
 
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