20 questions for 20 politicians.

February 16, 2007 2:01 PM

Let's play 20 questions. 20 candidates for President, 20 personalized questions.
posted by Sticherbeast (19 comments total)

6) Texas Rep. Ron Paul
"You want to abolish the Federal Reserve. What is your plan for grappling with the international financial instability - if not panic - that would follow this move?"

Reason has some guts in not softballing "the rockstar of libertarianism" Ron Paul.
posted by champthom at 2:06 PM on February 16, 2007

Off-topic, but related ...

Brings to mind when in 1999 Boston television reporter Andy Hiller quizzed Presidential candidate George W. Bush on the names of several foreign leaders and he couldn't.

"[Bush]...was asked to name the leaders of four current world hot spots: Chechnya, Taiwan, India and Pakistan.

He was able to give a partial response to just one: Taiwan."

posted by ericb at 2:09 PM on February 16, 2007

Wow, I hope campaign-trail reporters read this. Some of those questions are bombs.
posted by grobstein at 2:12 PM on February 16, 2007

Man, I wish those would get asked.
posted by graventy at 2:29 PM on February 16, 2007

Good questions.
posted by Green Eyed Monster at 2:40 PM on February 16, 2007

Before someone points this out, I'd like to admit that there are actually only 19 candidates there. In posting, I mistook the 20th question - the bonus question - for having been a 21st question.

I will now cut off my head and stuff it with holy wafers.
posted by Sticherbeast at 2:48 PM on February 16, 2007

"Man, I wish those would get asked."

Hopefully they'd also get answered, but I wouldn't bet on it.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 2:48 PM on February 16, 2007

I would pay cash money to attend an interview with Tom Tancredo where his question was asked. Tancredo!!! *shakes fist*
posted by boo_radley at 2:59 PM on February 16, 2007

I don't understand the Tancredo comment. Doesn't China have a one-child policy?
posted by mrgrimm at 3:20 PM on February 16, 2007

I'd like to see Sam Brownback (one of my state's senators, unfortunately) answer #4...

4) Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback
"You opposed President Clinton's 1999 action in Kosovo, and said at the time ‘I continue to implore the Clinton administration to present a clearly thought-out exit strategy from the hostilities in Kosovo.' Why didn't you apply this standard to the Bush administration over the last six years?"

His hypocrisy on this (and numerous other issues) is unanswerable.
posted by amyms at 3:33 PM on February 16, 2007

That was actually really good. Wow.
posted by koeselitz at 4:26 PM on February 16, 2007

Ericb: I think that there is a real substantive difference with the questions that Reason would pose. Miller was asking quiz-show gotcha questions that were designed to embarrass then-Governor Bush. That's cheap short journalism no matter which party's pols happen to be on the receiving end of it. These are questions that appear to be designed to pressure test the candidates' principles and provide some light on their views and their character.
posted by Slap Factory at 5:45 PM on February 16, 2007

Rudy Giuliani has a terrific chance of becoming our next president.

He does?

Anyway. Most of these seem less like actual questions and more like accusations presented in question form. "Have you stopped beating your wife" type stuff.

Still, I would like it if the media would ask more specific questions of the candidates.
posted by Target Practice at 6:25 PM on February 16, 2007

A friend of mine actually went to a Joe Biden event in Iowa today. If I had known about that RAVE act thing I would have gone with her and tried to ask her about it. He's No Obama, so I think I might have actually had a chance to ask him.

The question for Obama is pretty easy though:

"In your 2004 campaign for Senate, you approached the issue of a nuclear Iran this way: ‘Us launching some missile strikes into Iran is not the optimal position for us to be in. On the other hand, having a radical Muslim theocracy in possession of nuclear weapons is worse.' How far along would Iran's nuclear program have to get before an Obama administration launched missile strikes?"

How about something like "I'm not a nuclear scientist, but unlike the bush administration, I'd be willing to listen to the low level analysts and spys involved in low-level intelligence work. An optimal solution would be to bomb at the last possible minute, or as soon before that as possible. I don't ever want to see Iran with a Bomb, and we'll do the best we can to avoid attack. God willing, we'll avoid it. If not, that attack would only come when we felt every other option had dissolved."

The question for Vilsack is also pretty bad:

"Did making English the official language of Iowa cut back on the state's influx of illegal immigrants from Mexico?"

Simple answer: "Did we say it would? The purpose of the bill was to save money on translation, and affirm the place of the English language as the language of Iowa."

The question for Dodd is:

"When you were a congressman, you argued for ending funding to South Vietnam by saying: 'The greatest gift our country can give to the Cambodian people is peace, not guns. And the best way to accomplish that goal is by ending military aid now.' With that in mind, don't you have a credibility problem when you talk about ending the Iraq war with minimal repercussions?"

Simple answer: "Well, there weren't any repercussions for us, were there?"

The question for Kucinich:

"As a congressman, and now a committee chairman, you have made ‘media reform' a priority. What do you see as the president's role in regulating and limiting the media available to viewers?"

Simple answer: "I don't think the government should regulate speech, far from it. But we do need to prevent the sort of incestuous relationship between power cliques in government and media. Why wasn't the media more skeptical about the Iraq intel? Why did the media go ape-shit about John Kerry's "botched Joke" before the election and Peloci's "planegate" afterwards? I think the relationship needs to be analyzed, and that the media can self regulate given a public shaming campaign by the government, or something like that."
posted by delmoi at 6:53 PM on February 16, 2007

His hypocrisy on this (and numerous other issues) is unanswerable. -- amyms

The question was:

"You opposed President Clinton's 1999 action in Kosovo, and said at the time ‘I continue to implore the Clinton administration to present a clearly thought-out exit strategy from the hostilities in Kosovo.' Why didn't you apply this standard to the Bush administration over the last six years?"

Simple answer: "9/11 changed everything"

Longer answer: "Ironically the success in Kosovo showed to me that this sort of thing was possible, and I had faith in president bush, and his cabinet that democracy in Iraq was likely and that we could leave soon after. I was wrong, and I have opposed the Iraq war this entire campaign. Also: 9/11".
posted by delmoi at 6:58 PM on February 16, 2007

I hereby nominate delmoi to be Al Gore's presidential spokesperson.
posted by notreally at 7:03 PM on February 16, 2007

Huckabee's is a real softball, too. I suspect that the Reason crew thinks including "mandatory, federal programs" in the wording makes it a real hard hitter, but come on:

Your successor as Arkansas governor, Mike Beebe, is considering dropping the 'obesity report cards' you introduced. As president, what mandatory, federal programs would you introduce to schoolchildren to get them in shape?

Geez, you could probably find the answer to that on his web site.
posted by aaronetc at 7:18 PM on February 16, 2007

I can't find the site, but what is the non-profit group that profiles all candidate and current elected officials- and then for presidential candidates has their profiles on about 40 issues?

Help...?
posted by fluffycreature at 1:58 PM on February 17, 2007

DING!
posted by fluffycreature at 2:06 PM on February 17, 2007