Comments on: Thin-blooded Californian Headed East into the Freezing Land of Electoral Madness

By: ikez78

ikez78 — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 18:16:55 +0000

Peter,
Sorry I had almost the same questions as you do but it looks like McCain Feingold was repeated a few times as well, and immigration.

By: ikez78

ikez78 — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 18:06:59 +0000

How would you deal with rogue elements within the State Dept and CIA that leak to the press and undermine your policies (ignoring/denying/suppressing evidence of Saddam/al Qaeda links such as found at http://www.regimeofterror.com)?

By: MarkD

MarkD — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 16:50:57 +0000

What, if anything, shoud we change about the war on drugs?

What, if anything, should be done about the Kelo decision and emminent domain?

What are the legitmate purposes of the Federal Government? What agencies and programs of the Federal government should be abolished, if any, and why?

What is the maximum amount of a person’s income that should be taken in taxes?

By: SK

SK — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 13:45:26 +0000

We have used our National Guard and Reserve troops extensively with the WOT. I am sure you understand that many times the families are not only spread across several counties they often are spread across several states making it more difficult for the families to get support than families of full-time military. As President what would you do to make sure the families of National Guard and Reserve soldiers get the information and support they need? Do you have ideas for new programs to assist the families?

By: Roger

Roger — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 11:04:45 +0000

For clarity, PJM chose to do interviews on the GWoT because we believe it the overriding subject and we wanted to go in depth. You only get so much time with the candidates – we’ve been fortunate here – and most interviews tend to jump around. We decided to stay in one place, go deep. The intention is not to trap the candidate, but to find out what he really thinks. That’s for the good questions.

See the Thompson interview linked above for comparison, if you haven’t.

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 08:24:53 +0000

Roger, since you want to limit this to the GWoT (which some people above seem to have missed), let’s cut to the chase and ask about the war-ness of the GWoT.

Specifically, please ask both gentlemen:

1. How do you define “victory” in the WOT?
2. When do you think we can achieve “victory”.

As a follow-up question, you might ask them what they will require by way of sacrifice on the part of the American people to achieve victory. Specifics would be nice.

If the candidates try to leave the the time question open ended, or maybe even the definition of “victory” open ended, then I think it will be time to grill them on why the American people should follow them into vagueness. I for one am tired of the over-generalities and platitudes.

By: Joshte

Joshte — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 04:40:09 +0000

Roger why do you limit the question to the war on terror when I never heard anyone extensively question him on his strong desire to gut the first amendment, which in the long run, a lot more important then the war on terror?

By: jrutherford

jrutherford — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 03:14:21 +0000

Questions for Giuliani and McCain

Do you think that it would you be a good idea to begin to refer to our government as a constitutional democracy? It is the Constitution that establishes a balance of powers and protects minority rights from simple majority rule.

In addition to the war on terror should we also be defining our primary moral value as equality understood as a respect for human dignity? Jefferson, Madison, Tocqueville, Lincoln, the women suffragettes, and the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. all considered equality to be our primary moral value. A respect for human dignity and our common humanity is also a forward vision that at least has the capacity for accommodation in a pluralistic global community.

By: Barrett

Barrett — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 01:26:56 +0000

Roger,

I take your instructions to mean questions focused upon the War on Terror.

The War on Terror and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have mistakenly become synonomous.

First, do you agree that the Islamists have declared war on the United States? (This may sound redundant but it makes the case for every subsequent action.)

How does our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan shape your views going forward? What changes would you make if you were President?

What additional military, energy, immigration and intelligence strategies, among others, should be employed in protecting America and American interests?

If you are looking for other questions, here are a couple more.

With a $2.9 trillion budget, do you believe we have a revenue or spending problem?

Depending upon the answer, you get the follow-ups on raising taxes (what taxes, who pays, that the top 1% earn about 14% of all income and pay 35% of all individual income taxes while the bottom 60% earn 28% of all income and pay just 1% of all individual income taxes, etc.)
or what reductions in spending should be pursued.

There are lots of ways to organize these thoughts, but the subjects could keep you busy for at least a few days!

I look forward to seeing more.

PS Where is Buddy Larsen?

By: NoMoreBlatherDotCom

NoMoreBlatherDotCom — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 22:56:17 +0000

Here's one for Rudy. For McCain, this is a bit out of date but a question on it placed in the past tense could still be asked: youtube.com/watch?v=H-SgYPrunPY And, here's one for McCain that's probably a bit too strong for this site to consider asking: tinyurl.com/2cjo3y