Campaign Desk

Eight Questions Reporters Should Ask Obama

The war and more

• Print
• Email
• Comments
• Single page

The following is the second post in my Questions Reporters Should Ask series, which I kicked off three weeks ago with Eight Questions Reporters Should Ask Mike Huckabee. As I wrote earlier, my goal with this series is to highlight questions that, to my mind and to the best of my research, the press has not asked (or at least not asked often or insistently enough) of, in this case, the Democratic candidate Senator Barack Obama. I’ll be posing questions for other candidates going forward. Next up: Mitt Romney.

Questions for Barack Obama

1. In June 2006 you voted against the Kerry-Feingold amendment that would have set a deadline of July 2007 for the withdrawal of almost all U. S. forces from Iraq. But in January 2007, you supported a deadline, proposing to begin redeploying troops by May 1, 2007, with the goal of removing all combat brigades from Iraq by March 31, 2008. Why did you change your mind about the desirability of setting a deadline for withdrawal?

2. At October’s Democratic debate in Philadelphia, you said: “We are committed to Iran not having nuclear weapons,” and that “there may come a point where [diplomatic] measures have been exhausted and Iran is on the verge of obtaining a nuclear weapon, where we have to consider other options.” Is preventive war with Iran one of those options?

3. You have said: “We must lead by marshalling a global effort to stop the spread of the world’s most dangerous weapons.” Toward that end, would you support a nuclear test ban treaty, and if so, how would you win a two-thirds vote of the Senate for it?

4. Many experts have taken issue with your health insurance proposal because it includes a requirement
of coverage—a “mandate”—for children and not adults. Proponents of a mandate for all argue that universal coverage cannot be attained without it. You have called a health insurance mandate an attempt to “force” people to buy insurance. Are you opposed to all government attempts to force people to do things they’d rather not do—for example, pay taxes? If not, why draw the line at a health insurance mandate?

5. On a related topic, you have said that medical costs must come down, and propose to bring them down by reducing paperwork and increasing competition among insurance and drug companies. Do you really believe that such measures are sufficient to bring down medical costs?

6. You have said that you are a member of the “Joshua generation,” whose challenge is to complete the work of the “Moses generation,” specifically with respect to the rights of African-Americans. Why, then, do you criticize Hillary Clinton and others who, you say, have “been fighting some of the same fights since the ’60s?”

7. Republicans have lately taken drastic steps against what they say is a plague of voter fraud. Indiana now requires every would-be voter to present a government-issued photo ID before casting a ballot. If the Supreme Court upholds that requirement, other states may pass or strengthen similar laws. What is your view of the prevalence of such voter fraud, and what should be done about it?

8. Nearly five million Americans—some 2% of the American electorate—cannot vote today because of they have been convicted of felonies. In this regard the US is unusual among the world’s democracies, which think that the rights of citizenship should be restored once a felon has served his or her sentence. Do you agree that former felons should regain the right to vote?

[Thanks to Michael Meyer and Mark Crispin Miller for suggestions and research.

Note: The direct quotations cited above can be found here and here.]

CJR

If you enjoy this kind of press criticism please consider a subscription to our magazine, Columbia Journalism Review—a deal via the Web site at $19.95.

To subscribe, to give CJR as a gift, to renew, or to check student and CJR in the Classroom rates, click here.

Comments

lin@healthplannavigator

Wed 2 Jan 2008 07:42 PM

When Barack Obama was interviewed by David Sirota in the Nation last year, he was asked to give an illustration of credible reform “within the system.” The example Obama selected was healthcare. Obama then immediately shifted the problem to unemployment, asking what would subsequently
happen to the millions of insurance company paper-pushers whose job it is to prevent easy access to health care (although not quite in those words) if single payer reforms were adopted.
Good thing Obama wasn’t in the Senate in 1902, when the Oldsmobile threatened the livelihood of buggy-whip makers everywhere or we’d still be shoveling manure off the street of Manhattan.

The purpose of medical care is not to employ workers, whether they are physicians or support staff or insurance subordinates, but to ease the suffering of individuals. Unfortunately, health care for all will be less profitable for the real beneficiaries of today's healthcare industry: insurers, PHARMA, and the American Hospital Association.
For all his lofty rhetoric, Obama just doesn't get it.

JohnKWilson

Thu 3 Jan 2008 12:16 PM

I think these questions are easy to answer, but question number 4 is based on a mistake. Obama has never said that he draws a line at mandates. He says that the initial health care reforms should not include a mandate; a mandate should only be considered after reforms are attempted. Obama has never ruled out a mandate.

padikiller

Fri 4 Jan 2008 12:03 PM

The GOP candidate gets eight loaded questions asking him to justify his personal religous views and to speak for God...

While the DEM candidate gets eight softball questions designed to give him the opportunity to distinguish himself from other Dems (and also of course, those Repulicans who are taking some unspecified "drastic steps" to cure what "they say" is a voter fraud problem)...

Yeah... This is fair "journalism"... In McLearyland, that is...

TDC

Fri 4 Jan 2008 05:27 PM

Aside from the powder puff questions, I would like to see a few others asked:

1.How often do you use the backyard lot that longtime friend Tony Rezko bough for you?

2.Do you have any regrets about your 2002 senatorial campaign manager, David Axelrod, waging a behind the scenes campaign of lawsuits and court orders to open the sealed divorce records of Blair Hull and Jack Ryan, which all parties involved objected to it?

3.And since we had the felon voting questions, what about gun ownership? Should a convicted felon be allowed to own a firearm after his prison term is up?

Obama Iraq Watch

Mon 2 Jun 2008 05:50 PM

And, with the benefit of six months having passed, I'd now add:
1. How long can you go on ignoring substantial progress in Iraq that is directly the result of U.S. intervention? And do you refuse to visit and see it for yourself?
2. If you were willing to wait until a complete firestorm broke out before resigning from your Chicago church, what does that say about the judgment and instincts you would bring to the pressure chamber known as the Oval Office? And how many more Wrights and Pflegers are lurking from your past associations with radicals?

SYLVIA SMITH

Sun 3 Aug 2008 08:36 AM

I AM A DISWABLED FEMALE. I WORKED 32 YEARS IN SEWING FACTORIES UNTIL SURGERY LEFT ME UNABLE TO WORK. ALL THE TALK ABOUT REBATES FOR WORKING FAMILIES ARE GREAT BUT WHAT ABOUT US RETIRED POOR PEOPLE. ME AND MY HUSBAND ARE IN WHEEL CHAIRS, LIVE ON 1500 A MONTH AND STILL HAVE TO GO TO STORES DRS AND WORSHIP, PAY BILLS, TAXES, INSURANCE, ETC. WILL WE BE INCLUDED IN THE REBATE TYPE CHECK IF YOU ARE ELECTED. THE GAS AND GROCERY PRICES ARE KILLING US TOO.

Constance Bartusis

Mon 4 Aug 2008 01:32 PM

I'm asking: Since Muslims, Jews, and Christians ALL have historical claims to and holy sites in Jerusalem, could Jerusalem be designated an International Heritage Site? Thus making moot any one nation's/religion's exclusive claims?