Questions for the candidates --- Post yours!

[Meldread]

If you could ask one candidate a question on any topic what would it be? Pick a candidate and then state your question. I am sure each of us has at least one burning question we'd like to put to one of them.

Here is mine.

Candidate: Senator Hillary Clinton
Question: "I have a comment, a question and depending on your answer a follow up. First my comment. I would like to thank you for the work you've done for most of your professional life, championing the cause of women throughout the country. You have been a strong voice on the human rights of women and children, and like you I am waging a similar battle. My human rights are under direct assault. As a Gay American I would like to ask you a simple yes or no question. If you are elected president, will you stand up for my human rights?"

If she attempts to be evasive or not answer directly, I would interrupt and remind her that I asked a simple yes or no question, and point out that I have a follow up depending on the answer. I want a yes or no to come from her lips. If she says no then I have no need for a follow up. If she says yes, then I will ask the following.

Follow-up: "Thank you, now I have my follow up. Your husband signed into law two pieces of legislation that were designed to make me a second class citizen. He informed John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election that he should campaign against my human rights. If you become President of the United States, will you repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell and the Defense of Marriage Act? Will you repeal these pieces of legislation that your husband signed into law? This is also a simple yes or no question."

After that, I'd have all I need to make up my mind about Hillary Clinton. I am sure we all have similar questions we'd like to ask the candidates, what's yours?

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. My question would be to all the candidates

Bush has, by his actions, stripped away many of our Constitutional protections and has taken more than his share of power. What would you do as President to restore our Constitutional rights and the balance of power between the three branches of government?

Their answer to this would be very interesting.

[Meldread]

4. Yes, I like that one, too.

To the Senators, though, it should be reworded slightly.

"Bush has, by his actions, stripped away many of our Constitutional protections and has taken more than his share of power. What are you doing right now as a Senator to restore our Constitutional rights and the balance of power between the three branches of government?"

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

5. thanks for the refinement of the question

I did forget to say I thought your question in the OP was a great one. Do you suppose it will be answered by anyone at the GLBT forum?

[Meldread]

7. Thanks.

I doubt it. It is very hard to get a straight answer out of any of the candidates. That's why I said it had to be a yes or no answer. That leaves no room for them to maneuver and use double speak. Hillary has a strategy of triangulation, so I would expect her to weave around the question by saying something like we can take a look at her record. I might end up looking like a heckler because I'd demand a straight answer, but I figure everyone deserves honesty. Either you are willing to give your support or not, there really is no room for a third way.

I'd like to ask the question of all the candidates, but Hillary is my main concern, simply for the reasons I outlined in the follow-up. I know Bill Clinton's record on the issue, and I know that Hillary only a few days ago called DOMA a good "strategic move." It really boils my blood that someone is willing to sell my human rights down the river because it is strategically beneficial. I want someone to fight for me.

After all, if a candidate is willing to capitulate on human rights for gays, then how can we trust them on other issues? How can we trust them to do the right thing when it comes to trade deals, standing up to our enemies, and other such things if they are not willing to stand up to our enemies here at home?

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

11. Absolutely!

If you were at a podium, I'd be standing up and cheering you right now!

[Meldread]

12. Thanks again. -nt-

[Joanne98]

2. "Do you think 9/11 was an inside job?"

[no_hypocrisy]

3. What is/are your remedy(ies) for the federal deficit crisis?

Will you restore the monies taken from Social Security on your first day of office?

Will you raise taxes in order to lower the deficit meaningfully?

Will you eliminate the Alternate Minimum Tax on the middle class taxpayers?

How will you have a foreign policy plan with China when this country is seriously in debt to that country?

When are we leaving Iraq?

[journalist3072]

6. Ok....here's the question I would ask

My question to ALL of the candidates:

Residents of the District of Columbia, who pay federal taxes just like every other American citizen, are currently being taxed without representation. Do you support DC voting rights? That is, do you believe DC residents should have representation in both the House and Senate?

If DC residents are never affored that representation in Congress, do you believe we should no longer have to pay federal taxes?

My question specifically for Sen. John Edwards:

Sen. Edwards, you might recall that during the 2004 Democratic Presidential Primary, in order to spotlight the fact that it does not have voting rights in the U.S. Congress, the District of Columbia held the first-in-the-nation non-binding presidential primary. It then went on to hold its binding presidential primary as scheduled.

However, you might also recall that you were one of the 5 Democrats running for President that year, to put tradition above principle. You felt it was more important that Iowa and New Hampshire go before the District of Columbia. So you, and 4 other Democrats, wrote to the DC Board of Elections and Ethics and asked to have your name removed from the DC ballot.

Why should I support your candidacy for President now, when you clearly don't understand the issue of DC voting rights?

[cpamomfromtexas]

8. To all the candidates

American Airlines senior management sold off fuel hedges after 9/11 to fund their Senior Executive Retirement Plan (serp) to protect their golden parachutes in the event of bankruptcy all the while cutting line employees to the bone. Since that time, senior management's pay has increased 800% while pilots are still working for 23 to 50% less than before which is around 1980 wages.

Will you support a ban (even retroactively) to eliminate SERPS and this type of gross abuse of bankruptcy (extortion) while allowing management to protect themselves at all others expense?

[LiberalEsto]

9. What will you do to rein in corporations?

Corporations are ruining this country with their unchecked greed. They pay far less in taxes than they did during the Clinton presidency. They've gotten the Misadministration to lift all kinds of occupational safety and health rules, wiggled out of paying pensions, outsourced jobs to other countries, and imported cheap labor through H1B and similar visas. They've gotten rid of those pesky environmental regulations and labor laws that might protect the workers and the communities. They're looting our national resources. They've managed to get immunity from certain lawsuits, and the bankruptcy rules now make it possible for them to squeeze bankrupt creditors relentlessly. They've made us go to war for their profits.
Unless they are made accountable in the courts and made to follow regulations and laws that protect all citizens, they are going to strangle this country to death.

[Nite Owl]

10. Do you consider health care a

right for all Americans?

[benEzra]

13. For all the candidates...

Question
Small-caliber rifles with modern styling, such as the AR-15 platform, are some of the most popular civilian target rifles in America, and like all rifles are very rarely misused. What assurance do I have that if you are elected, these guns will be safe from bans?


Followup
How do you propose to address violent crime and terrorism without infringing on the rights of the law-abiding under the Second, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments, unlike the current Administration?