By the end of the primaries there will have been something like 20 debates between the Democratric candidates. Through all that, there haven't been very many interesting questions posed to them--the debates are typically moderated by creatures of the 24 news cycle, and so the issues and questions raised have almost all been along the lines of whatever media narrative was being played up at the time. At its worst, the CNN moderators were actually changing the wording of audience members' questions when they were deemed not hackish enough.
The question I've always wanted asked was this: "What, if anything, has the Bush administration done in the last 8 years to violate the Constitution?" I think a question like this would really pin down the candidates' views on the limits of executive power, and reveal how serious they are about protecting civil liberties. It would be disappointing to me if they talked around this question in a platitudinous way instead of giving an impassioned condemnation of (what I believe to be) Bush's various abuses of executive power. And there might even be a substantive difference between Clinton and Obama on the issue.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
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That question is a great question, but it will never be asked, and if it were asked, it wouldn't be answered honestly, because it would expose the candidates as politicians fearful of being labeled as "crazy liberals".
I mean, think about it: If either candidate said, "I believe the Bush administration has violated the Constitution by ..." then, the next logical question is, "Do you support impeachment?" and of course, if the president has violated the Constitution, he should be impeached, but impeachment is considered a fringe, extremist liberal stance, and if either Obama or Clinton were to even imply that Bush has acted in violation of the Constitution, they would immediately ruin their chances of being seriously considered in the general election.
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