Posted on 11/07/2008 1:02:18 PM PST by varialectio
1. On September 12, 2001 and in the days that followed, how long did you imagine it would be before America experienced another terrorist attack on its soil?
2. Have you heard of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed? He conceived and planned the 9/11 attacks. Bin Laden is a figurehead. Khalid was captured by Pakistani security forces in Rawalpindi in 2003. The year before, the Pakis captured Ramzi Binalshibh, who was the middle-man between Kahlid and the hijackers. Have you heard of him? By 2004, two-thirds of Al-Qaeda’s leadership was in jail or dead. This raises two additional questions:
3. Why do suppose so many more Americans have heard of Lynndie England and Charles Graner than they have of Khalid or Binalshibh?
4. Does the Bush Administration deserve any credit for the fact that there’ve been no terrorist attacks on U.S. soil since 9/11?
5. During the mid- and late-‘90s the Clinton Administration and House Democrats worked hard to gut underwriting standards in this country in the name of “affordable housing” for minorities. Was this a good idea? Did it have anything to do with the housing bubble and the credit meltdown?
6. Lenders were willing to make risky loans because they didn’t have to hold them on their books. Following its accounting scandals, in which Fannie Mae CEO Franklin Raines received 90 million in compensation by cooking the books, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac became the chief buyers and major originators of subprime loans. Do you regret the support that Fannie and Freddie were given by Congressional Democrats, who repeatedly attacked OFHEO, the regulator responsible for the two GSEs?
7. You received $135,000 in campaign contributions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, second only to Christopher Dodd, Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. What did Fannie and Freddie expect in exchange for this extraordinarily high contribution (33 times what McCain received per year)? Are you willing to return the money?
8. You’ve repeatedly blamed the credit crisis on “Bush deregulation.” What legislation do you have in mind? If you are referring to the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999, the most significant legislation affecting the financial services industry in 60 years, there are a couple of problems. It was signed into law by President Clinton and it had nothing to do with the housing/credit crisis.
9. Have you heard of Sarbanes-Oxley, with the most stringent regulatory standards in the world for publicly traded companies, signed by President Bush in 2002?
10. You’ve made education the centerpiece of your campaign and have repeatedly denounced the Bush Administration for underfunding No Child Left Behind. Education is mostly paid for by local property taxes, but the Federal Government contributes nearly 60 billion. How many more billions would you like the U.S. government spend on education? What would you like to see it used for?
11. Are you aware that we have a progressive tax code in this country? Do you happen to know the percentage of taxes paid by the top 1%, 5%, and 20% of U.S. taxpayers? It’s about 34%, 60%, and 87%. Do you believe that raising the highest marginal tax rate by about 10% as well as the capital gains tax will have no effect on the behavior of taxpayers who are assessed at that rate? If 10% of the top 1% relocate to another country or move their money offshore, how will you make up the shortfall?
12. You’ve proposed that government distribute checks to the 40% of the people who file returns but pay no income taxes. Is this fair to those who do pay income taxes?
13. Do you believe most White Americans are racists? African Americans make up about 13% of the population but commit close to 60% of violent crimes. Is this attributable to White racism? If not, what are the causes and what do you propose to do to reduce the percentage?
14. How much longer do you expect to see preferential treatment for selected minorities in hiring, promotion, and college and law and medical school admissions? Do you have anything to say to those non-minorities who are passed over for less qualified competitors because of affirmative action?
15. Why do you object to letting America’s voters determine our policies on critical issues like abortion, illegal immigration, and affirmative action? Are you considering changing the name of your party?
And McCain couldn’t ask the first four questions because he was too busy running away from Bush.
But that leaves the middle eight. McCain and Palin lost because they failed to discuss the financial crisis in a coherent, intelligible way. By the end of the World Series, every viewer should have heard of Barney Frank, Fannie Mae, and Fannie and Freddie’s $135,000 contribution to Obama. McCain spent the first half of the campaign defending the surge in Iraq and the second half defending people who make $250,000 per year. Four days before the election, while voters were worrying sick about their 401ks, the Maverick released an ad showing that Obama approved of his position on global warming. Like Dole, he always seemed to believe that American voters care about “character.”
Since Nov. 4th, posters have suddenly remembered that your enemy’s enemy is not necessarily your friend. But I continue to be surprised at the Sarahphilia on this site. She’s likeable, a genuine social conservative, and undoubtedly stirred the enthusiasm of the base. But that doesn’t win elections. Her job was to convert a hefty percentage of Hillary supporters. She couldn’t do this because she became a joke for them and for independents. You don’t have to be a RINO to be embarrassed by her performance in the interviews and debate, which is all most voters saw of her.
Reagan became the Great Communicator not just because of his training as an actor, but because he was intellectually curious. Jane Wyman, his first wife, complained, “If you ask him for the time, he’ll tell you how a clock works.” McCain and Palin were not curious enough about the most critical issue on the minds of most voters to educate themselves about the housing and credit crisis.
Sarah couldn’t ask because she was not allowed to by the McCain bunch ... I emailed her (www.alaska.gov/) with my support ....
What an extremely valuable and timely vanity. Perhaps next you’ll tell us where Wendell Wilkie went wrong.
Ugghhh..., another vanity...
Will these never stop? And..., will these ever be put in the “vanity slot”....
[*holding a cross*] — “Back, stay there...”
In order to ask those questions you would actually have to want to win the election. Let’s face it, most of us around here were holding our nose when we voted for McCain. He is a fine man (which is very important), but he is no conservative. I voted for him because he was palling around with Palin. We need her and Jindal to step up and lead the conservative movement. Two wildly popular conservative Governors who can win elections.
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Pretty good one...the Wilkie line.
This blaming Sarah Palin stuff has got to stop. She is the only reason why McCain kept this election as close.
Since we have these “lists”....Why:
1. Did John McCain, arguably the most pro-illegal alien of the entire Congress (authored the Amnesty bill)...could only get 1/3 of the Hispanic vote? All the liberals and RINO told us “To get the Hispanic vote...you must be pro illegal alien”. Obviously, a pro-illegal GOP candidate cannot win a general election
2. Why did the McCain staff keep Sarah Palin away for so long after the convention? And why was she allowed to do her first interview with the very liberal Katie Couric? Why also was Palin able to attract large crowds of support on her own...when McCain could not?
Newsflash: the election is over. Obama won.
Long woulda/coulda/shoulda vanities don’t help at this point.
>>And why was she allowed to do her first interview with the very liberal Katie Couric? Why also was Palin able to attract large crowds of support on her own...when McCain could not?
OK, but Katie’s liberalism is no excuse for not prepping. And large crowds don’t win elections.
I like the Wilkie line too, but the post-morts are still coming in hourly.
McCain is clueless. We all knew that going in. This is the same guy who claimed no American would lower themselves to work picking lettuce for 50 bucks an hour.
Unfortunately, his staff was as clueless and un-conservative as him, but worse, unprincipled. They were embarrassed by Gov. Palin and the left’s derision of her, while we were enthralled with a governor, and woman, who was tougher than any of the limp-wrists in the GOP.
We really need to push the effete out of the GOP leadership.
If a question is asked and no one in the MSM communicates it, does the answer (or lack of one) matter?
If a question is asked and the MSM uses it to demean the asker, should the question have been asked?
In history, the Wig party became the Republican party under Lincoln. I’d like to see the Republican party become the Conservative party under Sarah Palin ......
The only reason I voted Republican was because of Palin. McCain, hero that he is, is way out of his element as a national leader ... then there’s Obama, but then I repeat myself ....
This is a good cleansing of the Republican party ... hopefully those good old boys will be gone.
My visualization of the Republican party is that character of a banker on a Monopoly card and that of the Democrats as Al Capone ...
Sarah Palin is the Virgin Mary ....
BRAVO SIERRA!!
Sarah was kept on a short leash by the McCain campaign staff, and was basically thrown to the wolves (ie. Drive-By Media) unprepared. And although her debate performance against Biden was not spectacular, it was anything but embarassing, considering the blowhard she was up against.
IMO, Sarah should appoint herself to be Stevens' replacement when he gets frog marched out of the Senate. That will keep her on the national stage and give her a chance to tangle with and intellectually defeat the the other 'Rat blowhards there.
Palin/Jindal 2012!
How many politicians do you know that could be thrust into the spotlight, endure savage media attacks, and perform as well as Palin. Hmmmm?
The idiot McCain campaign should have built upon the momentum PALIN gave them at the convention by sending her around to the conservative talk show circuit, as well as pinpointed local news outlets.
Without her, he would have been slaughtered at the polls.
>>Without her, he would have been slaughtered at the polls.
He was slaughtered at the polls.
I can’t forgive both of them for not sticking it to the Dems on the housing/credit crisis. This is the issue that mattered most for voters, watching their 401ks vaporize.
They could have countered the “eight years of the Bush economy” by comparing the job growth and asset growth of the first six years (in spite of the 2000 tech bubble burst and 9-11) with a GOP House and Senate, with the unemployment and loss of stock values since the Democrats took Congress.
Your questions are more meaningful and constructive than the ones posted above. The future of the Republican Party is what matters, and that future is NOT John McCain.
I look at this as preparing for 2010 and 2012.
I emailed her also.
I hope Sarah is overwhelmed by the support we’re showing her!
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