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Questions for Obama
Monday, July 28th, 2008My new Fox column is up. It’s a series of questions for Barack Obama.
Cue accusations that I was too easy/too hard on either Obama, or McCain in my last column.
22 Responses to “Questions for Obama”
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As someone that will most likely vote for Obama, I’ll say you hit most of the things that I question about him. Maybe could have also used a more explicit criticism of his shift on FISA, though you still mentioned it and its been covered elsewhere. Like your McCain column I’d like to see a response from the campaign, though I’d not keep much hope.
I hadn’t actually heard about his previous position on school vouchers. I’ll have to keep that in mind as a valid criticism for switching positions.
Please tell me that the next in the series will get “Questions for Barr”. Anything to show the people that there are indeed more than two people running for President.
Radley, your link to the McCain column is wrong. Here’s the correct link:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,381841,00.html
Even though I’m fairly anti-Obama (to be fair, I must state that I am also anti-McCain) I feel that your questions were fair and probing, as they should be.
And you know, even though we disagree on many things, Mr. Balko, I sincerely wish there were more people like you in politics today. So keep it up! Maybe people will start listening…even if it starts small.
I’ve been waiting for this article for two weeks! What have you been doing, you big slacker?!!?
its not that you are tougher on Obama … its that your questions are tougher in nature (read: more personal). which is fair because Obama is running as a person, not as a resume’d politician.
i was pro-Obama, and not just because i’m anti-McCain. i thought that maybe he would thumb his nose a little and do something different. but his two about-faces on FISA & the Telecoms are such bold reversals are crass beyond forgiveness.
your questions are fair and therefore will never be addressed
It’s nice to see all the reasons I don’t like Obama all in one place, especially as written by someone I highly respect. I will point my almost-libertarian friend towards your column. He was going to vote Obama, to my great distaste, but after FISA, he’s not nearly so certain. Maybe your column will disgust my friend further… I do hope I can convince him to “waste his vote” like me.
to the best of my knowledge the most thorough study of voucher programs to date shows that they AREN”T effective:
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=678202&format=print
So why ask Obama a question based on a false assumption?
That’s in one city, and the study shows the problem seems to be that parents were keeping kids in poorly performing public schools. When they actually exercise the choice part of school choice, the results are quite a bit better:
http://www.brookings.edu/articles/2000/09education_wolf.aspx
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=130478
But yeah, I should have indicated that the results are more mixed than simply writing “it has.”
Radley, I commend you on a critical piece. I’d add all of Obama’s globalism talk is scary, and he appears to want to usher in tighter integration with the UN. Read the UN charter some time, it’s quite scary.
Good article. But, you missed the most important question of all: Mr. Obama, why do you never laud individualism in your speeches?
Don’t vote in November. It’s the principle, stupid.
Barr would be an excellent addition to this worthy series. Please ask him how he can advocate, vote for, and praise the Lautenberg gun ban which strips Constitutionally-protected liberties over a misdemeanor.
I don’t understand how anyone could possibly vote for either of these candidates. The only thing that really seperates Obama from McCain is age and complexion.
Neither one will end the occupation in Iraq, neither one will get rid of the Patriot Act and restore our civil liberties, neither one respects individualism, and both have the pompous arrogance to force their morals and values onto their fellow Americans whether they want it or not.
Can someone explain to me why after eight years of GWB, why anyone would vote to put a different version of the same guy into office again?
I almost flipped on Obama when he flopped on FISA.
But to hell with it. He spent a lot of his time in poor neighborhoods on the south side of Chicago. How seriously do you think the fourth amendment is taken there?
It would be nice to have a President who stood up for the Constitution. But he is going to have to peel it out of the crack of Dick Cheney’s ass first.
I have always been one to either waste my vote on a third party or not show up. Not this time around gang. I’m voting for Obama because it is the best way I know to say “thanks for the memories” to the party of fiscal sanity and limited government.
Loved your questions to Obama. I honestly believe that if given the time and opportunity he would actually attempt to give you intelligent and well thought out answers.
Ever read “The Audacity of Hope”?
This statement is true about both your McCain and Obama columns:
Every single question is better than what the press is asking, but even within your list, some are a lot better than others.
For this article, I thought the last one and third-to-last one were kinda “gotcha” statements rather than actual questions. The rest were phenomenal.
Yes, and that’s why I won’t be voting for Mr Obama.
I’ll buy the first round when he does.
Buck,
Seriously, would you cut off your nose to spite your face? You want to give the necons the middle finger by screwing yourself and others with a vote for Obama? Gee, you’ll sure show them. I’m not sure how voting for a big government stooge will inspire the Republican Party to be Goldwater-esque again. It will only send a message for them to give us more government and more candidates like McCain.
The two studies you site use data that is approaching a decade old and were published in 2000 and 2002, and at best they show relatively minor gains only in one ethnic group. Since that time the evidence for positive effects for vouchers has been getting less and less compelling. The much more recent Milwaukee study was larger and designed to correct for the limitations of previous studies – the Milwaukee program was designed to be a model for voucher programs and this study was intended to be definitive.
Further, a larger more recent study of the DC system found, you guessed it, no significant effect from vouchers:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/16/AR2008061602537.html?hpid=topnews
I think you need to change the question, because right now it reads as pro-voucher propoganda rather than a reflection of the facts.
Two words: Ron Paul
I’ll be writing in Ron Paul. Should assure my spot as #1,134,392 on the Terrorist Watch List.
Fuck the Republican party. And I will warn my grandchildren about them.
They have had their chance and look around you.
I would be proud to vote for Ron Paul and did vote for him in the primary. But going forward I will not vote for him until he leaves that party. I want the Republican Party completely, totally and utterly destroyed. I want an electoral blood bath in November the likes of which this nation has never, ever seen.
I want a new and different party to emerge from the ashes. One that actually believes what it says and practices what it preaches.
And nobody will ever convince me that an Obama administration could be any worse than what I have just spent 8 years of my life watching.
I’ll believe it only when I see it.
Hm. But if next week’s column is “Questions for Barr” (or Nader, or McKinney), he’d probably answer them. Wouldn’t that ruin the whole point?