Issue Insight

View Original

Setting The Stage For This Evening:  Four White People.  Three Men And One Woman. Three White Men And One White Woman.  Four Very Wealthy White People. Here Are Some Questions…  

Setting The Stage For This EveningFour White People (Ages 52, 55, 78, 82).  Three Men And One Woman. Three White Men And One White Woman.  Four Very Wealthy White People.  

Given The Increasing Brevity With Which Citizens Obtain Their Daily Flow Of Information, And A Focus Upon Limited Reading And Video Measured In Seconds Rather Than Minutes, Useful To Remember The 1960 Presidential Election Campaign Engagement Between Richard Nixon, Vice President Of The United States (1953-1961), And John Kennedy, United States Senator (1953-1960). 

  • Media Reporting Indicated That Viewers Of The 1960 Engagement Believed Senator Kennedy Performed Better While Listeners To The 1960 Engagement Believed Vice President Nixon Performed Better. 

On 27 June 2024, Joseph Biden, 46th President of the United States (2021- ), and Donald Trump, 45th President of the United States (2017-2021), will share a stage in Atlanta, Georgia, for the first of two scheduled joint appearances.  The second joint appearance is 10 September 2024, likely in New York City.  Neither event is a true debate as there will be intermediaries.  Each event will have two journalists from the hosting company.  The first event from CNN.  The second event from ABC News.  

Do these moderators best represent the United States electorate?  Ms. Dana Bash (52) and Mr. Jake Tapper (55).  Both are white.  Both are middle-aged.  One twice divorced (Bash).  Both are parents (Bash one; Tapper two).  Both are Jewish.   Both are longtime residents of the Washington DC Metropolitan Area.  Both have multi-million-dollar annual salaries from CNN. 

Ms. Bash and Mr. Tapper have not hidden their positions relating to the government of the State of Israel, Palestinian National Authority, Hamas Organization, Gaza War, and campus (college and university) protests.  Coverage by CNN has been criticized by Muslims as biased.  There are concerns in the Muslim community that Ms. Bash and Mr. Tapper will editorialize, bring their personal beliefs into their questioning.  How can they not?  Their race, gender, religious belief, educational background, and economic status will be foundations for their respective questions.    

Questions Moderators Should Ask To Both Candidates: 

  • Why are United States voters better off or less better off during the Biden-Harris Administration (2021- ) than they were during the Trump-Pence Administration (2017-2021)? 

  • The United States government will spend nearing US$2 trillion in 2024 and beyond.  The national debt is nearing US$36 trillion.  What is your four-year plan to pay down the national debt.  Not only pay the annual interest, but reduce the national debt?  Important you focus your answer only upon what you can complete by the end of your four-year term, not what you want to be followed after the completion of your four-year term. 

  • United States defense spending is approaching US$1 trillion.  The annual budget is determined by revenues and expenses.  If expenses exceed revenues, the government has choices: borrow, deficit spending, printing currency, or reduce spending.  Can defense spending be decreased?  If not, what spending can be decreased?  Specifically, how will you decrease spending?  

  • If you win, how will you be an example of fiscal discipline during the four-year term?  What trappings of the presidency would you relinquish?  Fewer weekend trips?  Fewer staff?  What can you do without? 

  • How should voters evaluate and then compare your strategies for ending the Russian Federation-Ukraine war, the State of Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, and the aggressiveness of the government of the People’s Republic of China with its neighbors sharing the East China Sea, Philippine Sea, and South China Sea?  Please discuss each. 

  • Can you commit to lowering income tax rates, fees charged by the United States government, for United States taxpayers?  If not, why not? 

  • If the 119th United States Congress, both House of Representatives and Senate, are not controlled by your political party, what will be your strategy to implement your policies and regulations and laws? 

  • If you win and your political party can only control one chamber in the United States Congress, which chamber would you prefer- House of Representatives or Senate?  Why this chamber? 

  • What should be the limitation of the federal government and state governments relating to female reproductive decisions?  

  • Decisions by the federal government and by state governments to control legal migration and illegal migration remain an unresolved, unsatisfied issue for voters.  Please share your four-year plan to control legal migration and illegal migration using solely executive authority.  In addition, please share your four-year legislative plan based upon your political party not having control of one or both chambers in the 119th United States Congress.  

  • Each of you and members of your family have been subjected to the judicial process.  How should voters evaluate charges, evidence, and outcomes?  What might voters know that is not accurate and what might voters not know that they should know?

  • There are voters concerned you are too old, too white, and too privileged.  That you lie. That you exaggerate.  That you make gaffes.  You require personal credit for everything.  What is your response to those voters who have those concerns?

  • Why are you not traveling to each of the fifty states given that you want to be president of the United States of America?  Even if you are confident of victory in a certain state, so not enthusiastic to use campaign resources and your time to make a visit, is not optically important for a candidate seeking to represent approximately 336 million people who reside in the United States of America to visit each state?

LINK TO COMPLETE ANALYSIS IN PDF FORMAT