Questions I Wish Someone Would Ask Barack Obama

What is the greatest crisis or challenge you have faced in your adult life, and how did you deal with it? What qualities of leadership did you demonstrate during this crisis that would give Americans confidence in you as their Commander-in-Chief?

Where were you the Sunday after September 11, 2001, since you have said that you were not in Jeremiah Wright’s church to hear his “the chickens have come home to roost” sermon? Did you attend another church that day, or just skip it? Or did you hear that speech, and lie, knowing no MSM interviewer would ask this?

Are you really as naive as you pretend to be or do you rationalize every association within the context of how it may or may not further your career? I refer to William Ayers first—did you ever express your disgust at the time with his 2000 portrait standing on the flag in a Chiacgo alley or with his 2001 NYT article stating that “America makes (him) want to puke” and that he wished he had done more bombing? No, you waited until a journalist, in 2008, impolitely brought up your numerous associations (interned at the same law firm where Ayers’ wife--the despicable and sadistic Bernadine Dohrn--had been sheltered by her father-in-law Tom Ayers, worked on education reform--the Developing Communities project under the wings of Ayers’ ABC campaign for school reform in the late 80s, appointed to the chair of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge by Ayers in 1995, sat on Woods Foundation Board with the man in the late 90s, and gave a “rave review” (NYT) to Ayers’ 1997 book, A Kind and Just Parent?) to express your dismay!

How about when Ayers travelled to Venezuela in 2006 to give a speech with Hugo Chavez looking on in satisfaction? Afraid to confront him directly? How are you going to convince enemy leaders of your inner strength in the face of danger if you can't even stand up to "a guy in your neighborhood"? Maybe, after all, it isn't lack of courage, but a lack of disagreement with Bill Ayers and his philosophy that prevented your assailing him. You can understand why neither possibility is comforting to American voters, so that is why your minions construe every mention of this issue as a personal attack, in order to distract voters from pondering either your faint-heartedness or your radical tendencies.

You know, I was eight years old when Castro demanded that the Soviets launch a nuclear strike from his island nation against the U.S.—do I now, or will I ever countenance the United States working cooperatively with such a man without a murmur about his evil past?

Your delayed reaction to Ayers calls to mind your initial defense of Jeremiah Wright as someone you could “no more disown than you could disown the black community” (what a racist statement that was!). It wasn’t until Wright himself slurred your good name that you rose in anger to thoroughly disown him. Is it all about you, Barack? Curse your country, and you’re mildly perturbed (maybe), but not enough to react out loud. Disparage you personally, however--now that’s serious!

A few more evil associations that have received little attention: your support of Rashid Khalidi, (in the form of testimonials, and grants from the Woods Foundation) of the Arab American Action Network (Khalidi is an unrepentant former director of the PLO’s news agency), and Edward Said (Israel-hating, Ayers-admiring Columbia prof), with whom you and Michelle had a pleasant dinner in 1998 at the Arab-American annual event.

Do you have any friends or acquaintances that don’t Blame America & Israel First for All That is So Terribly Wrong with This World? Really? Name one, whom you’ve known before 2006.

How can you promote yourself as post-racial when you refer to your grandmother as “a typical white woman”, see the “black community” as monolithic in thought and deed, and try to goad voters into expecting racial undertones to the campaign (“They’re going to say 'he doesn’t look like us' or 'he has a funny middle name' " before any were forthcoming (at least from Republicans)? Isn’t that incendiary rather than unifying?

Do you appreciate capitalism? Have you ever held a job in the private sector? Which do you think has brought more people out of poverty in the developing world—foreign aid, government grants, or self-generated capitalism? If you think the latter (and I know your answer, for I’m willing to bet that you are oh-so-smart on multiple choice tests), then why would you castigate companies, as you did in your “race” speech, for taking jobs overseas “just for a profit”? Don’t you realize that for-profit companies cannot survive without profit? Even socialist Europe, idol of the left, is beginning to realize that lowering corporate tax rates is the best boon to economic success. Ireland’s rate, for instance, is a third of ours, and their economic success and per capita income rise the envy of Europe.

What new idea do you have that is not an expansion of an idea that has already failed? The Annenberg Challenge, all 160 million dollars worth, failed to increase education levels of the Chicago students it bankrolled any more than non-Annenberg programs did. Head Start, according to a Clinton-era study, also failed to make a significant difference in preschool achievement levels after forty years of trying, yet your Zero-to-Five proposal advocates expanding it, throwing good money after bad. Universal government-run health insurance? Ask the Canadians. Tax the rich—more? Remember the luxury tax on yachts? Sounded like a good idea--make those wealthy bastards pay for their extravagant lifestyles--except for the unintended consequences to the laid-off blue collar yacht builders.

Who wins in an arm-wrestle match between you and Hillary? You and Sarah? You and McCain? Don’t answer, because I know that you’d best all three today--you’re young, male and the most physically fit. (McCain, before torture, no contest--he’d take you). Why is this stupid macho kind of question important to me? Because, in my heart of hearts, I think you’re a lightweight—not physically, but internally—who have you stood up to that was scary, that you knew could pummel you but you took them on anyway, all by yourself (see Bill Ayers, above)? Could you face down Ahmadinejad, alone, without a coterie of fawning journalists in tow? I hope so, but I don’t know so, not from what I’ve seen so far.