In a debate, would John King ask President Obama about this...? (Video)

No, not about crushing the Keystone Pipeline project although that certainly would be an important one to ask! It's the following two debate questions that the mainstream media will likely not present to President Obama!

The first question is one that should not be asked while the second is one that needs to be asked!

This assumes of course that once the Republican candidate for president is known President Obama will commit to a series of debates.

That won't ever happen, but hypothetically speaking what types of questions would Barack Obama be asked by a John King, Wolf Blitzer or any other representative of the mainstream media?

Would they be gotcha questions or would they be substantive questions concerning what the President has actually done or not done in office that offers an explanation to the American people of why it is that he deserves a 2nd term in the White House?

First a South Carolina debate recap!

First a look at one of the non-substantive questions that the Republican presidential primary candidates have been asked.

In one of the South Carolina debates moderator John King of CNN asked Newt Gingrich this:

“As you know, your ex-wife gave an interview to ABC News and another interview with The Washington Post and this story has now gone viral on the Internet. In it she says that you came to her in 1999 at a time when you were having an affair. She says you asked her, sir, to enter into an open marriage. Would you like to take some time to respond to that?” (Source)

I suppose that John King would somehow justify this question regarding an unsubstantiated accusation from a woman with an axe to grind against her ex-husband by saying that it spoke to the integrity, character and moral fiber of the candidate.

If that is the case, and that rather than asking substantive policy questions debates should move in the direction of unsubstantiated and mostly unverifiable character assassinations, then would this be be the opening question from (insert mainstream media moderator name here) to President Obama during a debate with the ultimate Republican nominee:

Hypothetical Presidential Debate Question #1

MSM moderator: Mr. President the American public needs to examine not only the policy decisions that a candidate has made in the past but also the character of that candidate.

Please watch the monitor and then please tell the American people how you would respond, sir, to these allegations by Larry Sinclair that you used crack cocaine in his presence and that you and he had a sexual encounter in the back of a limousine?

How do you respond to this, sir?

Of course this question will not be asked and nor should it be, in the same way John King should not have asked the question that he asked Newt Gingrich.

Hypothetical Presidential Debate Question #2

The following question, however, would be critical for the American people to have an answer to when making a decision in November. It is another question that would also most likely never be asked of President Obama either:

MSM Moderator: Mr. President, the following question speaks to one of your foreign policy stances that ultimately proved so very wrong.

The question concerns the "Arab Spring" in Egypt and your position at the time Hosni Mubarak must immediately step down so that the demands of the Egyptian people for change could run its course.

While at the time this was an extremely popular political stance particularly in light of your domestic support for the Occupy Wall Street movement, the soundness as a policy position was roundly questioned.

Many were of the opinion that this was going to be a door that the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist groups were going to walk through resulting in a Sharia Law based system of government that would be destabilizing for the region and for Israel in particular.

Ultimately, as we have recently witnessed, Islamists have won control and we are already beginning to see the beginnings of the implementation of Sharia Law.

My question to you, sir, is whether this ultimate result in Egypt and your strong support for the Arab Spring uprising was simply a failure of your administration to understand, as so many others did, that this was very likely to happen?

Or, was an Islamist takeover of the Egyptian government and the resulting and potentially extremely negative impact on Israel, the rest of the Middle East and the world your desired endgame in the first place?

How do you respond, sir?

Why debate?

Because the ultimate and true purpose of these debates are to offer the American people insight into how the candidates would govern the country or in the case of President Obama have been governing the country. They offer a look at the candidates philosophy and more importantly a look at their records.

Theoretically then if the people of the country were making informed and thoughtful decisions at the ballot box, and not decisions that are molded by 15 second sound-bites, these debates would go a long way in helping them to do that.

Some if not most will go the 15 second sound-bite route, but for the others why not try to make the debates serve the purpose that they were designed to serve!

Cartoon source

Become a fan of The Political Commentator on Facebook here!

Follow The Political Commentator on Twitter here!

Friend The Political Commentator and Michael Haltman on Facebook here!

Connect with Michael Haltman on LinkedIn here (exetertraining@aol.com)!

Related articles

• Palin: These cannibals in the GOP establishment are employing leftist tactics - Hot Air (hotair.com)
• Bewt Newt? (blogs.dailymail.com)