Questions For Obama

"Senator Barack H. Obama Jr. repeatedly refused to provide any responses to citizens on the issues through the 2008 Political Courage Test when asked to do so by national leaders of the political parties, prominent members of the media, Project Vote Smart President Richard Kimball, and Project Vote Smart staff."   

"We are scrupulously non-partisan -- our founding board, headed by former presidents Carter and [until his death] Ford, is carefully balanced, and we do not lobby, support or oppose any candidate, issue or cause. To protect the independence and integrity of this Voter's Self-Defense System of information, Project Vote Smart does not accept funding from government or corporate sources, or any special interest group that lobbies. Our sources of support are entirely individual memberships and foundation grants."

• Why would Americans trust someone who promises "change," but who does not trust Americans enough to tell them exactly to what kind of change he is committed? 

1. What will be the role, and cost, of the Federal Government's new direct and indirect involvement in recruiting teachers? 
2. What do you propose be the new, elevated national average teacher's salary?
3. What will be the proportional funding of that increase as sustained by local, country, state, and federal taxing entities? 
4. What will be the expected increase in federal employment headcount required to establish and maintain the new educational initiatives you propose?

1. Do you intend, if you are elected President, to protect and defend these United States of America from all enemies foreign and domestic?
2. If your answer is, "yes," will you conscientiously follow your own Blueprint, which implies that you sincerely believe diplomacy to be the best tool for our national defense?
3. You've said, "The United States is trapped by the Bush-Cheney approach to diplomacy that refuses to talk to leaders we don't like.  Not talking doesn't make us look tough - it makes us look arrogant."  Is it your contention, Senator Obama, that the only possible valid reason our current President could have for not sitting down and talking with the Iranians is that we don't like them? 

"The Afghan National Army is doing better and better. As we speak four million refugees have gone back to Afghanistan. Health care is up. Child mortality is down. Two-thirds of the villages in Afghanistan have received development projects worth up to $50,000. The average income of the Afghan has doubled since 2001. The currency is stable. Fourteen new banks are competing with each other. Three million Afghans have mobile phones. Forty percent of the Afghan land seeded with mines has been brought back into use.  In other words, if you look at 2001 and if you look at the beginning of 2008 a lot has happened and a lot of progress has been made...The problem is that we, the international community, we have no patience."

1. If you're elected President, how may more U.S. troops will you send to Afghanistan? 
2. At the tactical level, you were against the surge of U.S. troops to Iraq.  Today, though, you favor a surge in Afghanistan for a similar tactical mission.  Is this a contradiction?
3. In the Ohio debate you acknowledged that, as chairman of Senate subcommittee dealing with Afghanistan since the beginning of 2007, you have not yet called an oversight hearing.  If this issue is so important, how do you justify that?

1. Do you not consider Planned Parenthood, the number one provider of abortions in the United States, and also a recipient of millions of tax dollars every year, to be a "special-interest lobby" of the very kind which you consistently denounce?
2. If you are personally opposed to abortion, why do you feel it necessary to promise to bolster and fight for what you term, "reproductive justice"?
3. How does our failure as a society to protect the life of an innocent, even one born "inadvertently," define any sort of justice at all?

1. Your plan calls for the federal government to initiate similar "zones" and provide half of the funding, with the rest coming from philanthropies and businesses.  Isn't this a fundamentally different model than the HCZ?    
2. Canada is outspoken about how teacher unions are a hindrance to the type of inner city approach to education that makes the HCZ successful.  How would you overcome that hindrance?
3. How would your administration convince philanthropies and businesses that investing in a government social program would be as cost effective and offer the same accountability as investing in a NGO?