To get the ball rolling on the winnowing process, I have five questions for the candidates and potential candidates:
1.) Who would you nominate to serve as your Secretary of State?
2.) Who would be your nominee for Secretary of Defense? Would you demand full funding of the VA, including it's health system and veterans services?
3.) Who would you nominate as the United States Ambassador to the United nations?
4.) If congress passed legislation rolling back the Military Commissions Act, would you sign that legislation?
Same question, but substitute Patriot Act for MCA.5.) What is your plan to wean this country off imported oil and move this country toward green energy independence?
For the record, I consider the following to be the correct answers to the questions posed:
A1.) Bill Clinton
A2.) General Wesley Clark; and not just yes, but hell yes!!! (if Clark is not eligible, my alternate would be Sam Nunn).
A3.) Jimmy Carter
A4.) Yes and Yes
Everybody always gives the same answer on the energy question...Alternative energy development; tax credits for energy upgrades and certain hybrid vehicle purchases, blah blah blah. This is sound and fury signifying nothing.
A5.) We need a Manhattan Project for alternative energy development and movement toward energy independence. Offer scholarships to students who want to study engineering environmental sciences. Threaten General Motors with federalization if they don't resume production of that electric car that everyone loved and they refused to sell. (I need to do more research here, admittedly. I have only headline knowledge of the Electric Car that Big Oil Killed.)
The answers to these five questions would help me start the process of deciding which candidate to back for the 2008 nomination.
