Open Letter to:
Glenn Reynolds/instapundit.com
Charles Johnson/littlegreenfootballs.com
Patrick Frey/patterico.com
Ace/ace.mu.nu
Tom Maguire/justoneminute.typepad.com
Jeff Goldstein/proteinwisdom.com
Dan Riehl/riehlworldview.com
Rob Port/sayanythingblog.com
Unless we do something now, the mainstream media is going to throw the election to Barack Obama. I need your help to promote a very effective plan that will show that Obama isn't qualified. The plan will also help reveal media bias and show that the media has not done its job.
Under the plan, regular people will go to Obama's public appearances, ask him tough questions about his policies and his lies to his face, get his response on video and then upload his response to Youtube and other video sharing sites.
A good question that gets a "good" response will show hundreds of thousands or even millions of people that Obama is not qualified to be president. A very favorable response would probably be linked to by Drudge and featured on TV and would have a devastating impact on his chances.
Please bear in mind that Obama has rarely been pressed on his policies and his lies, and on the few occasions when he was pressed on something he didn't respond too very well. If someone asks him a really tough question, there's no telling how he'll respond.
Note that I'm only talking about honorable questions about his lies, his misleading and incomplete statements, his documented associations with radicals, and the incredibly obvious flaws in his policies. I'm not talking about smear or personal questions. And, I only want the questions to be asked in a polite but forceful manner, and only at designated Q&A sessions or whenever else it's appropriate.
Based on almost two years' experience trying to push this plan without luck, I know it's going to be difficult to get people to ask real questions. I've posted dozens of posts urging people to ask questions, I've posted dozens of comments on this topic at other sites, I've come up with several tough questions, and I've even offered money to anyone who'd ask one of those questions. No one took me up on the offer.
Some might argue, in good faith or not, that Obama doesn't take questions. In fact he has and there will probably be many opportunities during this month. Some won't think that the plan would be effective. We'll never know until it happens, but I have yet to see Obama really pressed on something, and it's possible to come up with questions that will make him look bad and that leave little room for him to deliver a stock speech. And, some people might even be worried about being tased or beaten up by his supporters. There's only a very minor possibility of that happening, provided that people ask legitimate questions in a legitimate fashion. But, if it does happen, it would be news in itself and would make the Obama campaign or its supporters look almost as bad as asking a real question would.
I am absolutely positive that this plan will work if the questions are good enough, and I ask you to come up with very tough questions in your fields of expertise and then urge your visitors to go ask them.
It is vitally important that the questions are succinct, are easy to understand for those who aren't familiar with the topic, that they try to solicit information not already discussed, and that they're designed to anticipate the answer that Obama would provide.
Too many questions - such as those submitted to the CNN/Youtube debate - are general in nature and act as little more than an opportunity for a candidate to replay a stock speech. The questions must go beyond that and must be designed in recognition of positions already taken and statements already made. The questions must ask about specific failings, lies, or misleading or incomplete statements. And, they must give Obama a choice between either directly answering the question or clearly avoiding answering the question. And, of course, to avoid any doubt about the validity of the questions they must be fully sourced.
The topic that I mainly cover is immigration, and a few questions I have for Obama are here. Another is here, and this question applies to Obama as well. Countless other questions can be fashioned by searching through the coverage of Obama at my site.
I am willing to help edit questions for maximum effectiveness or help in any other way with this effort.
If we don't do something now, Obama is going to be president in the new year. I think avoiding that is worth a few hours spent waiting to ask a question.
Please develop very tough questions for Obama and then urge your visitors to go ask them.
UPDATE: I posted this to FreeRepublic (link) and all I got were nine off-topic and/or worthless replies. Meanwhile, a few hours after I posted this entry Instapundit posted this suggestion about what to do about media bias. It basically boils down to supporting Pajamas Media and constructing a mirror image of the MSM rather than an unbiased system. More importantly for those worried about Rome burning, nothing in there is going to prevent BHO from becoming president.
UPDATE 2: I slightly changed the wording above to make it clear that I'm refering to asking Obama questions to his face at his public appearances. Specifically, I'm not refering to submitting video or text questions to the campaign in the hope that they'll respond, since they'd never respond to tough questions. Only by going to his appearances and surprising him with a tough question can we get a good response.
I've also so far received zero response from any of those mentioned above, although I did receive a favorable response from someone else. However, unless this catches on in short order I'll be forced to try Plan B: replacing "Obama" with "McCain" above and posting this to leftwing sites. Since those on the left are more activist and have actually done things like this before (albeit in their own special way), perhaps they can show those who don't want Obama to be president how to do things.
UPDATE 3: Insty posts a link to this suggestion from Ed Wheaton that reporters should ask Obama real questions about Bill Ayers. The problem, of course, is that reporters will never ask Obama tough questions, putting both of them in the position of advocating something that will never happen.
UPDATE 4 10/6/08: I sent an email to some people at The Corner and, while they haven't embraced my idea Peter Kirsanow does have some questions for Tuesday's townhall "debate" here.
UPDATE 5 10/14/08: Finally a little movement on this proposal comes from this post.
Politics · Wed, 10/01/2008 - 11:32 · Importance: 1