Pubdate: Tue, 03 Oct 2000
Source: Salon.com (US Web)
Copyright: 2000 Salon.com
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Author: Salon News Staff

TEN QUESTIONS FOR GORE AND BUSH

We'd Like To See These Issues Discussed At Tuesday Night's Debates, But We
Don't Think We Will.

Oct. 03, 2000 | Tuesday night's face-off between Gov. George W. Bush and
Vice President Al Gore may well decide the outcome of the presidential
election. The race is the closest such contest in 20 years, and each
candidate is banking on his performance before moderator Jim Lehrer to help
pull away from his opponent. But there are a handful of questions that
probably won't make the cut during Tuesday's 90-minute showdown. Below are
some of the questions we would like to see Bush and Gore answer before the
American people.

No. 1: Polls show that Americans support the death penalty, even though they
believe innocent people have been executed. If you believed innocent people
had been executed, would you still support the death penalty?

No. 2: You both support the war on drugs, which has swelled the American
prison population with hundreds of thousands of nonviolent offenders. Both
of you have had family members who've used illegal drugs (Karenna for Gore
and one of Jeb's children) who have never been in prison, and both of you
have faced questions about past drug use. First, how can you be a credible
force in the drug war if you don't believe it should be applied to your own
children, and second what will you do to make sure that the force of the law
doesn't disproportionately fall on the underprivileged?

No. 3: Name your top five priorities for the continent of Africa, specifying
which countries, and what, in precise detail, your plans entail.

No. 4: Both of you have spoken with regret about the perception that
candidates have been bought by special interests. But haven't you been part
of the problem? Vice President Gore, in retrospect, was it ethical for you
to attend a fundraiser at a Buddhist temple? And Gov. Bush, do you regret
the Wyly brothers' ads that attacked John McCain in the New York primaries?

No. 5: Gov. Bush, why shouldn't gays and lesbians, like, say, Mary Cheney
and her partner, be afforded the same marriage rights as, say, Bill and
Hillary Clinton, and the same civil rights protections as anyone else? And
why do you think gay civil unions would threaten the institution of
marriage? Mr. Gore, do you still believe that gays should be allowed to
serve openly in the military, and are you still planning to apply a litmus
test to any prospective chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff?

No. 6: Both of you, as professed born-again Christians, believe as a matter
of faith that those who have not accepted Jesus Christ cannot be saved.
Therefore, do you believe that Joseph Lieberman and all other Jews are going
to hell?

No. 7: You both offer extensions to entitlement programs that benefit
seniors, who already, by a ratio of 10-to-1, receive more
government-sponsored aid than children do. How do you justify the difference
between the money the federal government spends on seniors and the money it
spends on children?

No. 8: Did President Clinton perjure himself in the Monica Lewinsky case? If
a jury finds him guilty of doing so, are you willing to pardon him?

No. 9: Gov. Bush, how much carnage would you tolerate in a foreign arena
that was not of strategic interest to the United States before you
intervened? Would you never intervene? Vice President Gore, under your
administration, would American troops be committed to foreign deployments
for strictly humanitarian efforts, no matter how disconnected the events in
a country were from American interests?

No. 10: Gov. Bush, if you truly believe that every abortion takes an
innocent human life, how do you justify avoiding a pledge to do everything
possible to overturn Roe vs. Wade immediately after entering office,
including putting Supreme Court justices through a litmus test? Mr. Gore,
with the Born Alive Infants Protection Act, the House of Representatives
voted to outlaw a method of "abortion" that involves delivering a baby
pre-term and withholding care until the child dies. Given that the child is
no longer physically dependent on the mother, and that other children born
at similar points in pregnancy are given extensive medical care, what is the
difference between this abortion method and euthanasia or infanticide?
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