Tough Questions??

A great number of conservative pundits and talk radio hosts have blasted the press for asking the President "unfair" questions in his most recent press conference.

Here's a few that have been disscussed:

Q Thank you, Mr. President. Two weeks ago, a former counterterrorism official at the NSC, Richard Clarke, offered an unequivocal apology to the American people for failing them prior to 9/11. Do you believe the American people deserve a similar apology from you, and would you be prepared to give them one?

Q Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, April is turning into the deadliest month in Iraq since the fall of Baghdad, and some people are comparing Iraq to Vietnam and talking about a quagmire. Polls show that support for your policy is declining and that fewer than half Americans now support it. What does that say to you and how do you answer the Vietnam comparison?

Q Mr. President, before the war, you and members of your administration made several claims about Iraq that U.S. troops would be greeted as liberators with sweets and flowers, that Iraqi oil revenue would pay for most of the reconstruction; and that Iraq not only had weapons of mass destruction, but as Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld said, we know where they are. How do you explain to Americans how you got that so wrong? And how do you answer your opponents, who say that you took this nation to war on the basis of what have turned out to be a series a false premises?

The following is a list of questions the Liberal media asked Bill Clinton right before he directed U.S. troops to stop the genocide occuring in Kosovo.

Q Mr. President, when Juanita Broaddrick leveled her charges against you of rape, in a nationally televised interview, your attorney, David Kendall, issued a statement denying them. But shouldn't you speak directly on this matter, and reassure the public? And if they are not true, can you tell us what your relationship with Ms. Broaddrick was, if any?

Q Mr. President, how long have you known that the Chinese were stealing our nuclear secrets? Is there any trust left between the two nations? And some Republicans are saying that you deliberately suppressed the information from the American people because of the election and your trade goals.

Q Sir, George Stephanopoulos has written a book that contains some tough and fairly personal criticism of you. Earlier, Dick Morris had written a somewhat similar book. How much pain do these judgments by former aides cause you? And do you consider it a betrayal for people to write books on the history of your administration while you're still in office?

Q Mr. President, your Vice President has recently been ridiculed for claiming the he invented the Internet and spent his boyhood plowing steep hillsides in Tennessee. I'm wondering what you think of those claims and what advice you'd give him about how to brag on himself without getting in so much trouble. (Laughter.)

Q Do you think the American people agree with you on the fact that we send armed soldiers to everyplace in the world where there's a conflict?

Q: Mr. President, speaking of issues, is there any reason to take seriously a promise from any politician of either party for campaign finance reform? To regard it as anything other than lip service when by actually voting for campaign finance reform in a way that would cause the bill to pass, they'd be facilitating challenges to themselves? I mean, do you believe that this is really possible.


It is the responsibility of the press to ask the president tough and poignant questions. They don't give anyone a pass, and they shouldn't.