Jonathan Martin and Josh Gerstein Lay Out Tough Question No One Will Ask

Great new article on The Politico that asks 10 tough questions that should be asked during the press conference tonight. You know, like the questions that were asked of President Bush for 8 years, and that should be asked in place of stuff like "How is you swimsuit fitting?" and "What is the hardest and easiest parts about moving into the White House?" (real questions).

I highly recommend reading the entire article here (http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/25265.html), but here are the questions for your perusing.

1) Is it still realistic that both chambers of Congress will pass health care bills before their summer recess in August? And how worried are you that missing the deadline could endanger your hopes of getting a bill this year?

2) Who are you referring to when you cite, as you did in your radio address last week, those “special interests” in health care who “make the same old arguments, and use the same scare tactics?” And what’s the difference between honest objections to a massive overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system, and what you consider obstructionism?

3) You have sought to focus attention on Sen. Jim DeMint’s comments alluding to the political benefit for the GOP in blocking healthcare reform, but it’s mostly Democratic members of Congress that your own political apparatus is targeting in TV ads now on the air. Why haven’t you been more successful in convincing members of your own party on this issue so far, and how does DeMint figure into your effort to lobby Democrats?

4) You said during the campaign that you would negotiate the health care bill on C-SPAN. But now you won't even release the names of health care executives who visit the White House for what are closed door discussions. How do you reconcile what you said during the campaign with your approach now?

5) On Monday you said that “folks on Wall Street don’t feel any remorse for taking all these risks; you don’t get a sense that there’s been a change of culture and behavior as a consequence of what has happened." What do you think Wall Street needs to do to show remorse and to change its culture? And isn’t the problem with the economy right now not some Wall Streeters getting bonuses, but the fact that recession is much tougher and deeper than even your administration projected?

6) Attorney General Eric Holder is considering appointing an independent prosecutor to investigate alleged abuses of detainees during the Bush era. When the White House was asked about this, officials repeated your mantra that the country should look forward, not back. What’s your view about when it’s appropriate for the White House to send signals to the Justice Department about what action it should take in regarding a criminal investigation?

7) In announcing the delay of up to six months in the report on detainee policy, White House officials said the issues were “hard” and “complicated” and that you wanted them to “get this right.” Weren’t they hard and complicated when you set the deadline earlier this year? What has changed? And are you still committed to closing Guantanamo Bay prison by January?

8) Your Secretary of State recently compared the North Korean regime attention-craving adolescents. Do you agree with that assessment, and either way, how do plan to proceed toward reining in North Korea’s missile program?

9) Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. was recently arrested by Cambridge police at his own home. Now the African-American scholar said he plans to use the experience to focus attention on racial profiling and the black experience in the criminal justice system. Do you think Gates was justified in accusing the police of being harassed for being “a black man in America?”

10) Do you still plan on joining a Washington-area church and attending services?