What I find most interesting about those three topics — all of which were asked to other candidates during the debate — is that they’re about social issues. Howard Dean complained in 2003 that he was tired of having to deal with voters about “guns, God and gays.”
That’s one way of summing up those three questions that Mrs. Clinton did not answer. Any answer acceptable to the liberal Democrat base would hurt Hillary in the general election. She should have to answer them now.
There’s a fourth question that no one asked her. She voted to start this war. She now says that she’d keep troops in Iraq to achieve certain objectives. Governor Bill Richardson says Hillary’s plan requires 50,000 troops to stay. But then she voted to cut off funding for the troops in harm’s way in battle right now.
How many troops would Hillary keep in Iraq, for how long, and how can she say some troops should stay but vote against the funding those troops need to keep fighting? She promised to never vote against troop funding, then when Senator Obama voted against funding, she mimicked his vote. She’s trying to have it both ways.
And finally, there is one question no one was asked: How would you fight radical jihadists and their global network of terrorists? It is patently absurd that not a single question was asked of any candidate about how they would deal with the deadly menace of global terrorism.
Curiouser and Curiouser.
I won’t say there’s a vast left-wing conspiracy to save her from all the hard questions. I’m not going to say that CNN is trying to save her from having to answer questions that divide Democrat voters.
But these are questions that should have been asked of the frontrunner, and they weren’t.
The next official Democrat debate is right around the corner. The hosts of that debate should make sure they get to those questions.
Regarding the first three questions, Americans deserve to know if a frontrunner who desires to be our next president stands with mainstream social values, or the values of the far Left.
Regarding the last two questions, we are in an existential fight for survival. After September 11, no one doubted the global threat of radical jihadists. Yet we’ve grown complacent.
We are in a war that will be raging when you and I have passed on. The lives of our children and grandchildren are endangered by this radical and lasting menace.
These are the questions that should have been put to Senator Clinton. The next debate must put them front and center.