Candidate Question Time

Burt Likko

Pseudonymous Portlander. Pursuer of happiness. Bon vivant. Homebrewer. Atheist. Recovering Republican. Recovering Catholic. Recovering divorcé. Editor-in-Chief Emeritus of Ordinary Times. Relapsed Lawyer, admitted to practice law (under his real name) in California and Oregon. There's a Twitter account at @burtlikko, but not used for posting on the general feed anymore. House Likko's Words: Scite Verum. Colite Iusticia. Vivere Con Gaudium.

Related Post Roulette

44 Responses

  1. Kim says:

    First, “Have you ever been blackmailed? If so, how did you respond? What will you respond if someone finds some dirt on you as POTUS?”
    Second, “You are entertaining the thought of becoming POTUS, a position that has historically led to the deaths of many who chose to serve, often at a particular group’s instigation. Will you name that group, and will you go against them if chosen to serve?”

    These… are not-nice questions. Luv to know the answers though.Report

  2. Francis says:

    Keeping in mind the likely makeup of the Congress, what is your top legislative priority and why?

    What will you do if govt revenues fall way below expenditures? Will you run a deficit or cut programs? If the latter, where do you see making major cuts?Report

  3. Stillwater says:

    If elected Preznit, would you set up your official email account thru a server privately maintained in your current home or would you use the already set-up .gov site?Report

  4. Marchmaine says:

    Can I see your long-form birth certificate?Report

  5. Jaybird says:

    “Which journalists do you already have in your pocket?”

    “Can you provide the short list of people (non-heads of state) who know that you will call them back as quickly as humanly possible if you get a memo saying that they called you?”Report

    • Stillwater in reply to Jaybird says:

      “Which particular Wall Street speaking gigs would you recommend to ex-Obama officials on the assumption they just take the fee offered?”Report

      • Jaybird in reply to Stillwater says:

        Did you see the Marc Ambinder mess?

        Ugly, ugly, ugly.Report

        • Stillwater in reply to Jaybird says:

          I hadn’t read that specific article, but yeah, I was aware of it. Ugly is right.Report

        • Will Truman in reply to Jaybird says:

          I’ve heard that Ambinder is about to go nuclear and name names of everyone who’s done the same.

          A part of me hopes it’s true.

          The other part of me says that Ambinder always struck me as a kind and decent guy who would regret doing such a thing.Report

          • Damon in reply to Will Truman says:

            That action would go well to right the kilter of his current karma. He should do it and expose the rest of the media whores.Report

            • Morat20 in reply to Damon says:

              You watched the lead-up to Iraq 2.0, right? There ain’t many politicians — and exactly zero major media outlets — that won’t whore themselves out for an ‘exclusive’ interview, or an interesting tidbit, or just some juicy insider access.

              And god help the politician that doesn’t treat reporters like kings, or deny them that cushy access.

              24-7 news. Even the papers have to do it — online, you know. No time for fact checking. No time for spell checking. They’ll report anything juicy, repeat press releases verbatim as investigative reporting….Report

  6. Saul Degraw says:

    How do you define freedom and liberty?Report

  7. Will Truman says:

    That’s an extremely good question. (Though @dick_nixon would surely disapprove)Report

  8. LeeEsq says:

    If it turns out that your policy choices are not working the way you want them to, will you reverse course?Report

  9. Mike Dwyer says:

    Late at night, when you get hungry and want the WH chef to make you something, what will it be?Report

  10. Joe Sal says:

    How does people throwing shoes at your head make you feel?Report

  11. Kazzy says:

    “What was the proudest you’ve ever felt? Why? What other emotions did you feel during the experience?”

    I’d shake my ahead at any pat answer about “serving the people of this fine nation”; I considered including a disclaimer about leaving aside professional/political life, but I’d actually want to see if they go with the BS answer. I think the next most likely answer would have to do with the birth of a child(ren), hence the follow up questions which would indicate the degree of actual humanity they possess. Anything other than those two would be a wild card of sorts and likely informative one way or another.Report

  12. Autolukos says:

    If you saw delicious candy in the hands of a baby, would you seize and consume it?Report

  13. Michael Cain says:

    Do you run an ad blocker?Report

  14. Tod Kelly says:

    [Note: My question is played out here for GOP candidates. However, it can easily be mirrored for the DNC brood. And obviously, it would obviously not worked universally had Rand Paul not dropped out of the race at this point.]

    During the Bush administration, the Democrats were critical of the President’s use of executive order to essentially avoid or even draft legislation. They referred to this practice as unconstitutional and an abuse of executive power. At the time, your party and you individually supported those actions by that administration. Now, during a Presidential administration run by the other party, you have been frequently been quoted saying that the exact same action of executive order is unconstitutional and an abuse of power. In fact, you now claim using this tactic is “tyranny.”

    Senator/Governor/Doctor/ ____________, how do you square that circle, and what would you say tonight to those voters that see these kinds of antics as proof you are merely saying whatever you think will get you elected?

    And as a follow up, would you be willing to make a promise to voters now, on this stage, that you will sign no executive orders as Commander in Chief? And if not, since you claim they are tyrannical, why not?Report

    • Michael Cain in reply to Tod Kelly says:

      For clarification, is the use of “Commander in Chief” supposed to be a subject-matter limitation? Many of the executive orders are minor matters of agency organization or the details of instructions provided by Congress. Eg, Congress says the USDA shall manage some function; the President, by executive order, creates a sub-department with some organization somewhere within the USDA to execute that management. Even many of the orders done in the role of Commander in Chief are routine, related to promotions, assignment of general officers to specific jobs, etc.Report

      • A candidate who pledges to not sign ANY executive orders demonstrates that he has not undertaken even a casual study of how the President actually gets the job done and therefore that he is not to be taken seriously.

        A candidate who pledges not to sign any MAJOR executive orders sounds like he’s waffling and is therefore not to be trusted.

        A candidate who pledge to be mindful of his role within a divided government when issuing executive orders might be granted the benefit of the doubt, if the candidate is otherwise relatively trustworthy and apparently intelligent.Report

        • Morat20 in reply to Burt Likko says:

          *shrug*. A candidate who says “Congress — and even the Courts — will provide the appropriate oversight of my use of executive orders, just as my use of executive orders is one such check against both of them” is one who, you know, understands it.

          Then again, my beef with executive orders is generally over the content, not the existence, of.Report

    • Jaybird in reply to Tod Kelly says:

      Would an executive order that says “Executive Order #N is hereby rescinded” (where Executive Order #N is one of the previously criticized executive orders) be considered hypocritical?Report

  15. Jaybird says:

    If you are the person responsible for rescheduling Marijuana away from Schedule 1, will you do so?

    If it turns out that it is Congress, will you entreat Congress to do so?

    If it turns out that it is the Attorney General, will you ask for the Attorney General’s resignation if zhe does not do so?Report

  16. aaron david says:

    What was the last book you read that changed your view on the subject? What did you read afterwords and how did that effect the view change from the former book?

    What do you have in your pockets?Report

    • greginak in reply to aaron david says:

      Guaranteed answer would be the bible, then i reread the bible and i have a pocket bible in my pocket.Report

    • Tod Kelly in reply to aaron david says:

      “I’ll tell you what book changes minds all over the country. It’s called Art of the Deal — does anyone here have a copy? Can you hold it up? Ma’am, can you hold up that copy you’re holding for the TV cameras? By the way, aaron, did you know there are more TV cameras pointed at me right now than at any other person in any debate ever? But back to the question. It’s a great book, Art of the Deal, a great, great book. Yuuge best seller, the biggest selling book of all history, if you look at the people who know how to count that kind of stuff up, they say that all the time. And places like Harvard and Yale and ITT, they actually make kids read it because it’s so important. Everyone loves it. It’s right below the Bible as the greatest book of all time.”

      Report

      • Kazzy in reply to Tod Kelly says:

        “If God had read my book, the Devil would be making deals with HIM!”Report

      • Stillwater in reply to Tod Kelly says:

        “It’s a great, great book. People all over America love that book. It’s called the Art of the Deal, and let me tell you, I make great deals. All over the country I’ve made great deals. People love the deals I’ve made. They’re great great deals. Just tremendous….”Report

      • Burt Likko in reply to Tod Kelly says:

        This is so dead on I’m frightened. Heavy use of mono- and di-syllabic words, frequent use of superlatives, sentence endlessly running on and shifting focus halfway through, the bald aggrandizing lie about the book’s sales performance, use of the favorite word (“huge”) and half-remembering the Bible at the last second.

        We should have a contest with half actual Trump quotes and half fake quotes written by Tod like this, and see if anyone can tell the difference.Report

    • Don Zeko in reply to aaron david says:

      The pocket question is supposed to come at the end of the riddle game, not the beginning.Report