The question is are you as a presidential candidate concerned that private equity firms are buying nursing homes, laying off staff, and pocketing the difference, resulting in poor service? If you are concerned, what will you do about it?
This is my latest CNN / YouTube Republican Debate Question. and it was inspired by today's "The Situation Room":
Hi I'm Zennie Abraham in Oakland, CA.
On November 21st, Former Oklahoma Congressman and CNN "The Situation Room" Contributor J.C. Watts asserted and complained that your campaign Governor Romney didn't have a single African American staffer.
This question is for all of the candidates: do you have more than one African American employee on your campaign, and if you're going to ask for votes of African Americans, can you realistically do so without having someone who works for you who looks like they do?
Recently, NBC and MSNBC have been agressively working to change the terms of debate in the 2008 Presidential Race. This video's a great example. According to MediaMatters..
-- During his November 11 Meet the Press interview with Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (IL) on NBC's Meet the Press, host Tim Russert asserted that "critics will say you've not been a leader against the war," and then read a quote he attributed to Obama: "In July of 2004, Barack Obama: 'I'm not privy to Senate intelligence reports. ... What would I have done? I don't know,' in terms of how you would have voted on the war." After quoting two other Obama statements on the war, Russert concluded: "It doesn't seem that you were firmly wedded against the war and that you left some wiggle room that, if you were in the Senate, you may have voted for it." However, in citing Obama's comment "What would I have done? I don't know," Russert did not quote the very next sentence of Obama's statement, which was, "What I know is that from my vantage point the case [for authorizing the war] was not made." --
In other words, Tim Russert Misquoted Barack Obama, and perhaps deliberately. I think NBC's new approach is based on the idea that all politicians tell "less" than the truth about their beliefs. But it's easier to approach a line of questioning following that idea with Senator Clinton than it is with Senator Obama, who's quite authentic in his views -- that is, he's not always changing his stance, if he ever has, or has had to. This consistency of message damages NBC's approach, and results in this situation where Russert should appologize to Senator Obama.
Wow. I think the acting bug's really gotten to Senator and Presidential Candidate Fred Thompson. In this YouTube video that's below and I found over at Wonkette , he's begging for it. I can't remember seeing a Presidential candidate ask for it.
That's a sure sign of a lack of charisma. I used to think actors had it automatically, but now I'm thinking that it's a sign of how good the actor may be that we think he or she's got it.
