Questions I'd like to ask political candidates.

Well another election cycle is over, America has the most leftleaning President since Jimmy Carter in the White House, and the world is at the fever pitch of excitement that a protectionist has been handed the keys to the greatest economic engine the world has ever known.

As usual the media coverage was predictably horrendous and consisted almost entirely of rumination on Obamas skincolor and sporting event style strategic analysis.

In all the analysis I saw, discussion of the quality of Obama and Mccain's respective campaign strategies outweighed discussion of their suitability for office by a factor of at least 20-1.

Why?

It got me thinking... What questions would I ask a presidential (or prime ministerial one for that matter) candidate if I had the chance? I guess the qualities I'd like to see evidence of are an independence of thought, a capacity to think outside the tug of war parameters of established political discourse, and intellectual depth.

Here are my questions...

1) Name one issue on which you disagree with the majority of your fellow Republicans/Democrats.

2) Name one social problem you consider to be overrated in importance by the media.

3) Name one social problem you consider to be insufficiently discussed by the media.

4) Name three issues on which you have changed your mind since you entered politics.

5) Name three problems which you feel lie outside the scope of the office and which you therefore won't be solving during your term.

6) What do you think are the two most effective/positive pieces of policy or legislation brought in during the last fifty years?

7) What do you think have been the two most disastrous pieces of policy or legislation of the last fifty years?

8) Which current foreign leader is closest to yourself in political outlook?

9) What is your least popular opinion?

I would consider an inability to answer such questions in a thoughful and serious manner as evidence of that candidates unsuitability for office.