UPDATE Cliff Schecter has it covered with excellent questions and support. I'll be emailing them to George's address below.
If George Stephanopoulos can take dictation from Sean Hannity, he can surely take it from us, too.
This Sunday, let's get George to ask John McCain questions on This Week.
With your help, I'm hoping to put together that list of questions--the same kind of crappy questions George asked Obama (and Hillary) on Wednesday night.
So read on, post your question suggestions, and then let's send them to George.
This isn't about retribution. The justification for this tactic is expressed nicely by Glenn Greenwald, in his new book, Great American Hypocrites, and is summarized here from Glenn's blog:
Given that dynamic, Democrats have two choices and only two choices: (1) allow the Right to wield these themes unchallenged, in a one-sided manner, or (2) engage them just as aggressively and directly in order to neutralize the advantage they confer. The point is that having our elections decided primarily on substantive issues isn't an option, precisely because the Right and the shallow, slothful media ensure that petty personality controversies predominate. The only choice is to engage them or to ignore them, thereby allowing them to rage unchallenged.
When the Right inserts personality-based trash into our political discourse -- and when they build up their leaders based on mythological themes of heroic, morally upstanding character imagery -- it isn't an "ad hominem" attack to highlight the deceit that lies at the heart of those claims, to document the actual character of those individuals. It's a necessary response for debunking the manipulative, substance-free character themes that are outcome-determinative in our elections, for neutralizing the twisted attacks that predominate.
[emphasis added]
That is what I want to accomplish here. So I'll start with my questions below, and I'll add more based your suggestions in the comments.
I would like questions that fit with Glenn's criteria above, namely, that undermine the media's myth of the Republican as moral hero.
But just because these questions are, in an ideal world, irrelevant, that doesn't mean they should have NO source at all. So I would like questions that are linked to sources to back up statements McCain made or to relevant data.
Then we'll send 'em to George: george.stephanopoulos@abc.com
(And I'll also update if anyone has other ways to contact George.)
Questions for George to ask McCain:
- Senator, you endorsed a gay marriage ban in your home state of Arizona, yet your own married life has been anything but exemplary. You have had extramarital affairs, which broke up your first family, and yet you head the party that touts the sanctity of marriage. Is marriage a sacred institution to you?
- In the 2004 campaign, Republicans called John Kerry a "gigolo" and ridiculed him for having a wealthy wife. Your second wife, Cindy, is a wealthy heiress whose influence and money launched your political career, in addition to affording you a lavish lifestyle. Do you feel less of a man because of this?