(2008-08-18) — Despite secrecy measures reminiscent of the Bush-Cheney administration, a list of questions, allegedly used to screen potential running mates for Democrat presidential hopeful Barack Obama, has leaked to the news media from a source close to Caroline Kennedy, the leader of his vice presidential search team.
Aides have told The New York Times that an announcement is imminent, perhaps as early as Tuesday or Wednesday of this week.
A nation holds its collective breath, awaiting Sen. Obama’s decision, as speculation centers on the three most-qualified Democrats to stand a heartbeat from the presidency: Senators Evan Bayh and Joe Biden, and Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia.
Until now, however, little was known of the process used to determine Sen. Obama’s choice.
Here’s the list of questions that Ms. Kennedy’s search team reportedly used to narrow the list of potential Obama running mates.
A. What’s the longest time you have ever been able to stare directly into the sun?
B. Which is more comfortable for you, bowing or kneeling?
C. Do you have any firmly held convictions?
D. If you answered ‘Yes’ to question #3: Are you willing to forsake them for the honor of serving with President Obama?
E. Which sounds like a better first line in a speech?
- My fellow Americans…
- People of the World…
F. If a crying baby falls to the floor of an abortion clinic, but no law is there to protect it, does it make a sound?
G. Choose the correct ending to this sentence: “I want to be vice president to…
- fix America’s deep flaws, to atone for the sins of her past, and to help set a course away from our shameful history.”
- serve the greatest nation under God that the planet has ever seen, out of gratitude for the freedom and opportunity she has granted me, and to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.”
H. If you chose the second answer to question #7, are you sure you aren’t on Sen. McCain’s short list instead?
I. What do you think is the worst evil in the world? (Choose 3 correct answers.)
- Radical Islam
- Unequal distribution of America’s obscene wealth
- Provincial attitudes that keep us from talking with our so-called ‘enemies’
- The United States of America itself
J. In the course of serving as Vice President, you may be required to attend funerals of respected world leaders to pay tribute to their lives of service. Are you willing to travel to all of the following: Cuba, North Korea, Iran, Syria, Venezuela?
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11 responses so far ↓
1 onlineanalyst // Aug 19, 2008 at 8:23 am
Not only has the vetting for OhBummer’s VP been a closely guarded secret, but his past paper trail has been placed in the candidates’ lockbox.
Jim Geraghty reports at NRO’s “The Campaign Spot” with assorted links to details in the squib:
Just to review, the public cannot get access to paperwork related grants distributed by then-state-legislator Obama (records from 1997 to 2000 aren’t available); his state legislative office records (which he says may have been thrown out); he refuses to release a specific list of law clients, instead giving a list of all of his firm’s clients, numbering several hundred each year; he won’t release his application to the state bar (where critics wonder if he lied in responding to questions about parking tickets and past drug use); he’s never released any legal or billing records to verify that he only did a few hours of work for a nonprofit tied to convicted donor Rezko; and he’s never released any medical records, just a one-page letter from his doctor.
Now the University of Illinois at Chicago is denying Stanley Kurtz access to documents relating to the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a small foundation, founded and inspired by Bill Ayers, for which Obama served as board chairman.
What the h***? Really, what possible reason is there to seal documents like this, beyond saving Obama some embarrassment? And is any fool out there still claiming that they’re voting for Obama because the Bush Administration has been too secretive?
2 Dionekes TPW // Aug 19, 2008 at 8:53 am
onlineanalyst: Why the suprise? Clinton’s been hiding documents regarding his activities prior to and during his administration since who knows when. And it would seem that Hilary is just as bad. It should be a red flag to any honest American, when hiding one’s life becomes a prerequisite for public office, as it has for the Dems.
3 JamesonLewis3rd // Aug 19, 2008 at 9:13 am
As BO is so deeply enmeshed in his decades-long, intimate relationship with Bill Ayers, it follows that BA will be his pick for vice-peep!?!
(The incongruent punctuation was just for fun—Jerry [no relation] Lewis style)
4 conserve-a-tip // Aug 19, 2008 at 9:22 am
I’m perplexed. Where is the question about whether they see the halo or not? I would think that would be very important.
Iran has their president with the ‘green aura’ and we’d have our’s with a halo. They’d get along really well, don’tcha think?
5 conserve-a-tip // Aug 19, 2008 at 9:24 am
and that should be “ours”…got a little happy with the apostrophe. (my halo slipped)
6 camojack // Aug 19, 2008 at 9:35 am
Nah, just one question:
“But who do you say that I am?”
7 Mack // Aug 19, 2008 at 10:24 am
Red Pepper: Thank you for the instructions several threads back. It was helpful.
In regard to post # 1 of this thread.
I can understand sealing records in regards to your law practice. That is not up to the lawyer it is up to the client to decide what they want public. Give the guy that one. How ever, everything else is and should be public domain. It is after all done on the public dime while in public service.
I find it ironic that George Bush can and did release his TANG records, medical records to include his dental records even stuff from when he was in OCS and the press still howls that it is inconclusive as to his service. Our pal Dan Rather even went so far as to release “Fake but accurate” records that he still defends.
Yet Senator Kerry still hasn’t signed the form releasing his military records and he told the late Tim Russert that he would about what , two or three years ago? Hillary wont open her files, Bill is the only Governor in Arkansas history to have his files sealed from when he was in office. To quote the great Sonny Bono, “The beat goes on.”
The great Senator Obama has one of two reasons he would not want this material made public. 1: It is embarrassing to him for what he did. 2: It is embarrassing to him for how little he got done.
8 JamesonLewis3rd // Aug 19, 2008 at 1:09 pm
Danger.
If a person-who exhibits the moral and ethical character traits of a seasoned sociopath-has deep, dark secrets, it might be prudent to peer at those secrets through a welder’s lens.
Oh, and while peering, watch your back for birds of the same feather who flocked together not all that long ago and still do and are probably feeling threatened thus using the code word “offended” (so, please, don’t duck into a phone booth-as per Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds (1963) [based on the short story of the same name by Daphne du Maurier]).
Trivia Alert:
“The screenplay was written by Evan Hunter, who penned the 87th Precinct novels using the pseudonym Ed McBain.”
9 tomg // Aug 19, 2008 at 1:39 pm
J. …to attend funerals of respected world leaders…
Obama plans on having Castro, Il, Dinnerjacket, somebody with hezbollah and Chavez all die while he’s in office? Time to rethink!
10 obama vp | hotwordstoday // Aug 19, 2008 at 10:08 pm
[...] LEAKED: Obama VP-Vetting Question List [...]
11 gafisher // Aug 21, 2008 at 7:28 am
“… funerals [in]… Cuba, North Korea, Iran, Syria, Venezuela?”
Oddly, when McCain asks that question the dictators of those countries get uneasy.
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