From: Don Strietelmeier
Hope
I don’t know how many Republic subscribers read the article by John Krull on the opinion page of Nov. 6 as he ridiculed the Republican candidates in the presidential debate hosted by the very liberal MSNBC. His article makes it clear he thinks journalists are brilliant and all Republicans are so preoccupied with the mainstream media they are to be paralyzed.
To show the brilliance of the MSNBC panel take the first question: What is your greatest weakness?
When you are running for office and especially for president with millions watching on TV, a large audience in front of you and your opponents on stage with you, what kind of an answer are you looking for?
Their next sets of questions as they went from one candidate to another with questions hardly related to public policy issues. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, nailed the panel for its trivial questions to the candidates before him. No, Cruz did not answer the budget question but chose to expose the panel of journalists for what they were trying to do, make them all look bad.
Krull criticized Cruz for not answering the budget questions, but his time was up and the panel could have asked again later, but it didn’t, and why not? It is easy to see what a double standard exists in some of the news media.
Dr. Ben Carson, a Republican candidate and a gifted brain surgeon, wrote a book and told of some aggressive behavior he had as a young boy. He is being questioned daily about his honesty since the news media can’t find the victims or enough witnesses to his account of what happened 40-plus years ago.
If honesty of the candidates is so important, and I think it is, let us question all of them on issues affecting finances, public and private safety, education, national security, the deficit, morality, international affairs and threats.
For example, Krull as a journalist should be curious to find answers or at least raise questions concerning another presidential candidate by the name of Hillary Clinton while she was serving as secretary of state, such as:
- Why did you use an unsecured private server and have thousands of secret email accounts?
- What did you do or not do prior to, during and after the attack at Benghazi in which four Americans died?
- Who were the donors to the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation, which has raised nearly $2 billion since 2001, and much of it from foreign interests while she was secretary of state?
Honesty in government is important and necessary. Corruption in government is a threat to individual liberty and national security and survival.
I look forward to reading how Krull covers some of the future debates.
