Why should we ask John McCain harsh questions? Because we need to even the playing field. You see, if Barack Obama had McCain’s background, ignorance and bad character, the election would have been over months ago. The news media is holding back, though. Those media barbecues appear to be paying off.

So it’s time to even the playing field. Since the media keeps asking these sorts of disparaging and insulting questions to Barack Obama, it’s time to ask these same sorts of questions to John McCain. I admit that a few of these are outrageously unfair, just like many of the questions repeatedly posed to Obama.

Most of these questions are fair, though, and the news media has refused to dig deep and really get the answers Americans need. If you have additional questions that the media needs to ask John McCain, please submit them in the comments. I’d like to make this post a place where reporters are free to visit for ideas. As you can see, I’ve attached explanatory links to most of the proposed questions.

Unlike Barack Obama, McCain has a lot of explaining to do about what kind of person he has shown himself to be and portrayed himself to be. Let’s get started:

Generally Puzzling
Isn’t it true that you personally now oppose several bills that you yourself co-sponsored?

Why is your smile so creepy and fake?

Do you really believe that the President of the U.S. virtually functions as a dictator?

General Character Deficits

Isn’t it true that you aggressively courted your current wife, a 25-year-old beer heiress while you were still married to your first wife?

Is it true that you obtained an Arizona marriage license on March 6, 1980, while still legally married to your first wife?

How is it that being imprisoned in Vietnam or being shot down while flying a plane qualifies you to be president? Why shouldn’t we think that Vietnam messed up your head and made you erratic?

I notice that you aren’t wearing a crucifix around your neck. Is that because you hate Jesus or is it because you think you are better than God?

You have said some harsh things about a black man who is running for President. Prove to us that you and many of your supporters are not bigots.

Isn’t it true that you are not born again? How many times have you even been to church this year? How does that compare with last year, which wasn’t an election year?

How can we be sure that your wife won’t abuse drugs at the White House if you are elected President, or cover up her abuses of drugs?

Did you marry your current wife more for her great wealth or because she offered you social connections that advanced your career as a politician?

During the Vicki Iseman scandal, your wife Cindy suggested that because you were a man of character, you would never have an affair. But isn’t it true that you started dating Cindy while you were still married to your first wife?

Why did you work so hard to help spread false anthrax stories in 2001? Isn’t it true that your conduct in spreading those stories that Iraq was responsible for that anthrax enabled the Bush Administration to expose the lives and well-being of our soldiers in Iraq?

Isn’t it true that you broke your promise by not being in isolation while Barack Obama was questioned by Rick Warren?

Did you have any moral qualms when you left your first wife – a former swimsuit model – after she was disfigured in a car accident and put on a few pounds?”

Does the Religious Right know that you give talks before gatherings with dubious family values, including suggesting that your wife enter a topless beauty contest?

Aren’t you too old and forgetful to be President?

Why won’t you release all of your medical records? What are you trying to hide?

How many letters did you send for the purpose of interfering with an FCC investigation on behalf of your beautiful lobbyist friend, Vicki Iseman?

How much financial help have you and your supporters given to your lobbyist friend Vicki Isley to help her disappear since your close relationship was revealed?

Have you been sexually faithful to your current wife?

Shouldn’t you be concerned that your wife is too “icy” to effectively serve as First Lady?

Shouldn’t it raise huge red flags when people who run for high office refuse to make their family’s tax returns public? Why should your wife Cindy be an exception?

To be president, is it enough that one is an old wise-cracking, hot-tempered, and often confused and forgetful guy?

Ignorance of facts regarding major issues
Give us the names of some prominent economists who really support your “economic plan.”

Why do you seem to know so little about Iraq?

Tell me everything you know about the history, culture and religions of Iraq. You can have as much time as you need.

Out of touch with ordinary people
Didn’t your wife say that the only way to get around Arizona is by private jet? and see here.

You don’t even know how many houses you own, do you?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlZ-_Sstt5I&eurl=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/21/obama-tears-into-mccain-f_n_120359.html[/youtube]

Tell us about some of the ways we could have wisely invested one trillion dollars in America had we not wasted it in Iraq? Take your time and talk about how we could have improved American with that vast sum of money.

Isn’t it true that you are a poster child for affirmative action for the wealthy and well connected (having both gained admittance to and barely survived the Naval Academy at the bottom of his class as the son and grandson of four-star admirals)?

You don’t know what it’s like to work a real job, do you?

Isn’t it true that you opposed increased Internet access for schools and libraries and backed large mergers to benefit the telecom industry? Isn’t it true that you are proud of your ignorance regarding the Internet and that you barely know how to use a computer?

Tell us what you are doing to investigate all of that illegal bundling money flowing into your campaign through the help of your rich friends.

Isn’t it true that you owe your entire career national politics to your wife’s wealth and family connections?

What is the fair market value of each of the many homes your family lives in?

How can you possibly understand the problems of ordinary Americans when you wear $500 shoes? I know that you’ve said that you are not good at economics, but how many $50 pairs of shoes could ordinary Americans buy for the price of one pair of your $500 shoes?

Isn’t it true that Barack Obama’s story is an admirable one, that Obama was raised in a broken home, his father left at a young age and he was raised by a single mother? Yet isn’t it also true that you are portraying him as an out of touch elitist?

How do you explain your lack of ability to use the Internet until 2008?

Why are you fighting so hard to give generous tax relief to the wealthiest individuals of our country at the expense of lower- and middle-income American taxpayers.
Isn’t your wife too out of touch to connect to ordinary Americans? Is that why she is refusing to disclose her tax return to the American public? And see here.

Lack of plan to fix the economy
You think that the US will be just fine 20 years from now, without any major changes in how this country is run?

The Bush Administration has severely devalued the dollar by running huge budget deficits, resulting in a 40% devaluation of the dollar relative to the Euro since 2002. Why are you planning to further ruin the dollar by running further budget deficits by continuing Mr. Bush’s irresponsible ways?

If deficits are such a good idea, why don’t we just quadruple the last years deficit?
Why don’t we just install machines to print free money to hand out in shopping malls?

Energy

How many members of your family made lots of money in the oil industry? Haven’t 22 of your close advisors lobbied for the oil industry? Tell us all the ways this has biased your world view?

Isn’t your energy plan nearly identical to the Bush administration’s failed National Energy Policy unveiled by Vice President Dick Cheney in May 2001 and written largely by industry executives?

Didn’t you fail to attend all eight Congressional votes regarding alternative energy this year?

Isn’t it true that you missed those eight votes regarding alternative energy but that you denied missing any of those votes?

Tell us how much you will be influenced by all that oil money that pours into your campaign after you take a pro-oil position.

You ridiculed Barack Obama for suggesting that we could save lots of oil by properly filling our tires. Don’t you owe him an apology now that you know that he was correct? You claimed that the tire-filling strategy was a major part of Obama’s energy plan. You were also wrong to say that, weren’t you? In fact, in 2008 you said we could save energy by driving a block less and turning out the lights 5 minutes earlier, didn’t you?

Is your $300 million battery contest idea and your preference that we drill for more oil your most innovative ideas for making America energy independent?

The war candidate

You recently suggested that we should bring back the draft, right?

Why do you keep pulling out the story that you were once a prisoner of war? How is that experience relevant to anything a president does?

As a reason to be suspicious of Iranians, did you really say: “they sure don’t share our Judeo-Christian values”?

It appears that you are locked into the Iraq War mindset. Why haven’t you learned anything about terrorism based on the Iraq debacle?

Isn’t it true that the Vietnam War was fought on the basis of lies (including the alleged Gulf of Tonkin incident)?

You authorized the occupation of Iraq based on lies (WMD), right?. If you are elected, how many more bloody and expensive wars do you plan to initiate based on lies?

You claim that this campaign is about character? Didn’t you show yourself to be a moral monster when you laughed and sang a song about dropping bombs on people?

Didn’t you write this in a book: “Presidents just didn’t get much better than Teddy Roosevelt. He transformed the American navy from a small coastal defense force to an instrument for the global projection of power”?

Prove that you aren’t a warmonger.

Approximately how many the bombs did you drop on civilians in Vietnam? About how many civilians were vaporized and burned by your bombs? How many of those were children?

Why won’t you release all of your military records? What are you trying to hide? Why did you lie about being offered admiralship?

Set forth the conditions you would require to pull all combat and combat support troops out of Iraq?

The rights and well-being of Americans

What will you do for sick and unemployed Americans other than telling them that they are on their own?

Isn’t it true that you want to overturn Roe v. Wade? Therefore, you think that big government should have more control over women’s lives than they currently do, right?

Should women to freely allowed to purchase any form of birth control they choose without any restriction by government?

Should pharmacists be allowed to tell women that they can’t purchase birth control pills? Would you support a federal law that requires pharmacies to honor all prescriptions submitted to pharmacies by women?

Lack of a coherent message

How many times have you vindictively cut off access to news reporters when they dare to write something about you that you don’t like?

Do you keep trying to distract the country from serious issues because you have nothing positive to say about your plan for leading America.

Environment

Many states, including your home state of Arizona are swiftly running out of water. Why do you insist on believing that the “free market” will solve this problem (and many other problems) that it actually caused?

Are you ready to admit that “clean coal” is a fantasy and that relying on coal burning electrical plants for America’s power is dangerous?