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What questions should reporters ask 2016 candidates?
The social media site “Linked in for Journalists” is posing that question to its 30,000 members.
This exercise is worthwhile even though front-running candidates avoid meaningful responses, especially given the near-incoherent responses this week by Republicans Jeb Bush and Mario Rubio to inquiries about Iraq.
Yet it’s useful for the rest of us to identify the best questions. We can then see, if nothing else, the gap between the typical campaign coverage and what really matters.
Bush and University of Nevada college student Ivy Ziedrich are shown after she challenged him during a campaign appearance in Reno last week whereby she made worldwide headlines by asking him about Iraq policy in ways few reporters have the gumption or opportunity to do.
My list below includes the usual core basics on jobs, health, war, and taxes.
Also, we should explore deeper historical and personal secrets, including those regarding a candidate’s taxes, health, religion, and money-making — all topics that candidates increasingly declare off-limits.
But with the stakes so high for the public, we are best off regarding candidates who keep secrets pledging allegiance, in effect, to their puppet masters — and not to voters.