Ask the Presidential Candidates

This is your usual Slashdot reader-generated interview, except we're only going to pick five questions, not 10, and we're going to send the same five questions to all the major-party presidential candidates and publish each one's answers (in our Politics section) as soon as we get them. Please try to come up with questions the candidates have not been asked in the many interviews and debates to which they've already been subjected, all of which have been notably light on Slashdot-popular topics such as software patents, Internet regulations, and computer file formats. Note, too, that we have no idea how many candidates (if any) will actually answer, and that whether their campaign staffs do or do not think you are worth a few moments of their time is telling in and of itself.

Special request: if you have better "inside" contact info for any candidate than what's shown on their public Web sites, please email it to [e-mail]. We're also interested in original articles and essays from people who have inside knowledge of the election and polling process, so if you or anyone you know would like to write one for Slashdot, please email the same address.

Universal Health Care

[TheSpoom (715771)]

Why not universal health care?

I know it's likely not popular among the more conservative of voters in the States, and an idea that most immediately connect with that of higher taxes. But as a Canadian with many American friends and an American significant other, it concerns me that the United States doesn't allow all its people access to the decent health care, and that the gates of the system in the US is dictated by private insurance companies for whom profit is the underlying goal, not the health and wellbeing of their "end users". It is therefore the case that any such measures to regulate and push these companies into providing affordable health care and insurance will ultimately push them into a battle with the government, as it is in their best interests to stall and delay such a system for as long as is possible.

I've seen health care initiatives from some of the candidates (democrats, mostly) that attempt to make health care affordable to all. But these ideas do not solve the problem detailed in the previous paragraph.

Please detail why you are or are not willing to support a plan that would give guaranteed health care to your residents and citizens, and if you are, what form that plan would take.

Re:Universal Health Care

[ShatteredArm (1123533)]

Well, I thought this was supposed to be more for topics geared more towards Slashdot readers, rather than issues that the politicians have already drilled into the ground... Also, how about we look at a real fix to the American health system rather than just trying to make it more costly and inefficient. Universal health care will just create more problems in the U.S.; e.g., lower quality of care, more issues related to illegal immigration, fewer available treatments, longer waits, just to name a few. The problem with the health care system in the U.S. is not multiple payors.

If we really wanted to make the health care system more affordable, we should actually attack its problems. Fix tort law so that doctors don't have to pay an arm and a leg for malpractice insurance because of fraudulent lawsuits. Scrap this ridiculous "full coverage" nonsense (imagine how much car insurance would cost if it covered oil changes and other regular maintenance)--move towards High Deductible Health Plans so people pay cash for basic stuff and are covered only for major expenses (this will both increase efficiency and decrease premiums). Weaken the FDA a little bit so that new medicines and medical equipment aren't so prohibitively expensive. Educate more people so that there are more available specialists.

Or, we can continue to live in a fantasy world where everything is free and people don't care about making a profit.

Re:Universal Health Care

[Rageon (522706)]

Fix tort law so that doctors don't have to pay an arm and a leg for malpractice insurance because of fraudulent lawsuits.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to file a malpractice suit? It's virtually impossible. Only the most heinous acts get past the initial proceedings. It's basically a dead area of law. And, yes I am a lawyer.

Net Neutrality

[SuperCharlie (1068072)]

What is your stance on Net Neutrality and why.

Re:Net Neutrality

[theoddball (665938)]

I think some more specificity is needed -- otherwise you'll just get "Net neutrality is good because X" or "bad because Y."

I would ask a multi-parter, something along the lines of:

Is legislation or regulation needed to preserve network neutrality? How would you craft such rules, or why would you refrain from doing so? (For a starting point, how would your administration even define the concept of network neutrality?)

Issue #1

[Stanistani (808333)]

What are your proposals to return copyright terms to their more sensible shorter limits of a few years ago?

How do you propose to reform the broken patent system in this country?

Re:Issue #1

[Speare (84249)]

Civics lesson: while I love the idea of telling any politician my views on how Copyright, Patent, Trademark, Trade Secret laws have run amok in the past few decades, it is almost useless to ask the current Presidential candidates. I say "almost" because only one will be chosen as President, and most of the remaining candidates will return to their job in Congress. See, our US Constitution specifically says that this sort of thing is within the power of the Legislative Branch, not the Executive Branch. If you want to reform CPTS (aka "IP") Law, you have to go to those who have the express power to achieve that reform.

Personal Liberty

[jockeys (753885)]

There will be many questions about the war, taxes, healthcare, etc, but these are merely symptomatic.

What is your definition of Personal Liberty?
What will you do during your tenure as President to preserve it?
What do you see as the biggest threat to Personal Liberty now?

Re:Personal Liberty

[ThosLives (686517)]

I was going to ask similar questions:

How do you plan to combat the erosion of personal liberty through the removal of personal responsibility?
How do you plan to promote attitudes of personal responsibility and reduce the growing 'entitlement mentality' in our country?

How often?

[Oxy the moron (770724)]

How often do you (not your staffers, interns, etc.) use modern technology aside from some of the (possibly) more obvious items such as cell phones and e-mail? Do you read and/or contribute to blogs? Do you listen to an iPod or other digital media player? Do you play the occasional computer game that isn't Solitaire?

The important questions!

[by Anonymous Coward]

BSD or Linux? Emacs or vi? Plaintext or RTF? When do you think the Hurd will be released?

Global high tech

[melonman (608440)]

In the last year, India and China have both announced and made progress towards implementing their own space programs. How should America respond to such growing technological boldness in such countries? Is it a threat or an opportunity?

Dealing with illegal actions of your predecessor

[UberOogie (464002)]

There has been a great deal of secrecy about supposed domestic wiretapping programs and other domestic spying programs. If you were to be elected president and were given information about actions by your predecessor that you found to be of questionable legality, what would you do?

Re:Dealing with illegal actions of your predecesso

[gknoy (899301)]

Damn. I had mod points, but I am going to nix what I spent on this article to reply. :)

As for going after the incumbent, I feel that it is the proper role of the current Congress, and that setting the precedent of arresting previous Presidents would open the flood gates of retribution. Presidents have to make hard decisions, and the last thing we need is for an incumbent President to continually second guess themselves out of fear of being arrested and imprisoned by their successor.

(emphasis mine)

I think the exact opposite. If presidents realize that they must act ethically, or risk being held accountable after the fact, I think it would encourage them to avoid doing things which seem like legal shenannigans, and to avoid playing fast and loose with the Bill of Rights (or the rest of the rules). Yes, Congress has the power to impeach/etc... but opening the presidency to such scrutiny seems like a GOOD thing -- and having a current president officially sanction the investigation of previous ones (and thereby implicitly open himself up for such by later executives) would probably make it more likely that things would get investigated.

More importantly, the President could probably do things like ensure that testimony isn't classified into oblivion (note: Not saying that classified testimony is bad, just that it seems that the current administration used that excuse a bit too often).

A president (person) who condones investigation of The Presidency (the office), and past holders thereof, sounds like one who understands the intent behind the three branches of our government, and who acknowledges the role of these checks and balances in a healthy system. (As opposed to an Executive who rules by executive order, and frequently acts as if he believes he is above the law.) Moreover, such a candidate would have told the American public that he (or she) DOES expect to be held to high expectations, and that they DO expect to behave as an ethical role-model.

My five questions

[gQuigs (913879)]

Do you know what Free Software is and do you plan on promoting it as President?
What is your position on software patents and noncommercial downloading of copyrighted material?
Do you support atheists as full citizens with full rights?
Do you plan on making decisions as president that go FAR above and beyond the standards required for energy efficiency?
Would you do anything to encourage third party candidates?

Views on the DMCA, Copyright, Fair Use, P2P

[haplo21112 (184264)]

Please share your views on the DMCA and related issues such as Fair Use, our out of control Copyright System, the fact that big media (RIAA/MPAA/et al) would love to kill our right to fair use (or even that fair use has yet to be truly codified into law), and the P2P file sharing situation.

Energy Efficiency

[siphonophore (158996)]

Would you abandon the thermodynamically ridiculous use of corn based ethanol?

-and/or-

Will you stand up to the environmental lobby and push replacing coal plants with nuclear?

Consumer rights and fair use

[SoundGuyNoise (864550)]

What are the candidates' positions of the rights of consumers to exercise their fair use rights on media that has been legally purchased? Or to modify the hardware they already own to their personal preferences?

What is their take on the aggressive litigation by RIAA against small time file sharers over a handful of MP3s?

Duke Nukem Forever.

[seanyboy (587819)]

As a presidential candidate, what do you think about the ongoing situation regarding "Duke Nukem Forever." If elected, what will you do to ensure that this game is released?

Why Can't I Get a Straight Answer?

[Greyfox (87712)]

I've noticed that a number of candidates (I'm not naming names) and a number of administration officials will not answer a question in a clear and concise fashion. The subject could be anything from "Do you think waterboarding is torture?" to "What will be your stance toward the war in Iraq if you are elected?"

So my question to you is, "Do you think that I want someone in that office (Whichever one it is) who is deliberately attempting to deceive me?"

Even if you don't answer this question, I hope you think about it the next time someone asks you a question.

American Technology

[qortra (591818)]

The United States has fallen increasing behind in many areas of technological adoption:

• locale based commodities like broadband
• number of tech jobs available in the country
• number of people being trained for software engineering and other tech related fields

Do you think this is a problem, do you plan to fix it, and how so?

Historical Perspective from the GOP

[thoolie (442789)]

Dear Presidential Candidates (GOP in particular),

I know you are all intelligent men, or you would not be where you are today. It is because of this I ask you how you reconcile the fact that, throughout the history of civilization, all great and powerful states have eventually fallen when their militaries became overstretched and their currencies depreciated. This is true for the USSR, the former British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Roman Empire, to just name a few. How is it then, with this historical trend, that we continue to pursue a foreign policy that stretches our military throughout the globe and further depletes our fiscal assets (not to mention the tremendous debt that we are taking on). It would seem that in order to bypass the trend of history, that we, as a nation, may want to consider withdrawing our troops from abroad and focus on restoring integrity to our currency. Interestingly, the speeches that I hear from you come as close as possible to the exact opposite of this hypothesis and instead continue down the path that may lead to the ultimate collapse of our nation as we know at (at least from a historical perspective).

Blast from the past...

[bobdotorg (598873)]

Just as Bill Clinton was asked in '92, ask Hillary:

"Boxers or briefs?"

Re:Blast from the past...

[Pojut (1027544)]

At this point in both of the Clinton's lives, I would have to say that the answer to that question is Depends ;-)

Surveilance

[Cro Magnon (467622)]

What is your opinion of electronic surveilance (wiretaps, cameras, expanded ID cards)? Do you plan to continue such surveilance?

Final Frontier

[Amorymeltzer (1213818)]

There's been some rumblings about NASA moving forward in the 21st Century, and given the new budget will be available soon, what role do you see space exploration, research, and education taking during your presidency and the following 15 years? How best do you think those goals can be met?

Federal dollars toward science&engineering R&a

[compumike (454538)]

While there is a clear mandate for the federal government to provide for the national defense, there is no clear constitutional authority for it to directly pay for research and development for non-defense projects. However, lots of great things have come from Federally-funded R&D, for example the space program, the Internet, nuclear power, etc. Historically, the government has not done well in picking winners (i.e. subsidizing corn for ethanol, largely because Iowa is an early primary state, or providing specific tax breaks to coal and oil companies). While the firms that are direct recipients of federal dollars are winners, the rest are essentially losers, subsidizing their efforts. There are certainly advantages to federal funding: simply that the costs can be spread over the entire taxpayer population, but there are disadvantages too.

Should the government be involved in the funding of basic scientific or engineering research? Should the people trust the government to make such allocations in a better way than in some alternative private system? And what moral and legal issues are involved in such funding?
--
Educational microcontroller kits for the digital generation. [nerdkits.com]

Natural Law vs. Positivism

[GnarlyDoug (1109205)]

Which do you support - Natural Law or Positivism - as the basis for our Constitutional framework?

My question

[tarlos25 (1036572)]

What will you do to ensure that our security does not eliminate the personal freedoms it is designed to secure?

Budget/Economy

[Kelz (611260)]

What do you plan to do, SPECIFICALLY, about balancing the budget and reducing our national debt? Please include specific areas your believe need to be cut, or how new funds are to be raised, and also explain your plan to work with congress on achieving this goal. If it is not one of your goals, why is it not?

Candidate Question

[SkipF (1139911)]

What constituency of the opposing party(ies) do you most closely identify with? What do you offer, as a candidate, to encourage them to cross party lines?

Corporate Personhood

[Phoenix666 (184391)]

Corporations in America enjoy legal status as "persons," with all the rights that entails. However, corporations are not subject to the same responsibilities or penalties for misbehavior as are real persons. It is not currently possible, for example, to imprison corporations for massively defrauding customers a la Enron, nor to give them the death penalty for killing people like Union Carbide did in Bhopal, India. At most, nominal fines that provide no deterrence are levied.

What do you intend to do to revoke corporate personhood and eliminate the deleterious effect corporations have on our democracy?

War on Terror and Individual rights

[arkham6 (24514)]

In this day of increased attention to possible terrorist threats, there been a lot of changes in the way that the government collects and gathers data. However, many people feel this adversely effects their privacy and makes for a larger, more Orwellian style of government.

How do you propose that we balance our right to privacy with our right to security?

Transparency

[Peter Trepan (572016)]

What will you do to increase government transparency, so we can be sure the public's interests are really being served?

What's More Important?

[crymeph0 (682581)]

Liberty or security?

Do you believe, like Mike McConnell [rawstory.com], that it is a "zero sum game" between privacy and security?

If so, do you think, like Patrick Henry, that we should still choose liberty over life? Did you know who Patrick Henry was when you were asked this question, or did you have to look it up on Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]?

Will you veto unbalanced budgets?

[j0nb0y (107699)]

If Congress passes a budget that is not balanced, will you veto it?

Revolution!

[clichescreenname (1220316)]

Under what circumstances (be specific) would you think revolutionary activity would be an appropriate action for the American People to take?

Pre-Existing Conditions

[CrazyTalk (662055)]

Will you ensure that Americans can obtain Health Insurance even if they have a pre-existing medical condition? I'm not even talking aboaut the pipe dream of universal coverage. A disease such as cancer is a receipe in this country for bankrupcy. And, should you ever lose your job (likely), you will not be able to find insurance again that will cover your treatment at any price.

Techie Brain Drain and Offshoring

[Kagato (116051)]

For the last decade, high school students have been told that science and technology jobs are going to be off-shored in the future. Core science and technology enrollment continues to slide creating a brain drain. At the same time the business community has complained that there is a lack skilled workers in those fields, which they need H1B and off-shored workers supplement. What would you do to create more technical jobs and skilled technical workers in America?

Internet Privacy

[Talen317 (1131949)]

Privacy on the Internet is a big concern, on one hand it makes it difficult to prosecute terrorists, child pornographers, copyright violators, con-artists, and slanderers. However on the other hand Internet privacy has protected whistleblowers and more importantly is the backbone of many businesses. The ability to conduct business securely and privately over the Internet via VPN's and other secure transactions has enabled businesses to grow at a pace never before seen.

Now we hear about National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell drawing up plans for cyberspace spying that would give the government the autority to examine the content of any e-mail, file transfer or Web search. This could include requiring back doors into any "permitted" encryption technology and outlaw encryption from foreign countries that do not provide the US government a backdoor.

This policy could have a chilling impact on business models and be the single biggest erosion of personal privacy ever. What is your stance on Internet privacy and do you support Mike McConnels plans?

Google's question

[theoddball (665938)]

...to all the candidates speaking at the Googleplex:

How do you determine good ways of sorting 1 million 32-bit integers in two megabytes of RAM?

Amusingly, Obama's answer was "Well, not bubblesort."

Constitution?

[rleibman (622895)]

a) If elected, are you willing to swear to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America? Including the 9th and 10th amendments? Have you read it?
b) Would you sign into law the Read the Bills [downsizedc.org] act, which would force congress to read the laws they pass?

The Digital Divide

[CristalShandaLear (762536)]

In the current age of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), it seems that the digital and informational divide between rich and poor is widening at an alarming rate. The government has deemed that television, far from being merely an entertainment venue, is important enough in our society to subsidize individual families' ability to swith over to HD television. Do you feel that the Internet has become as important as television for for families in regards to access to information as well as entertainment? Should access to the internet for individuals, families and communities be further subsidized by the government? What would you do to ensure that all schools and communities, regardless of socieo-economic base, have wider opportunity to use and benefit from technology, specifically computers, the internet and wireless access?

There's no point

[Quiet_Desperation (858215)]

Our system is in a state that filters out anyone sane. By the time the primaries come around, all we have left is power seekers who want to impose their rigid vision of reality on 300 million diverse people. Controlling lives gives the male candidates a raging boner and makes the female candidates sopping wet (except for Hillary, who also gets a boner, or Huckabee, who has no observable genitals).

I could ask the Republicans if they understand why many are weary of religion in politics, but they don't care. It's a way to get the God vote. I could ask if they can understand why people are tired of behavior between consenting adults being criminalized, but they don't care. It feeds whatever part of their brain that gets off on fucking with peoples lives.

I could ask the Democrats if they understand why some are tired of big government and waste and bureaucracy and the fumbling crudity of centralized control, but they don't care. It's a way to get the dependent vote. I could ask if they understand why people are tired of their every thought and action being politicized, but they don't care. It feeds the part of their brain that gets off on fucking with peoples lives.

Go go ahead and ask the ObamaClintonEdwards beast or the HuckabeeRomneyMcCain monster your questions, but all you'll get back is bullshit. Carefully worded and lofty bullshit, but bullshit nonetheless. ...

I'm not too cynical, am I?

Marijuana.

[Hatta (162192)]

I'm a college graduate with a decent job in a technical field. I pay my taxes, my debts are minimal. I get along well with others, and am close to my family. I like to think that I am a good citizen and contribute to society. Yet because I smoke marijuana instead of drinking beer when I come home from work, my government has declared war on me.

My question is this: Do you believe I belong in jail? If so, why? If not, what are you going to do to protect me from being arrested?

Re:What do you think about technology?

[Sigismundo (192183)]

I was actually somewhat surprised to find that Barack Obama has made comments on network neutrality. From Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]:

In a June 2006 podcast, Obama expressed support for telecommunications legislation to protect network neutrality on the Internet, saying: "It is because the Internet is a neutral platform that I can put out this podcast and transmit it over the Internet without having to go through any corporate media middleman. I can say what I want without censorship or without having to pay a special charge. But the big telephone and cable companies want to change the Internet as we know it."

He doesn't seem to be making promises, but it's something. Any other candidates that have already weighed in on this?

Re:What do you think about technology?

[zappepcs (820751)]

Can you clarify your beliefs about, and policy intents toward fair use of digital media and content. More specifically, can you explain how, and if, you will stop corporate greed from eroding the rights of average citizens to use digital content in 'fair use' ways, including backups, time-shifting, and fair use of copyrighted material that is subject to DMCA take-down notices, such as parody, news reporting (blogging) and other fair use issues.

Re:What do you think about technology?

[badboy_tw2002 (524611)]

Good question, but it won't get answered because of the perceived bias in the question - "corporate greed" == "strong information economy"

How about filing down a few of the fangs and getting:

Can you clarify your policy around fair use of digital media and content? More specifically, can you explain how you will balance the rights of the average citizen to use digital content in "fair use" ways (backups, time-shifting, parody, etc.) with the need for corporations to protect IP investments? With the previous two administrations we have seen an erosion of fair-use rights via the DMCA and copyright extension bills. As President, will your policies tend to favor these trends or reverse them?

What do you think about patents?

[bit trollent (824666)]

People complain about taxes being the main hindrance of innovation, but when someone creates a new product, be it an iPhone or a Blackberry, they aren't looking out for the tax man. The main hindrance to American technological innovation is a patent system that rewards people for sitting on ideas and punishes those who create new products.

It has become an accepted fact that when you create something new, you will likely have to pay companies that had nothing whatsoever to do with your invention, just because they filed a patent while never intending to actually produce or sell anything.

As President, would you fix our broken patent system?

Re:Here you go

[Monchanger (637670)]

To add onto this (because I don't really care who the token "science advisor" is):

"What is your philosophy on executive decisions in highly technical areas- how do you find a compromise between academic work, political influence and your personal moral views. Provide examples of how you came to various conclusions regarding economic, technological or environmental issues."