Hard Qweschins: What the TradMedia Will Never Ask McCain, But Should

I shared this news…

A federal judge says the University of California can deny course credit to applicants from Christian high schools whose textbooks declare the Bible infallible and reject evolution.

…with some folks, and Peterr said, "I really hope someone asks John McCain for his opinion on this."

Peterr is right: asking McCain for comment would make him choose between alienating the GOP base or speaking what he might still believe to be the truth, that science is science.

Peterr’s comment got me thinking about all the other things I’ve wished McCain would be asked about.

For example, why hasn’t anyone asked McCain whether he agrees with VA head James Peake’s policy of prohibiting non-partisan voter registration in VA hospitals?

"VA remains opposed to becoming a voter registration agency pursuant to the National Voter Registration Act, as this designation would divert substantial resources from our primary mission," Peake said in an April 8 letter to Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and John Kerry, D-Mass. He was referring to a 1993 federal law that allows government agencies to host voter registration efforts.

[snip]

"You’d think that when so many people give speeches about keeping faith with our veterans, the least the government would do is protect their right to vote, after they volunteered to go thousands of miles from home to fight and give that right to others," Kerry said. "And yet we’ve seen the government itself block veterans from registering to vote in VA facilities, without any legal basis or rational explanation.

Veterans are already hammering McCain for voting against veterans benefits repeatedly; McCain can ill afford to alienate veterans further. But this policy was undoubtedly put into place by Peake to shield McCain and other Republicans from the wrath of veterans who have been badly treated by the Bush Administration.

And, as a MI resident, I have wished someone would ask McCain whether he agrees with Bush’s decision to fire the Mid-West’s regional EPA Administrator because she wanted to force Dow Chemical to clean up a mess it made in Midland, MI.

The top U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator in the Midwest resigned Thursday amid internal fights over dioxin contamination near Dow Chemical Co.’s world headquarters in Midland, according to a published report.

Mary Gade, regional administrator of EPA Region 5, told the Chicago Tribune she resigned as regional administrator of EPA Region 5 after two top EPA officials stripped her of her powers and told her to quit or be fired by June 1.

For all his blathering about environmental issues, McCain is still overwhelmingly pro-corporate, so he’s probably happy that the Bush Administration put Dow’s profits over people living with the effects of its contamination. But the Midland-Saginaw area is fairly populous, and it could make a difference in MI this year.

Though of course, why be provincial? While we’re talking about environmental issues, has anyone heard a reporter ask McCain (and Obama) what they think about Bush’s latest attempt to gut the Endangered Species Act? It seems fair to ask whether, if he were President, McCain would also trade polar bears and other species for inaction on global warming.

Those are just a few examples that have been bugging me. What about you? What questions–aside from questions about whether extramarital affairs disqualify someone from being President–ought McCain to be asked?