If Hillary Clinton continues to duck hypothetical questions, does she deserve your vote?

[eweaver155]

http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2007/08/if-hillary-clin.html

I do not believe people running for president should engage in hypotheticals... Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, during last night's debate at Soldier Field

This dodge put me in my mind of a 1998 quip by Mike McCurry, then spokesman for President Bill Clinton: "Only fools answer hypothetical questions," he told reporters who were peppering him with "what if..?" and "let us suppose..." queries.

Only cowards duck them, I say. The hypothetical question--"What if ...?" -- remains one of the great tools of ethical exploration and argumentation.

As I wrote in a column at that time, answering hypothetical questions can push a person toward moral clarity, promote intellectual rigor and self-understanding, and build guideposts into the metaphorical road ahead.

What do you value and why? How do you rank your values when they seem to conflict? Which principles do you apply when confronting a dilemma?

Deft hypothetical questions zero in on the inconsistencies in our thinking, expose ambiguities, reveal where emotion, hypocrisy and shoddy thinking have overtaken logic and rip us from comfortable moorings.

No wonder people in politics hate them.

"The questions you avoid may be the ones you need to consider most," wrote Gregory Stock, a UCLA biophysicist, in the introduction to his 1987 bestseller "The Book of Questions," a list of 265 knotty hypotheticals ("If you knew that in one year you would die suddenly, would you change anything about the way you are now living?" and so on).

"Too frequently we pull back from . . . questions that seem awkward or intrusive," Stock wrote. "Yet these are the very ones that will open paths to understanding."

Attempting to answer such questions when they are luxuriously speculative gives us all--spokesman, citizens and lawmakers alike--a better shot at answering them wisely should they become both real and urgent.

[thereismore]

1. Obama ducked one on Barry Bonds. Said the record hasn't been broken yet. nt

[NYCGirl]

5. And most of the free world tossed and turned that night waiting for the answer...

:eyes:

[zulchzulu]

9. I saw the marches outside protesting Obama's answer to the Bonds question

Baseball is foreign policy, right?

:sarcasm:

[Alexander]

15. Yup, there's a question that demands a presidential answer.

At least Obama didn't become a White Sox fan 8 years ago during a Senate run.

[daa]

2. Yes

What the hell was Dukakas supposed to say to the question about his wife? They are gotcha questions and not intended for serious response. There typically is no correct answer.

[Cameron27]

3. Hypotheticals lack the contrast and nuance of reality

so using them to judge or predict a person's actual response is useless IMO.

[Clintonista2]

4. Many hypothetical questions INTEND to make the candidate look bad

Questions should not be *meant* to make candidates look bad, they should be meant to shed light on positions held by candidates, or force the candidates to give reasons for these positions. The "would you kill civilians to kill Osama" question is a perfect example. No matter how the candidate answers, they look bad. There is no way to gain from these kind of questions, the best you can do is refuse to answer, in which case you don't lose OR gain anything.

[quinnox]

6. Hillary has my vote

period

[emilyg]

11. Mine, too. Period.

[beastieboy]

12. Me too.

[Alamom]

19. She has mine. nm

[rinsd]

7. Gov Dukakis if your wife and daughter were raped & murdered would you be for the death penalty

Yeah hypotheticals are great! Let's have the MSM which most of the time at DU is cast as the right hand of Satan engage in hypotheticals with our candidates. I am sure it will work out for the best.

:sarcasm:

Myopic Hillary hating.....

[Lucinda]

8. Dukakis was my first thought when I read the OP

IMO some questions are asinine and dont deserve a response

[Alexander]

16. The Duke ignored that question and it bit him in the ass.

Yeah, let's treat hypothetical questions like they don't deserve to be answered!

It worked so great for President Dukakis.

:sarcasm:

[AtomicKitten]

10. GOTCHA politics is another word for "hypothetical questions"

[glowing]

13. I said this too when everyone was saying slam dunk... How many

people had to answer hypothetical questions when interviewing for a position? I have. It leads to reliability, ethical integrity, loyalty, puctuality, work qualities, etc... There hasn't been a true job that I haven't had to answer hypotheticals for. Why shouldn't I ask the future pres. what they would do about this or that? I need to know if they are going to pull out the nucs and start something we don't want. They are looking for me to hire them. They need to answer questions about how they would handle past situations and possible future situations... otherwise, they don't need the job.

I found that trick to be quite disgusting... it was a way to tell the reporters to shut up and not ask questions. And its underhanded.. leads me to think she wants a presidency much like bush, need to know basis surrounded by secrecy and deception.

[Ethelk2044]

17. You are so Right

[billyoc]

14. So if she, Hypothetically, continues to dodge them?

:rofl:

I don't support any DLC candidates, no matter what questions they answer or
what the answers are.

[illinoisprogressive]

18. she is using this as an excuse to not answer the questions.