To get an Op-Ed piece published in The New York Times you have to give the paper a three-business-day window to review your submission. The Times says it will contact you if they plan to use it. Otherwise, you’re free to publish it anywhere else it might be deemed worthy.
Last Friday night I emailed to The Times 10 questions that should be asked of each Democratic presidential hopeful during next week’s debates. Apparently, great minds think alike, because The Times had been working on a similarly themed idea which it unveiled Wednesday. The Times formulated 18 questions to which 21 candidates provided video responses (https://nyti.ms/2NbBe1Z).
Having not heard back from The Times by Wednesday night, herewith are my questions (since expanded to a dozen):
1. Will you support the eventual Democratic party nominee and not run a third party candidacy?
2. What will be your first five executive orders upon taking office?
3. Given what we now know about Donald Trump’s activities before and after the 2016 election, would you support a criminal prosecution of Donald Trump?
4. What action by the Trump administration has most enraged you and how would you counteract it?
5. If the Senate remains in Republican control, how would you counter Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s stranglehold on legislative affairs moving forward?
6. What steps would you take to improve our trade position vis-a-vis China?
7. How would you stem the flow of undocumented immigrants across our southern border?
8. Which country or entity or concept is America’s number one enemy today and in the future?
9. Should the Palestinians have their own state or should they become citizens of Israel and other Middle Eastern states where they reside?
10. What is your position on the impact and viability of technology companies, banks and investment houses that have grown “too big to fail.” Should they be broken up or more intensely regulated?
11. Are some Afro-Americans entitled to reparations? How would you define reparations?
12. What steps would you take to improve health care?
For those who chose not to click on the link to The Times feature, here’s a list of its questions (added benefit: each question is linked to the candidate responses). You decide whose queries, mine or The Times, were more incisive.
