Just one more debate thought

What seemed odd to me, however, was the collection of questions CNN managed to find from local Democrats.

Here’s how it worked: CNN gathered a bunch of Democrats from a variety of local sources and asked them to come up with two potential questions for the panel. Out of that group, they choose a small number of people to sit front and center in the debate.

If CNN called upon them, they would be told which of the two questions to ask.

That format itself wrings out any kind of real-people spontaneity from the debate. But that’s not my gripe. The burr under my saddle is in the diversity of thought expressed in the questions. This is not to say anything about the individual questions or the people who asked them. Those were the questions picked by CNN, and so be it.

But there’s more to Democrats isn’t there?

For example, out of the thousands of undecided Democratic voters in Clark County, CNN could not find one — just one — man or woman in favor the Iraq war?

That simply is not believable. And in not going the extra mile to find questions like that, it seems to me CNN missed making the debate as interesting as it could be

Think about it. Every candidate running for president on the Democrat side of the ballot is foursquare against the war. All of them want to bring the troops home as soon as possible.

Every debate in this campaign serves up one question allowing the candidates to put their hand over the hearts and swear to bring home “our brave soldiers.”

Why not do something different? Imagine a question from a Democrat war hero who thinks it is wrong to retreat before the job is done. What say the candidates about sacrifice made incomplete by a political change of course?

That would have been a heckuva good question.

But, sadly, CNN couldn’t find one Democrat to ask it or something like it. All that means to me is that they don’t look very hard.

A nice invite

When Sandy Mallin e-mailed me many months ago to speak at a meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition, I had no idea such an organization existed.

Speak to Jewish Republicans? Do we meet in somebody’s car?

Of course, I kept my thoughts to myself and accepted the offer. Besides, anyone who invokes the memory of my friend. U.S. Sen. Chic Hecht, R-Nev., gets a point with me no matter what.

So, my biases aside about the possible size of the RJC membership, I found myself a few Sundays ago in front of a larger-than-expected and very gracious group of people at Marci and Jack Simon’s home in MacDonald Highlands.

I won’t bore you with the details of my talk. But I’ll leave you with what I think is one of the more interesting questions the RJC poses: If the well- being of Israel is important to you, which national party’s foreign policy is better — the Democrats’ or the Republicans’?

That’s your decision, of course. But it seems to me if you’re at all uneasy with Rep. Nancy Pelosi acting as the ad hoc shuttle ambassador to the Middle East, then it’s a simple decision.

Sherman Frederick (sfrederick@reviewjournal.com) is publisher of the Review-Journal.