Just out of curiosity and not as a matter of personal interest, do you think there's any truth to reports in the news media that President Obama is unhappy with his vice president because of his outspoken nature and penchant for sticking his foot in his mouth?
J. Biden, Wilmington, DE
Dear Mr. Biden:
As far as I can tell, there probably is some truth to such reports, but I wouldn't worry about it as long as Dick Cheney is still around.
Just out of curiosity and not as a matter of personal interest, do you think there's any truth to reports in the news media that Colin Powell is unhappy with me because of some of the things I've said about him recently?
R. Cheney, address withheld.
Dear Mr. Cheney:
I can't imagine why Gen. Powell would be upset with you just because you said he has already left the Republican Party and you don't know if he is still a Republican. Why don't you invite him to go hunting with you?
I can't seem to convince people that I wasn't briefed about the CIA's harsh interrogation methods at Guantanamo, including such terrible things as waterboarding, when I was a member of the House Intelligence Committee. And now that I am Speaker of the House, the Republicans, and even some Democrats, think I wasn't telling the truth. What do you think I should say?
Nancy Pelosi, Washington DC
Dear Madam Speaker:
I would suggest you take your cue from what Franklin Roosevelt's press secretary Steve Early said when he asked FDR what he should tell reporters about a controversial statement he had made in a speech in Pittsburgh. FDR said, "Steve, tell them I've never been in Pittsburgh."
I recently gave up a good job in the Senate to become secretary of State, which I enjoy very much. But my husband insists that I take him along whenever I represent the U.S. in my foreign travels. He seems to think that he knows more about my job than I do. Any ideas about how I can gently persuade him to back off?
H. Clinton, Washington DC
Dear Madam Secretary:
Actually, your husband probably does know more about your job than you do, but maybe you could ask President Obama to appoint him as a special envoy to a country like Haiti, where he would never be heard from again.
There have been a lot of different proposals about how we can rescue the banking and investment community and the automobile industry, but I haven't heard anybody suggest a better way than I have suggested, which is to spend three or four trillion dollars to bail them out. Do you think the American people will go along with this?
T. Geithner, Washington DC
Dear Mr. Geithner:
I'm not an economist or financial expert, but I don't think I would make Bernie Madoff the poster child for your plan for economic recovery.
I am having some trouble adjusting to life in the Senate after running for president last year, and wonder if you have any suggestions about how I can get back in the groove, so to speak?
Senator John McCain, R-Arizona
Dear Senator McCain:
Well, I guess you could begin by admitting that your choice of Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska was a miscalculation the size of Mount McKinley.
Ever since I said that Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama's nominee as the first Hispanic member of the U.S. Supreme Court, should step down because she's let her ethnicity and experience as a Latina influence her decisions as a judge, I've sensed that this is not going over well with most American. Do you think that I should back off?
N. Gingrich, Washington DC
Dear Mr. Gingrich:
Well, as I told you after you shut down the federal government when you were Speaker of the House of Representatives in 1995, you might think twice before going on late night TV talk shows with a live snake wrapped around your neck.
After reading about all the problems newspapers and magazine are having trying to survive these days, I'm concerned about the future of print journalism. Do you think Matt Drudge and Arianna Huffington represent the future of American journalism?
A. Sulzberger Jr., New York NY
Dear Mr. Sulzberger:
I wouldn't presume to advise you on how to compete in the Brave New World of the Internet, but I suggest you might want to think about changing your slogan of "All the News That's Fit to Print."
I have some nuclear weapons I'm offering for sale in the hope that it will impress the world that my country is important. I wonder if there's any market for them these days?
K. Il Sung, Pyongyang, North Korea
Dear Mr. Nut Case:
Why don't you ask the millions of your citizens who are starving if they would like to trade them for food?