What is the One Question Wolf Blitzer Can Ask Obama He Hasn't Answered Already?

This Friday CNN's Wolf Blitzer will interview Senator Barack Obama (D - IL). CNN is accepting questions from the public. In nearly two years of campaigning, Senator Obama has answered thousands of questions from the public and the media. It will be difficult for Wolf Blitzer to come up with questions Senator Obama has not answered before.

However, there is one question Senator Obama has not answered and has apparently even tried to distance himself from. During this campaign, Barack Obama has successfully been able to avoid any questions on the subject of the diversion of government small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms.

Wolf Blitzer should ask Senator Obama, "What would you do to stop Fortune 500 firms from receiving billions in government small business contracts?"

As recently as last Wednesday, the Washington Post published a story that found the Bush Administration had diverted 40 percent of all government small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms. Based on the Washington Post's statistical sampling, approximately $450 billion in government contracts earmarked for middle class firms actually went to Fortune 500 firms. The Washington Post sampling was only looking for Fortune 500 and other clearly large firms; what about other large businesses that are not household names? If all of those firms were considered, the percentage of those contracts could even be 60, 70, or 80 percent.

The Washington Post only looked at prime contracts from federal agencies; what about all the subcontracts from prime contractors? How many billions in small business subcontracts are actually going to Fortune 500 firms and other large businesses?

As the saying goes, "a billion here, a billion there, pretty soon you're talking about some real money." It is highly likely the Bush Administration has intentionally diverted over a half a trillion dollars in federal small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms and hundreds of other large businesses.

It is extremely unusual for a Democratic candidate for President to miss an opportunity to respond to a major story in the Washington Post that would provide a legitimate justification to criticize the current Republican administration. Why has Senator Obama avoided this issue?

Neither Senator Obama nor Senator McCain have been asked even a single question on this issue. Wolf Blitzer could rectify that situation on Friday.

Comments

[zanzig]

The question I'd like answered is What would President Obama do about the corruption in military spending?
It has to be admitted that defence spending is necessary, at least for America, but is there any reason why good governance and ethics have to be stripped from all defence contracts. What will he do to clean it up?

[egal]

They're related topics. The GOP has consistently pushed the sort of bidding that leads us to spend more and get less everywhere in the military and elsewhere in the government.

Unfortunately, the current administration has taken this a step further. One of the two major issues is that Bush not only giving no-bid contracts that cost our military AT LEAST several times more than the services or products are worth and result in shoddy workmanship, apathy, deliberate defects, lawless mercenaries flaunting our inability to control or stop them both for purposes of blackmail and other crimes, and deadly shortcomings in those services and products.

The second is the effort to privatize and capitalize the military itself. Asinine for innumerable reasons, not the least of which is that we pay MINIMUM TWELVE TIMES AS MUCH to a USUALLY FOREIGN (and also too-often corrupt, disloyal, nepotistic, and cheating us) and overpaid, underqualified, contractor doing jobs soldiers used to do considerably better and cheaper, this removes the greatest benefits of our military: volunteer esprit de corps, independent self-sufficiency in the military, and employment of United States citizens.

It's no coincidence that Cheney owns or direcctly profits off of almost every company who get those contracts and are able to demand any price they want while the military isn't permitted to look elsewhere even though they inevitably ask ridiculous sums and provide shoddy work.

[vote-obama]

CNN is a joke.

[KickerBoard]

Wolf Blitzer is a "fake balance" GOP shill with fake journalistic "skills". The best one can hope from him, is that he just fades away in favour of a real journo - like Cafferty! Only decent moment on the Situation Room was when Michael Moore tore him a new one, while pointing out what's become so clear - how Blitzer runs proactive defence for the powerful and the dishonest (regardless of the facts).