Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Charlie Rose had a guest...

...on the other night named Don Gogel. He's a private equity guy who came across as highly intelligent and measured in his speech. While Mr. Gogel voted for Barack Obama in 2008, he's been disappointed with the president and may switch to Mitt Romney this time around.

Fair enough. The economy is muddling along and unemployment is still stubbornly high. And Romney, with his extensive background in business, claims he could do better.

Now, Charlie Rose is frustrating to watch. Even though he has the best guests on TV, he is a horrible interviewer. (Sometimes I wonder how on earth he got that job.) So here are some of the questions that I wish Mr. Rose -- or somebody, anybody -- would ask critics of the president like Mr. Gogel:

* What, exactly, did President Obama do wrong in his first term?

* What, exactly, would a President Romney have done differently?

* And what, exactly, would a President Romney do differently if elected in November?

Would a President Romney, for example, have passed the stimulus bill and bailed out the auto industry? It doesn't sound like it. So the country would be in much worse shape, right? The American auto industry would be gone and unemployment would be up dramatically.

Would a President Romney have lowered taxes? Taxes are already low, and the "job creators" still aren't creating jobs.

Would a President Romney have passed the Ryan budget? God help us if he did. We'd be in an even more serious economic decline and the budget deficit would be ballooning.

So, instead of just criticizing the president (which is fair game), let's not give Governor Romney a free pass. When is somebody going to ask him what he would do as president?

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