What would you ask the candidates?

On the heels of Wednesday’s first presidential debate and having been inundated with debate questions in my email box for months now, I thought it would be better to open up a thread for questions to be posed. Please bear in mind, I have no power to submit questions to the debates nor do I have anything to do with the planning, moderators or debate broadcast itself. Therefore, please stop emailing me questions for the candidates, post them here instead. I have not found any web page where questions can be submitted so please share a link if you know of a page.

That being said, what questions would you specifically ask of President Obama or Governor Romney? What would be your follow-up question?

I would ask President Obama about the failed promises made regarding his stimulus plan in 2009. At this point in time, according to the President’s projections when selling the plan, the unemployment rate should be around 5% yet here we sit at over 8%. Question: Did the stimulus plan get oversold or did it fail as a policy to improve the economy? Given the circumstances now, would you have done something different?

For Governor Romney, I would ask him for specifics regarding his stated tax policy. He has said that he would not raise taxes yet he would eliminate certain deductions for the wealthiest tax payers. Question: Can you name three specific deductions or tax breaks you would eliminate as part of your plan and what income levels would those changes apply to?

I’m sure my questions will be criticized as being too weak or hard against either candidate but I think they’re valid questions.