Last Call

THE NEW YORK TIMES, 15/10/08:

By Richard Sylla, Thomas H. Kean, Lee H. Hamilton, Diane Ravitch, Pat Choate, Bill Bradley, Paul Ekman, Mary Jo White,John Ashcroft, David Baltimore and Nathaniel Persily.

There are 21 days to go before the presidential election, and only one more McCain-Obama debate. With time running out, the Op-Ed editors asked a few writers and thinkers to pose the last-minute questions that they have yet to hear the candidates answer.

This week, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson announced that the federal government would purchase $250 billion in stock in America’s banks. Won’t the government becoming a major shareholder in banks raise the risk that lending decisions will be based more on politics than economics? What would be your administration’s exit strategy for returning America’s banks to full private ownership?

— Richard Sylla, a professor of financial history and economics at the Stern School of Business at New York University.

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Most experts expect another terrorist attack on American soil, and according to recent studies, we have much more work to do to prepare ourselves against a terrorist attack using weapons of mass destruction. What steps would you take to defend the United States against such an attack?

— THOMAS H. KEAN and LEE H. HAMILTON, the chairman and vice chairman, respectively, of the 9/11 commission.

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Last year, the federal government reported that 25,000 public schools (of 90,000) were labeled “failing” as a consequence of the No Child Left Behind legislation. There is growing evidence that most schools will become failing schools if the law sticks to its deadline that all children must be proficient in math and reading by 2014. One recent study published in Science magazine predicted that nearly all of California’s elementary schools would fail by 2014 under current provisions of the law. How would you change the law so that it helps schools improve instead of stigmatizing them?

— DIANE RAVITCH, a professor of education at New York University and an assistant secretary of education from 1991 to 1993.

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On Inauguration Day in January 1993, President Bill Clinton signed Executive Order 12834, which required his appointees to sign a federal ethics contract. For five years after leaving office, Clinton appointees would not lobby anyone in the agency where they had worked; lobby on behalf of any foreign government or entity that would require their registration under the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938; or aid or advise any foreign entity in trade negotiations.

However, when he left office in January 2001, Mr. Clinton revoked that order, releasing all his appointees from their contractual obligations, instantly. President Bush did not reinstate it.

Are you willing to reinstate Executive Order 12834 and then permanently embed its provisions into law via legislation?

— PAT CHOATE, the author of “Dangerous Business” and Ross Perot’s running mate in 1996.

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During the crisis between Russia and Georgia, John McCain said, “We are all Georgians.” But aren’t we all Americans? And doesn’t America have worldwide strategic interests? Are Georgia’s interests more important to our long-term security than a Russia that genuinely works with the United States to eliminate nuclear weapons, control nuclear proliferation, safeguard nuclear materials and assist in the war against radical Islamic terrorism?

— BILL BRADLEY, a Democratic senator from New Jersey from 1979 to 1997.

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Senator Obama helped pass a law in Illinois that requires the police to make audio or videotapes of interrogations of murder suspects. Would either of you require federal law-enforcement agencies to record all interrogations of witnesses as well as suspects in felony cases? And would you urge Congress to encourage recordings by state and local police departments?

— Paul Ekman, the author of Telling Lies: Clues to Deceit in the Marketplace, Politics and Marriage.

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When dealing with people accused of being involved in international terrorism against the United States, what is the proper balance between the use of military proceedings and criminal trials in our courts?

— MARY JO WHITE, the United States attorney in Manhattan from 1993 to 2002.

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Colombia has worked to eliminate terrorist activity and drug production within its borders, yet it has seen its efforts rewarded by having prominent members of the House and Senate lobby against a free trade agreement with us. What message does this send to other countries, like Afghanistan or Pakistan, that are working at our behest to eliminate security threats to both our nation and theirs?

— JOHN ASHCROFT, the United States attorney general from 2001 to 2005.

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With the opening of the Large Hadron Collider, the center of research in physics has moved from the United States to Europe. We are producing ever fewer young American scientists — in all fields. What specific things would you do to assure that America regains its position as the world’s leader in scientific research?

— DAVID BALTIMORE, who shared the Nobel prize in medicine in 1975.

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Should we bring greater consistency to our electoral system by mandating a uniform federal ballot to be used in all 50 states and uniform rules for voter eligibility in federal elections?

— Nathaniel Persily, a professor of law and political science at Columbia Law School.