In the wake of Pres. Obama’s GOP tango in Baltimore last week, a Whitman’s Sampler of political types has launched a campaign called Demand Question Time (tip o’ the pixel to Politico Playbook).
The roughly four dozen demanders cover the political spectrum from Grover Norquist and L. Brent Bozell III to David Corn and Katrina vanden Heuvel, with all stops in between. From their “Open Letter to Our Fellow Americans:”
We live in a world that increasingly demands more dialogue than monologue. President Obama’s January 29th question-and-answer session with Republican leaders gave the public a remarkable window into the state of our union and governing process. It was riveting and educational. The exchanges were substantive, civil and candid. And in a rare break from our modern politics, sharp differences between elected leaders were on full public display without rancor or ridicule.
This was one of the best national political debates in many years. Citizens who watched the event were impressed, by many accounts. Journalists and commentators immediately responded by continuing the conversation of the ideas put forward by the president and his opponents — even the cable news cycle was disrupted for a day.
America could use more of this — an unfettered and public airing of political differences by our elected representatives. So we call on President Barack Obama and House Minority Leader John Boehner to hold these sessions regularly — and allow them to be broadcast and webcast live and without commercial interruption, sponsorship or intermediaries. We also urge the President and the Republican Senate caucus to follow suit. And we ask the President and the House and Senate caucuses of his own party to consider mounting similar direct question-and-answer sessions. We will ask future Presidents and Congresses to do the same.
It is time to make Question Time a regular feature of our democracy.
They then ask you to sign their petition. But apparently they don’t want your opinion, because at the bottom of the website it says: Comments are closed.
C’mon, guys – how about practicing what you preach?
Campaign Outsider 
Wonder if FoxNews would agree to carry them in their entirety?
Typical.
Question time would have the tendency to pierce the spin bubble that surrounds much of the political activities of the executive and legislative branches of the Government.
Surely, the questions would be a form of spinning in and of themselves, but it would assure that the Executive Branch does not function in splendid isolation in the way it does now.
Question Time can be a two edged sword. Look at it as a press conference with a knowledgeable, aggressive, and sometimes argumentative audience.
The British Government has survived Question Time for years; its democracy is the stronger for it.