Please check out my website (JoeSestak.com), Twitter (#Sestak2010) and Facebook page (Joseph Sestak Jr.).
Back on Wednesday, the day after I announced my candidacy for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, I appeared on the Colbert Report. Watch it here.
I have been receiving a number of questions about this appearance, so I wanted to take some time to answer the most common ones today:
Q. Is there a secret army of laser-mounted dolphins designed to shoot down submarines?
A. Actually, laser-mounted dolphins would fall under the command of the navy, and have multiple purposes which I am not at liberty to discuss.
Q. What made health care in the military so great?
When my daughter was diagnosed with cancer, she was able to receive the best treatment possible. The TRICARE program for the military is subsidized, doesn’t deny patients care because of pre-existing conditions, doesn’t drop patients from coverage when they get sick, and (in TRICARE Standard) allows patients to choose their doctors. Those aspects of health care should be available to all Americans, including the choice of a public option.
Q. You actually think that primary campaigns are a good thing?
A. If Democratic politicians have no one from their own party to challenge them, then Democratic voters lose a good way of keeping their leaders honest. Too often politicians of both parties in Washington forget who they work for, but primary campaigns help them to remember.
Q. What do you really think of Senator Specter saying you should have registered as a Democrat while you were in the military? Be honest.
A. Maybe he thinks that the military should be more partisan, but like Wesley Clark, Colin Powell, and Stephen Colbert I sure don’t.
Q. Other than Colbert, what have you been up to since your campaign announcement?
A. I have been traveling around the state, taking our message of restoring the American Dream and holding Washington accountable by in Pittsburgh, Johnstown, Harrisburg and Scranton. There have been number of interviews, which you can watch here. As always, I have been handling more constituent requests--5,000 a year--than anyone else in the House of Representatives.
I have also been reading about what people have been saying about the campaign online. There is quite a lot of it: Americablog, Brendan Calling, BooMan Tribune, Comhradh, Crooks and Liars, Daily Kos, Delaware Liberal, D-Day, Double Speak, Down With Tyranny!, Eschaton, Fact-esque, Hanlon’s Razor, Labor Pains, Lezgetreal, Mole’s Progressive Democrat, Oliver Willis, Open Left, pa2010, Philadelphia Freedom, The Plum Line, The Political Carnival, Progressive Historians, Progressive Peach, Senate Guru, The Seminal, Smith on Politics, and Swing State Project.
Q. What’s coming up next week?
A. The big event is Netroots Nation in Pittsburgh. I will be there, to talk and meet with the netroots community in person. Make sure to send in any questions you would like to ask me (or Senator Specter) to Susie Madrak at Suburban Guerilla.
I have to run for now, but let’s make a habit out of this. You keep asking me questions in the comments and, even after Netroots Nation, I will stop by regularly to answer them. And be sure to my website (JoeSestak.com), Twitter (#Sestak2010) and Facebook page (Joseph Sestak Jr.).
Oh--and contributing to our campaign on Act Blue doesn’t hurt either.