How would GOPers address issues raised by the president?

Following his decisive victory Tuesday in Florida’s primary, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is well positioned to secure the 1,144 delegate votes needed for the Republican presidential nomination. The GOP national convention will take place the week of Aug. 27 in Tampa.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who came in second in Florida, insisted that he intends to stay in the nomination race to the very end. However, a lot will depend on whether he’s able to attract campaign contributions as his political fortunes diminish.

This month, the candidates will compete in four caucuses and three primaries before turning their sights on Super Tuesday, March 6, when major states hold caucuses and primaries. Ohio will be the big prize.

Romney showed in Florida that money is the mother’s milk of politics. He was able to saturate the airwaves with campaign ads that sought to cripple his closest rival in the four-man race. The results — he received 46.4 percent of the vote, to 31.9 percent for Gingrich — show his strategy worked. Although the former speaker says he’s not dropping out, he does not have the money or the campaign organization to compete in every state.

But given that Romney and Gingrich are in first and second place, they should be required to offer more than political platitudes and sound-bite answers to the important questions of the day. To date, they have gotten away with criticizing each other and President Obama’s three-year tenure, but have not been challenged to explain what they would do if they were in the White House.

The president’s State of the Union speech on Jan. 24 provided the context for Romney and Gingrich to show how their presidencies would be different.

Let’s start with the issue that is of singular importance to the Mahoning Valley and of great important to the state of Ohio: The auto industry.

In his nationally televised speech to a joint session of Congress Obama said: “On the day I took office, our auto industry was on the verge of collapse. Some even said we should let it die. With millions of jobs at stake, I refused to let that happen. In exchange for help, we demanded responsibility. We got workers and auto makers to settle their differences. We got the industry to retool and restructure.”

Today, General Motors is back on top as the world’s number one auto maker. Chrysler has grown faster in the U.S. than any major car company. Ford is investing billions in U.S. plants factories. And together, the entire industry added nearly 160,000 jobs, Obama noted.

No to the bailout

Romney and Gingrich opposed the bailout of the auto industry. Thus, these questions for them: How would letting the auto industry collapse have saved the jobs of hundreds of thousands of auto workers? What would have happened to the economy had one or more of the companies been forced to declare bankruptcy?

President Obama also insisted that the U.S. would not go back to the days when Wall Street was allowed to play by its own set of rules. He called for the establishment of a Financial Crimes Unit of highly trained investigators to “crack down on large-scale fraud and protect people’s investments.” He noted that some financial firms violate major anti-fraud laws because there is no real penalty for being a repeat offender. He urged Congress to pass legislation that makes the penalties for fraud count.

To the two Republican candidates: Do you think that a Financial Crimes Unit is necessary because of the behavior of some Wall Street firms? Do you believe that corporate violators of anti-fraud laws deserve to be punished?

The payroll tax cut that has been a lifeline for so many Americans will expire unless Congress acts to renew it. The president urged legislators to do so without drama or raising side issues.

Do Romney and Gingrich agree that protecting 160 million Americans from a tax increase is a priority?

The American people deserve answers.