Name: ____________________________________________ Date: _________________________

Ms. Dennis/Mr. Patten Pirate’s Presidential Debates

Introduction: The Presidential debates are exercises designed to allow your campaign team the opportunity to strengthen you skills in
the areas of leadership, team building, group problem solving, and presentation. The debates give your campaign team the opportunity
to present your ideas to your voters and opposition. The debates will consist of the Secretary, President and Vice President. Each
member should be well informed and able to answer each of the questions presented.

___Amanda________________________ – Education Debate

___Natalie________________________ - Foreign Policy Debate
____Nicole________________ - Economy Debate

Foreign Policy:
1. What role does your administration believe the United States should play in regards to international conflict?
- Be able to explain how this belief will influence your actions toward North Korea, ISIS, Syria and the War Afghanistan.

Our administration believes that through compromise and coming up with a peaceful, equal plan to
solve key issues is key. Tension is bad in trying to solve important issues. Whoever we are dealing with,
both sides need to not be selfish and look at the key issue based on their people, surrounding
countries, and overall consequence. With this strategy towards North Korea, ISIS, Syria and the War
Afghanistan, it’ll help both sides realize the decisions they make and will hopefully benefit the future
generations to come. But if the other country or organization does not want to make peace, violence is
not going to be the first option. Violence leads to more violence and is a whole cycle.Other
considerations need to be put in place and violence will be a last resort, if anything.

2. What methods have been used by the Obama administration and Trump administration to combat ISIS? Include specific examples.

President Obama’s broad military plan, includes increased airstrikes, aimed at destroying Islamic
militants trying to take control of Syria and Iraq. “Our objective is clear: We will degrade, and
ultimately destroy, ISIS through a comprehensive and sustained counter-terrorism strategy,” Obama
said, using an alternative acronym for the organization.

3. Do you agree or disagree with the methods used by the Obama/Trump administration to combat ISIS?
- Include specific examples of actions taken that you support or oppose and be able to explain why.

President Obama did not want the U.S. dragged into another long, drawn out ground war so his
strategy was basically airstrikes with bombs dropped anywhere ISIS was in Iraq and over the border
in Syria. They also used intelligence gathering by satellites and other means to directly hit specific
high value targets with drones. The other key to his strategy was diplomacy. While all these methods
are not as direct as sending in hundreds of thousands of troops, it was effective. Besides even if we
sent thousands of soldiers in, Isis is not a traditional enemy, they would scatter and make it almost
impossible to wage a conventional ground war. Under Trump's leadership the fight against ISIS has
been even better. More than a third of the territory reclaimed from ISIS has happened in the last 6
months because Trump is allowing military commanders to make major decisions without getting
approval from the White House, something President Obama would not allow. Quicker decision making
allows the military to take advantage of conditions on the ground, conditions that change rapidly. I
agree with Obama’s decision not to wage a ground war and fully support Trump's decision to trust his
military commanders.
4. How will your administration eliminate the growing threat of ISIS?
- You must address methods that you will use and how they will eliminate ISIS.
- If you do not believe ISIS is a threat, explain why and you will ensure that they do not become a threat in the future.

My administration will use many methods to eliminate the threat of ISIS, although I don’t believe it is
growing any more. All the evidence points to ISIS being chased out of more and more territory. That
being said, they have proven that they could be deadly in small numbers, with ISIS inspired attacks
across the globe, from Paris to London, and even in New York. We will take steps to not only chase
ISIS from the territory it now occupies, but to cut it off from the outside world by eliminating as
much as possible its online presence. We will work with internet providers to make it more difficult or
impossible for groups or lone wolf assassin's to get information from this group. Also, we will continue
to eliminate the leadership of this group through drone strikes and other means. Finally, we need to
economically cripple ISIS by shutting down any means of acquiring cash.

5. What does your administration plan to do in regards to the growing tensions with North Korea? Explain your plan and why you
believe it will be successful.

North Korea has become one of the biggest threats to world peace. We cannot under any
circumstances sit by and allow this outlaw state to become a full nuclear power. Decades of failed
diplomacy have proven one thing. Diplomacy will not work. North Korea must be contained. We need to
pressure its largest trading partner, China, into doing more. The economy of North Korea needs to be
crippled. We will also need to destabilize this criminal regime by directly targeting not only the people
of North Korea but also its soldiers and military leadership. We need to give help to anyone thinking
about change. Change that happens from the inside will be more effective. We need to encourage
regime change. Finally, although this is the hardest thing to consider, we must be there to
strategically eliminate the regime of North Korea and cripple its ability to wage nuclear war. To do
this, the United States needs to assemble a coalition willing to stop this rogue criminal country.

7. How do you plan to ensure that Americans are safe both at home and overseas? Include specific information and ideas to support.

To keep Americans safe at home we need to be proactive in dealing with threats against America. The
best way to do this is with good intelligence. We need to have a presence overseas, especially in hot
spots of anti-American activity. Our local police, state police, FBI, CIA, NSA, should all be working
together, sharing information. Technology can also help keep Americans safe at home. There are
machines which can detect lone wolf bombers. These can be deployed through a subway system,
aircraft, or even a concert venue, anywhere large groups of people assemble. As for keeping Americans
safe overseas I believe that we need to deal swiftly and harshly with any group which harms an
American. If for example pirates capture Americans at sea, send in a seal team to deal with it. They
need to know, harm an American and you will be brought to justice.

8. Why should Americans trust you to protect them? Explain with specific examples.

Americans should trust me to protect them because I will succeed in making Americans safer while
protecting their constitutional rights. Intelligence gathering scares some people. They think we are
gathering information to harm them or control them. This will never happen under my watch. I will
gather info on credible threats. We will do our best not to invade the privacy of innocent people, but
unfortunately, this can sometimes happen. When it does, that information will be destroyed. We will
not be collecting and storing info on innocent people.

9. How do you plan to improve America’s image around the world? Explain with specific examples.

America is an exceptional country, I believe that while we do sometimes make mistakes, the truth is,
people from all over the world still come to America to escape poverty, persecution and many other
reasons. They come here because we are a nation of immigrants and a nation of hope. We need to
remind the world of that. We need to remind the people of Saudi Arabia that it was America which
pushed Iraq out of Kuwait and prevented a possible assault on their country. Our foreign policy should
reward nations friendly to us. If they choose to promote anti-Americanism, then why should we send
aid to them? I don’t believe we have an image problem as much as a perception problem. If we strive
to do the right thing and do no harm, our image will be a good one.

Guidelines for the Debate

30 second opening statement from each President

Question posed by Mr. Patten or Ms. Dennis

1-2 minute response from each of the Secretaries

2 minute crossfire between the Secretaries

This format will continue until the end of the debate. The Secretary, President and Vice President may take turns answering questions.
At the conclusion of the debate, each Secretary will give a 30 second closing statement explaining why the voters should elect their
campaign team.