All sorts of impertinent journalists are helpfully suggesting questions that moderator Lester Holt should ask during tonight’s presidential debate but almost assuredly won’t because they are too sharp.

As our Zaid Jilani has previously pointed out, in an article titled Why the Presidential Debates Will Suck Even Though They Don’t Have To, knowledgeable, confrontational, unpredictable, independent-minded moderators are seriously frowned upon by the top Democratic and Republican luminaries who pick them, ergo Lester Holt.

Dan Roberts at The Guardian, for instance, compiled 10 intentionally awkward debate questions. Among them:
For Trump:

Is there anyone you regret offending?

For Clinton:

Why are you so secretive?

The Nation asked some of the umbrage-filled writers in its stable to contribute a few. Among them:

Katha Pollitt asks Hillary Clinton:

Could you please say something critical about Henry Kissinger so Nation readers will vote for you?

Mark Hertsgaard asks Trump:

You have said, “I love nuclear weapons.” Meanwhile, you take offense easily and enjoy feuding with critics. Why should Americans allow someone with your volatile temperament to have his finger on the nuclear button?

The frequently prickly and always excellent David Cay Johnston suggested 14 questions in the New York Daily News, just for Trump. Among them:

Since you won’t reveal your taxes, will you provide copies of the form letters saying you are being audited and a summary for each year since, say, 1978, with your adjusted gross income, gifts to charity and federal income tax paid? And if not, why not?

At the New Yorker, keen Amy Davidson had 12 for Clinton. Among them:

You’ve said that you have never changed your vote on anything because of money — speaking fees, foundation contributions, campaign donations. Why do you think people gave that money?

The unblunted Mother Jones Washington bureau suggested that its questions would result in “revealing” answers. Among them:

For Trump:

You also said you know more about ISIS than the generals. Do you actually believe that? Can you tell us how many troops ISIS has, where its strongholds are, who make up its top command, and what the best locations are to mount military attacks against ISIS targets?

For Clinton:

As secretary of state, you served as something of a global fracking evangelist. What would you say to Americans whose neighborhoods have suffered drinking-water contamination and earthquakes as a result of fracking?

Bloomberg View’s Al Hunt has some more conventional but still pretty sharp questions for both.

For Clinton:

Libya is now a dysfunctional terrorist haven; Mr. Obama says the “worst mistake” of his presidency was failing to prepare for what happened after toppling Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. Do you disagree with the president, were you mistaken, and what have you learned?

And for Trump:

Secret plans usually are secret because they aren’t real. You have claimed to have a “foolproof” secret plan to defeat the Islamic State. Unless you specifically lay out a plan, that promise comes across as empty as Mr. Nixon’s secret Vietnam plan. What is your plan and how quickly would you eliminate the Islamic State?

And here, for what they’re worth, are the ones I’d like to ask:

For Trump:

How are you not a fascist?

And for Clinton:

Americans have grown profoundly disgusted with the political elite and a system skewed toward the super rich. You are a member of that elite, and have profited from that system. So you’re screwed. And we’re all screwed. I don’t really have a question here. No, actually, I do: Why won’t you release the transcripts of the three speeches you gave to Goldman Sachs in return for $675,000?