It’s a Virtual Hot Seat

If you were running for president, you’d probably rather be interviewed by Jay Leno than Mike Wallace. And, if you knew your interrogators, you might even prefer Wallace to a 57-year-old Irvine computer consultant named Roger Elliot.

Elliot has created a site on the Internet’s World Wide Web devoted to confronting politicians with what he calls “non-Larry King-type” questions.

“You watch Larry King or even debates, and you say to yourself, ‘Why doesn’t he ask this or that?’ ” Elliot said. “People are let off with evasive or canned responses.”

His Web site, which was launched in November, is a form of quiet protest, although he knows better than to expect politicians to answer.

Each week, the site poses a new question, usually selected by Elliot from questions submitted by people across the country who have seen the site. One of Elliot’s favorite questions so far: Since voter turnout tends to be so low in California, why not elect winners of the state’s primary by conducting a random sample survey of the state’s residents? Theoretically, that would yield a more accurate reflection of the general population’s preferences.

This week’s question, submitted by a woman in Ohio, is a little softer: Why shouldn’t Bob Dole choose his wife as his running mate?

Elliot says he gets about 15 questions a week, and picks the one he likes best. He also gets hundreds of e-mail responses to the questions, and says he is considering publishing some of these answers in a book.

The address of Elliot’s Web site is https://www.wp.com/HARD-Q.

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Greg Miller covers high technology for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-7830 and at greg.miller@latimes.com.