Timothy M. Tippins
In the 1992 Vice-Presidential debate, retired Admiral James Bond Stockdale, Ross Perot’s running mate, opened with the following words: “Who am I? Why am I here?” Stockdale, a Medal of Honor recipient, no doubt intended his words as a self-deprecating acknowledgment of his political inexperience. He was, nonetheless, made laughing fare by the late-night crowd’s acerbic intimations that Stockdale did not, in fact, know the answers to the questions that he had posed. Despite this sadly storied history of Stockdale’s questions, expert witnesses would do well to ask themselves the second of them before entering the courtroom: Why am I here?
