Election Candidate Questionnaire: What's the Biggest Threat Facing the Country?

Elections are supposed to be about politics and public policy and big issues. And this election has its share of all that, given the stakes.

But elections are also about people -- the kind of people who want to run for federal office. And we at AOL News wanted to get a better sense of just who these people are.

We invited candidates for the House and Senate to answer 10 questions. We got a response rate of about 5 percent. And while the results aren't exactly scientifically valid, they still are pretty interesting. Most questions were fun, but we did ask a couple serious ones. Here's one of them:

In 50 words or less, what's the biggest threat facing the country today?

With the U.S. fighting wars on two fronts against terrorism, in addition to the massive counterterrorism operations in the U.S., you'd think that terrorism would rank up there as the biggest threat to the country today.

But apparently the vast majority of candidates for the House and Senate see the war on terrorism as somewhat passe.

In fact, only 6 percent of them listed terrorism as the chief threat to the U.S. (nearly as many listed Congress!).

Instead, things like the national debt, the economy, political corruption and big government topped the list of top threats to the country. (Keep in mind that these aren't scientifically valid survey results.)

Source: AOL News Candidate Questionnaire

Among the other top threats candidates listed: hyperinflation, culture, water resources, socialism, apathy, loss of the middle class and President Obama.

Best one-word answers:

"Hopelessness."
-- David Hancock, Democratic candidate for Tennessee's 2nd Congressional District

"Socialism!"
-- Vernon Harrison, Republican candidate for Massachusetts' 9th Congressional District

Find other survey results here.