Morning Update: Engaging the Cubans
The Democratic candidates participated in a CNN/Univision debate in Austin, Texas Wednesday night, where Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) tried to stop the Obama campaign’s seeming momentum after his eleven straight victories (NYT) in the recent weeks of the primary season. In their first debate in three weeks, Clinton said she would not meet with Cuban leader Raul Castro unless there is evidence that he is freeing political prisoners, ending “some of the oppressive practices on the press,” and “opening up the economy.”
Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), on the other hand, said he would be willing to meet with the new Castro government “without preconditions” to push a human rights agenda. He also said he would loosen restrictions on remittances to Cuba from family members in the United States as a “show of good faith” that the United States is “interested in pursuing potentially a new relationship.”
Immigration: Clinton said she would “consider” stopping ICE raids “except in egregious situations.” She also said she would introduce legislation containing a path to legalization for illegal immigrants in the first hundred days of her presidency.
Clinton and Obama seemed to agree that a border fence may be appropriate in some areas, but that, as Obama said, “the key is to consult with local communities, whether it’s on the commercial interests or the environmental stakes of creating any kind of barrier.”
Experience: Citing instability in the Balkans, Pakistan and Cuba, Clinton again stressed that she is “ready on day one to be commander in chief,” implying that Obama is unprepared to face international challenges.
Obama responded, saying Clinton was “wrong in her judgments” on Iraq. He also said it was a “mistake” to “put all our eggs in the Musharraf basket” in Pakistan. “We should be going after al Qaeda and making sure that Pakistan is serious about hunting down terrorists as well as expanding democracy, and I was right about that,” he said.
Surge: Clinton said the troop surge has not achieved its purported goal of political progress in Iraq. The Iraqi government “has slowly inched toward making a few of the decisions in a less than complete way, but it hasn’t taken advantage of the sacrifice and the losses of life and billions of dollars that have occurred since the surge began,” she said.Obama called the surge a “tactical victory imposed upon a huge strategic blunder,” and said it is “indisputable that we’ve seen violence reduced in Iraq.” He said in the general election versus a Republican candidate, “it is going to be much easier for the candidate who was opposed to the concept of invading Iraq in the first place to have a debate about the wisdom of that decision.”Obama also said the war in Iraq has diverted the United States from focusing on policy toward Latin America and China. U.S. neglect has caused Venezuela and China to “move into the void,” Obama said.
