Posted on Monday, March 31st, 2008 by campaign2008
“I spoke out against it starting in 1992 — the president made a different decision. I think now with 14 years of experience under our belt, we can see that in some parts of our country there have been, perhaps, some economic advantages, but in other parts of our country, like where we are right here in northwest Indiana, it hasn’t worked as it was promised, and therefore I think we need to renegotiate it.”
–Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY), discussing her opposition to NAFTA (Chicago Sun-Times) Monday in Hammond, Indiana.
Posted in General Election, Quote of the Day, Trade | 1 Comment »
Posted on Monday, March 31st, 2008 by campaign2008
Zbigniew Brzezinski, a foreign policy adviser to Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-IL) campaign, wrote in a Washington Post op-ed Sunday that a “sensibly conducted disengagement will actually make Iraq more stable over the long term.” He also called for engagement with Iran and said the United States should push Israelis and Palestinians to “start making the mutual concessions without which a historic compromise cannot be achieved.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), a supporter of Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) bid for the presidency, defended McCain’s backing (FOX) for a continued robust U.S. military presence in Iraq. Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), however, warned that an “indefinite, open-ended commitment will not prompt the Iraqi political leaders to take important steps politically which they must take.”
Posted in General Election, Iraq, Morning Update | 0 Comments »
Posted on Friday, March 28th, 2008 by campaign2008
“It is imperative that our new President knows how and when to use force and diplomacy judiciously, to know how to deploy the olive branch and the arrow. The President needs to be ready to act swiftly and decisively in a crisis. And we think our next President must restore our moral authority and leadership around the world with the courage to meet with our adversaries when appropriate, and the wisdom to pursue diplomacy wisely.”
–An open letter, published Friday, from admirals and generals supporting Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) in her bid for the Democratic nomination.
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Posted on Friday, March 28th, 2008 by campaign2008
Regarding the debate over NAFTA in the 2008 presidential campaign, reader Ron Jauregui writes:
Our three presidential candidates seem to be a bit disingenuous, to say the least. Any one who is even vaguely familiar with basic international economics knows that free trade produces net wealth for each participating country. And for most of us, it is obvious that free trade produces both economic winners and losers domestically. The issue is not whether free trade is good…the issue is for whom?
The paramount task for public policy makers is what to do with the wealth that is created by free trade. The problem we face is that, currently, our nation’s free trade net wealth has not been widely dispersed. It would seem to me that good policy would dictate using some of that net wealth to transform our economic losers into winners.
Best,
Ron Jauregui
Former NADBank Advocate for the Latino Consensus on NAFTA
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Posted on Friday, March 28th, 2008 by campaign2008
Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) responded to President Bush’s statement that he intends to negotiate a “long-term strategic partnership” with the Iraqi government. “We cannot allow President Bush to tie the hands of his successor to his failed Iraq policy,” Clinton said.
Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) also commented on Bush’s speech, criticizing the President for having “failed to show us any real evidence of political progress in Iraq, which was the purpose of his policy.”
Speaking in Utah, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said he believed overall security in Iraq would continue to improve (SaltLakeTribune) despite the recent resurgence in violence.
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Posted on Thursday, March 27th, 2008 by campaign2008
“Our trade mentality dates back to the ’60s and the early ’70s when we were so dominant in the worl
d economy that basically if people sent their goods into this country without reciprocity, it wasn’t really going to have a dent on our economy. Well, the fact is China, Brazil, Korea, you know, they’re not your dad’s China, Brazil or Korea. They are now major competitors of ours. We should want real trade with them, but it’s got to be on a reciprocal basis. And we should put some pressure on them to improve how they treat workers, to deal with issues of environmental standards, to deal with safety standards. And part of the problem that we’ve got right now in our trade agreements is that US companies may move over there, get out from under basic safety standards that are important to US consumers, then the goods get shipped back into the United States and suddenly we’ve got toys with lead paint on them.”
–Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), in an interview Thursday with CNBC.
Posted in General Election, Quote of the Day, Trade | 0 Comments »
Posted on Thursday, March 27th, 2008 by campaign2008
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) laid out his broad foreign policy agenda in a speech Wednesday at the Los Angeles World Affairs Council.
Citing his own family’s experiences, McCain stressed his abhorrence of war, but said the United States must be “successful” in the military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq so that those countries can become “stable democracies themselves.” Calling for democracy promotion in the region, McCain said U.S. officials can “no longer delude ourselves that relying on these outdated autocracies is the safest bet.” Summing up his foreign policy views, McCain said he is a “realistic idealist.”
Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) both released statements (Clinton’s, Obama’s) responding to McCain’s statements on Iraq and emphasizing their own pledges to end the war.
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Posted on Wednesday, March 26th, 2008 by campaign2008
Sen. Hillary Clinton told reporters Tuesday the Bush administration should be “much more forceful” in pressuring China to ease its crackdown on Tibetan activists. She said U.S. officials should not wait (Reuters) until the Olympics this summer to make their views known.
In a statement Tuesday on Greek Independence Day, Clinton said she remains “concerned over Cyprus’ continued division” and urged a “new impetus for a negotiated settlement with the goal of the island’s reunification.”
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, an antagonist of the Bush administration in Latin America, said U.S.-Venezuelan relations might worsen under a presidency of Republican John McCain. “Sometimes one says, ‘worse than Bush is impossible,’ but we don’t know. McCain also seems to be a man of war,” Chavez told foreign correspondents Tuesday. McCain has called for countering Chavez’s “nefarious” influence in part by rebuilding ties with democracies there and strengthening trade with the region.
Posted in China, General Election, Latin America, Quote of the Day | 0 Comments »
Posted on Tuesday, March 25th, 2008 by campaign2008
Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) released a statement Monday congratulating Taiwanese President-elect Ma Ying-Jeou and calling on China to “reduce the military threat to Taiwan by drawing back the missiles it has deployed in southeast China and by other security confidence-building measures.” He also said the United States should “reopen blocked channels of communication with Taiwan officials.”
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) also commented on the Taiwanese election Monday. He praised the election as a “peaceful transfer of political power from one government to another based on ballots in an election that was free and fair.”
Iraq: As news broke Monday that the four-thousandth U.S. soldier had been killed in Iraq, Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Obama both released statements honoring the soldiers and reiterating their calls to end the war. See Clinton’s and Obama’s.
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Posted on Monday, March 24th, 2008 by campaign2008
“The 21st century American economy is more complex and more interconnected with the global economy than ever before. It is shaped each day by billions and billions of individual transactions and interactions on every continent, subject to crises or even just speculation in one country can move markets in dozens of others with the blink of an eye or a flick of a mouse. In today’s economy, trouble that starts on Wall Street often ends up on Main Street, sometimes within minutes, sometimes over the course of months or even years.”
–Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY), in an economic policy address Monday in Philadelphia.
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