Posted on Thursday, August 7th, 2008 by campaign2008
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) called for an “economic surge” (MSNBC) on Wednesday. “Our surge has succeeded in Iraq militarily. Now we need an economic surge to keep jobs here at home and create new ones,” he said. He also said the United States needs to “open new markets” to its products.
ENERGY CHOICES: Policy adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin defended McCain’s “all of the above” energy policy plan (Chicago Sun-Times) in a memo on Wednesday, saying McCain “does support aggressive development of alternative and renewable energy sources. He will support the development of alcohol-based fuels, establish a permanent research and development tax credit to support energy innovation, and will encourage an even-handed system of tax credits for renewable energy sources like wind, solar, and biomass.”
CHINA: NPR’s Mike Shuster says U.S. policy toward China has not figured prominently in the presidential campaign so far.
Posted in China, Economy, Energy Policy, General Election, Morning Update | 0 Comments »
Posted on Wednesday, August 6th, 2008 by campaign2008
“I welcome today’s guilty verdict in the first trial held under the Military Commissions Act (MCA). This proces
s of bringing terrorists to justice has been too long delayed, but I’m encouraged that it is finally moving forward. I supported that legislation, which was a good-faith effort by Congress to meet the Supreme Court’s direction to establish a process to bring terrorist detainees to trial. Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a trusted confidante of Osama Bin Laden, was provided a full hearing of the charges against him and was represented by counsel who vigorously defended him. The jury found that the prosecution lawyers had proven, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Hamdan had aided terrorists by supplying weapons to Al Qaeda and Taliban forces in Afghanistan.”
–Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), in a statement Wednesday on the verdict (AFP) in the case of Salim Ahmed Hamdan.
Posted in General Election, Quote of the Day, Terrorism | 0 Comments »
Posted on Wednesday, August 6th, 2008 by campaign2008
The Washington Post says the candidates are using the topic of energy policy to “to tack back to core themes of their campaigns.”
Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-IL) campaign on Tuesday provided ABC’s Jake Tapper with more detail on the Democratic candidate’s plan to impose a windfall profits tax on oil companies. A “well-designed mechanism can impose a fee on a small share of these windfall profits without affecting incentives for oil companies and without affecting the price of oil,” the campaign said.
A Wall Street Journal political blog describes Sen. John McCain’s tour on Tuesday of a Michigan nuclear plant.
Posted in Energy Policy, General Election, Morning Update | 0 Comments »
Posted on Tuesday, August 5th, 2008 by campaign2008
The debate on energy policy intensifies today with Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) set to deliver an address in Ohio calling for a mixture of alternatives “that will bring new energy, new jobs and new hope to Youngstown and communities across Ohio and this nation.”
Excerpts of the planned address are available on a TIME magazine blog.Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) will visit a nuclear plant in Michigan today to promote atomic energy as an alternative to dependence on foreign oil sources.
Posted in Energy Policy, General Election, Morning Update | 0 Comments »
Posted on Wednesday, July 30th, 2008 by campaign2008
Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) both had discussions Tuesday with the visiting Pakistani prime minister. Obama said he had a “productive and wide-ranging discussion,” in which he and Gilani discussed “how to more effectively deal with the central front in the war on terrorism—the threat from al-Qaeda and the Taliban originating from the Pakistani tribal areas—which threatens the United States, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.”
Gilani and McCain had a twenty-minute phone conversation (Pakistan Daily Mail) in which Gilani reportedly stressed the importance of a long-term strategic relationship between the United States and Pakistan.
NASA: In a statement on the fiftieth anniversary of NASA, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said he would “make sure that the NASA constellation program has the resources it needs so that we can begin a new era of human space exploration.”
Posted in General Election, Morning Update, Pakistan | 0 Comments »
Posted on Tuesday, July 29th, 2008 by campaign2008
Reader Bill Donahue writes:
Much has been made about the comments of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki regarding Obama’s 16 month timetable for withdrawal of U.S. Troops. The common spin is that al-Maliki is putting pressure on the Bush administration. It might also be fueled by Iraqi concern about the U.S. election as well as local elections there. The Prime Minister knows that a portion of the United States wants to leave Iraq. If we do so, he is on his own. It could motivate him to ally himself with the powerful al-Sadr militant faction or at least join the chorus of anti-American groups. Also, there are provincial elections forthcoming in Iraq as well. It may be to al-Maliki’s advantage to seem tough and independent in their own election cycle. The militant radical Montique al-Sadr incidentally also is a supporter of Obama’s plans. He wants US troops out so he, an Iran supporter, can take over. So, if he is going to stay in power, al-Maliki, might feel the need to run toward his “right” just as Obama is now running toward his “center.” Also, militant groups will play upon the election to get U.S. troops out. Curiously, streetwise Iraqis are not so sure they want the US out too soon. It would destabilize the country and re-open the sectarian violence. Then what have we accomplished and what do they have but more bloodshed?
Also, by publicly debating the issue of timetables to leave, and emboldening people like Moqtada al-Sadr, we have made the situation on the ground more uncertain. If we cannot be trusted to stay and finish what we start, it is no wonder people in Iraq or the entire region will “run” to their right where al-Sadr and Iran wait in the wings. If we leave and the country disintegrates into civil war again, the lives of hundreds of our troops will have been wasted. Is that the right thing to do for the sake of the troops who have died and those still fighting every day? Will setting artificial timetables destroy the progress made and endanger the sacrifice already made? Whether you agreed with the entry into Iraq or not, having done so we have an obligation to leave without causing more violence. A lot of people on the streets placed their trust in us once we were there. We cannot just create timetables that suit one person’s election campaign ambitions but threaten stability there. I wonder if we have not already done that by driving al-Maliki toward people like al-Sadr? Will setting artificial deadlines give power to the militant groups like al-Sadr? Let’s remember that al-Sadr who has killed American troops and has never been called to justice for it. Senator Obama may have just made al-Sadr’s militant group more powerful. The on again off again relationship of al-Sadr with the Prime Minister’s government will be influenced by the knowledge that the United States is leaving by a date certain. When Senator Obama moves to Afghanistan, the militants there will expect the same withdrawal syndrome in short order. We may not like the war, but we have a moral and pragmatic obligation to finish what we start and finish it well. Our credibility with other nations in the area I think will be damaged by Senator Obama’s plan of unconditional withdrawal. He wants to be tough on Iran and Afghanistan. Who is going to take us seriously when we abandon the people in Iraq that stood with us?
–Bill Donahue
Posted in Afghanistan, General Election, Inbox, Iraq | 0 Comments »
Posted on Tuesday, July 29th, 2008 by Joanna Klonsky
As the presidential candidates continue to debate the success of the troop surge, the American Prospect has convened a diverse group of Iraq experts to weigh in. Included in the panel are CFR Senior Fellow for Defense Policy Stephen Biddle, Global Americana Institute President Juan Cole, and Center for American Progress Senior Fellow Lawrence Korb, among others.
Shawn Brimley, Fellow at the Center for a New American Security, says the surge has been “overly simplified” by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who has insisted that the strategy was successful. “A change in strategy, plus the Sunni Awakening, the decision of Sadr to stand down his militia, and the use of concrete barriers in Baghdad to separate Sunni and Shia were all extremely important factors that, along with the additional troops, combined to help lower the violence,” he says.
Brookings’ Michael O’Hanlon says it is “incontrovertible to me that several major factors, including certainly the surge, were hugely important–and also synergistically important, in that the sum of effects was much greater than the sum of the parts.”
Matthew Duss, research associate at the Center for American Progress, says the Awakenings movement, Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr decision to “freeze” his militia, and the sectarian cleansing that led to “the separation of Sunni and Shia Iraqis into protected enclaves” all contributed to the decrease in violence in Iraq. The surge “encouraged, supported and consolidated each of these other phenomena, but very likely could not have succeeded without them,” he says.
Lt. Col. (ret) John Nagl says it is “past time to think about how to transfer some of the hard-earned lessons from countering insurgency in Iraq to the campaign in Afghanistan.”
To read the entire debate, click here.
For more on the candidates’ stances on Iraq policy, see this CFR.org Issue Tracker on the issue.
Posted in General Election, Iraq | 0 Comments »
Posted on Tuesday, July 29th, 2008 by campaign2008
After touring a California oil field on Monday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) again called for offshore drilling (WashPost). He disputed claims that offshore drilling might not yield benefits for years, saying some oil producers told him there are some cases in which oil could be available “within a matter of months.” He said the timeframe would depend “on the location and whether you use existing rigs or have to install new rigs.”
In an interview with Larry King on Monday night, McCain discussed his views on Iraq, and clarified a statement last week that Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-IL) proposed sixteen-month timetable for withdrawal from Iraq seemed “pretty good” (ChiTrib). He said that sixteen-month goal should not be “hard and fast,” but rather should be “condition-based.”
Obama will meet (MSNBC) with Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Tuesday in Washington, D.C.
Posted in Energy Policy, General Election, Iraq, Morning Update, Pakistan | 0 Comments »
Posted on Monday, July 28th, 2008 by campaign2008
“[D]id nuclear arms help the Soviet Union from falling and disintegrating? For that
matter, did a nuclear bomb help the U.S. to prevail inside Iraq or Afghanistan, for that matter? Nuclear bombs belong to the 20th century. We are living in a new century.”
–Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in an interview with NBC’s Brian Williams that aired Monday.
Posted in General Election, Iran, Military, Quote of the Day | 0 Comments »
Posted on Monday, July 28th, 2008 by Joanna Klonsky
In Politico’s new “Dear 44” series, experts from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Center for American Progress Action Fund debate a different policy issue facing the next president each week. This week, Aram Zamgochian (PDF), project director for Middle East and Africa Affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and Brian Katulis, Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, discuss what the next administration’s policy toward Iraq should look like.
Zamgochian touts efforts by the Chamber of Commerce to help U.S. companies “identify credible investment opportunities, find sound local partners and develop policies to help them compete” in Iraq. He says such investment is “the true long-term insurance policy to guarantee against instability in a region that is crucial to our national security and business objectives.”
Katulis, on the other hand, urges the next president to follow the advice of the Iraq Study Group report. Though the report needs updating, he says, “its fundamental premise that a new strategy is needed to managing multiple and interlinked challenges in the Middle East — among them Iran, the Arab-Israeli conflict and Iraq — remains relevant and should guide the next administration’s efforts as it redeploys U.S. troops from Iraq.”
Posted in General Election, Iraq | 0 Comments »
