Posted on Thursday, August 28th, 2008 by Joanna Klonsky
Republicans released a draft of their party’s 2008 platform (WashPost) ahead of next week’s Republican National Convention in Minnesota, according to several news reports. The Washington Post says the draft breaks with Sen. John McCain’s proposed policies in several areas.
–The draft includes a section on “addressing climate change responsibly,” marking the first time the Republican platform has contained an acknowledgment that human activity may contribute to climate change. “The same human activity that has brought freedom and opportunity to billions has also increased the amount of carbon in the atmosphere. Increased atmospheric carbon has a warming effect on the earth,” the draft says.
–The document does not mention a policy of capping carbon emissions, like the one McCain advocates. It also warns against “doomsday climate change scenarios peddled by aficionados of centralized command-and-control government.”
–Bloomberg reports that on immigration, the platform says the Party opposes any move to grant amnesty to illegal immigrants. “The rule of law suffers if government policies encourage or reward illegal activity,” it says.
Posted in Climate Change, General Election, Immigration | 0 Comments »
Posted on Thursday, August 28th, 2008 by campaign2008
Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) was named the Democratic Party’s official presidential nominee (Reuters) Wednesday night at the Democratic National Convention. He will officially accept the nomination tonight.
Former President Bill Clinton addressed the convention Wednesday evening, praising Obama as showing “a clear grasp of foreign policy and national security challenges and a firm commitment to rebuild our badly strained military.”
Vice-presidential candidate Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) promised that he and Obama will “hold Russia accountable for its actions and we will help the people of Georgia rebuild.” He also said Obama was “right” in calling for additional troops in Afghanistan and for a timeline for withdrawal from Iraq. CFR.org Executive Editor Michael Moran talks with Biden’s co-author of a plan to federalize Iraq, CFR President Emeritus Leslie H. Gelb, about possible Iraq policy in an Obama-Biden administration.
A CFR hosted panel of foreign policy heavyweights Wednesday explored the immense challenges facing the next president, from globalization to the Middle East.
CFR will host several panel discussions on foreign policy issues at next week’s Republican National Convention in Minnesota.
Posted in DNC, General Election, Iraq, Morning Update, Russia | 1 Comment »
Posted on Tuesday, August 26th, 2008 by campaign2008
“I condemn Russia’s decision to recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states and call upon all countries of the world not to accord any legitimacy to this action.
The United States should call for a meeting of the United Nations Security Council to condemn Russia’s decision in coordination with our European allies. The U.S. should lead within the UN and other international forums to cast a clear and unrelenting light on the decision, and to further isolate Russia internationally because of its actions. The OSCE must also send a serious monitoring group to Georgia.”
–Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), in a statement Tuesday on Russia’s decision to recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states .
Posted in General Election, Quote of the Day, Russia | 0 Comments »
Posted on Tuesday, August 26th, 2008 by Michael Moran
DENVER — One of the (few) nice things about being housed 15 miles from the site of the actual convention – yes, hotel rooms downtown were tough to come by even for CFR – is the serendipitous conversations you find yourself having in the Marriott breakfast nook, in the taxi queue. In this case, as I stepped into my rental car to head for the Pepsi Center, a nattily dressed fellow tapped me on the shoulder and said, “Any chance I can bum a ride?” He turned out to be Peter A. Brown, chief pollster for the respected Quinnipiac University Poll, and I made sure he paid for his 20-minute ride downtown by peppering him about the relative position of foreign policy issues in the collective mind of the electorate. Brown is known in his trade as a man who knows as much as anyone about the attitudes of the electorate in a series of key “swing” states. This time around, he has focused much of his attention on Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, three states with a history of splitting their votes between Republicans and Democrats and deciding elections. Interestingly, in this cycle, he says, international issues – particularly if “free trade” and “immigration” can be included–are playing relatively high in all three. Generally, all three include large numbers of centrist voters often characterized as “Reagan Democrats,” people Brown sees as naturally attracted to Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) maverick reputation, but also comfortable with the economic populism espoused at times by Sen. Hillary Clinton’s (D-NY) campaign, and with less fervor to date, by Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-IL). “Going protectionist could present great opportunities to Obama,” Brown says. Not only will it shore up his support among Hillary Clinton voters who might be giving McCain a hard look; It also puts the McCain camp in a difficult position in a bad economy when the emotional arguments against free trade are finding traction in the middle and working classes.On the other hand, Brown sees the return of Russian assertiveness in the Caucasus as an issue which “has done a great favor for McCain.” The thinking among political professionals, he says, is that instability of any kind generally will favor the Arizona Republican, with his long record on national security issues. “The exception in Iraq, where relative calm makes it a more difficult issue for the Democrats to highlight,” he says. “But don’t get me wrong, the Iraq war, even with the recent changes there, remains very unpopular.”
Other issues, too, will make their mark. In Florida, of course, there’s a determination to see that the long trade embargo imposed in the early 1960s on Fidel Castro’s Cuba remain in place, though researchers have shown evidence of a softening among South Florida’s Cuban-Americans. Border states in the southwest may still force a real debate – absent so far – on immigration policy.
Posted in General Election, Immigration, Iraq, Russia, Trade, Uncategorized | 0 Comments »
Posted on Tuesday, August 26th, 2008 by Michael Moran
DENVER — From the CFR/Foreign Affairs booth here* at the Democratic National Convention, sandwiched between the workspaces of TIME, the Christian Science Monitor and the huge space shared by the Washington Post and Slate, foreign policy issues appear not to rank very highly so far on the radar of the working press. Day One’s focus on “The Family,” where Michelle Obama and Nancy Pelosi took center stage, barely touched on international issues. Democrats divided their convention into themes, and “National Security” doesn’t get its spot in the sun until Wednesday. Still, with American troops embroiled in two major conflicts, the global economy flagging due to high energy prices and the damage done by America’s credit markets, several foreign journalists have remarked to me that they are shocked that global issues have not been more prominently on display. “We thought Iraq would be front-and-center in all discussions here,” says Max Deveson of the BBC. “So far, it’s about the show, not the substance.” Sen. Joseph Biden (D-DE), the Senate Foreign Relations committee chairman whose selection as Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-IL) running mate led to a flurry of foreign policy analysis over the weekend, will speak Wednesday. A question on many minds here: Does the “Gelb-Biden” plan, the proposal for a more federalized Iraqi government structure advocated by the senator and CFR President Emeritus Leslie H. Gelb since 2006, now become part of the Obama platform? Biden’s foreign policy positions are well-known otherwise and tracked in detail by CFR.org. It’s hardly controversial to note at this point that political conventions in modern times really are more style than substance, and so carefully channeling the “message” of each party into pre-planned theme days makes some sense. Still, foreign policy is not totally absent. John Irbittsen of the Toronto’s Globe and Mail, one of the sharper foreign observers of U.S. politics, writes that among Obama’s tasks here is putting forth a detailed economic program, perhaps one which puts Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) on the spot for his advocacy of free trade, and capitalizes on public unease over everything from the Iraq war to high energy prices.
*CFR.org Executive Editor Michael Moran will blog from the DNC in Denver through this week.
Posted in Economy, Energy Policy, General Election, Iraq, Russia, Uncategorized | 0 Comments »
Posted on Tuesday, August 26th, 2008 by campaign2008
Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Michelle Obama, the wife of the presumptive Democratic nominee, were featured speakers (WashPost) on the opening night of the Democratic National Convention, where the party will seek to rally around a common foreign policy vision.
ECONOMY: The Wall Street Journal looks at possible effects of economic instability on Sen. Barack Obama’s policy plans. In particular, it examines the pushback he would face from the business community on expected climate change plans.
IMMIGRATION: The Dallas Morning News reports that some immigration rights activists are content with the presidential candidates’ lack of attention to the issue on the campaign trail.
Posted in Economy, General Election, Immigration, Morning Update | 0 Comments »
Posted on Friday, August 22nd, 2008 by campaign2008
Congressional candidates are struggling to find a way to approach energy policy in their campaigns, the New York Times reports.
The presidential candidates agreed to hold three debates in the coming months. The first, which will take place on September 26, will focus on foreign policy and national security issues (Politico).
Posted in Energy Policy, General Election, Morning Update | 0 Comments »
Posted on Thursday, August 21st, 2008 by campaign2008
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) told Politico he would be “glad” to meet with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, whom he has sharply criticized on the campaign trail, but only under the proper framework.
The New York Times Magazine examines Obama’s economic perspective.
Posted in Economy, General Election, Morning Update, Russia | 0 Comments »
Posted on Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 by Joanna Klonsky
Fighting between Russia and Georgia received more U.S. media coverage than the presidential campaign last week, according to a new report from the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. The study of news storylines between August 11 and 17 shows 26 percent of all news coverage focused on the conflict, while the presidential campaign received 21 percent of the coverage. This marks the first time in nine months that the campaign has not been the top news story. The conflict between Russia and Georgia also dominated campaign news itself, as candidates detailed their own views on how to handle the situation. According to the Pew report, 14 percent of campaign coverage last week was related to the crisis.
This chart illustrates the top campaign storylines of the week:
Posted in General Election, Russia | 0 Comments »
Posted on Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 by campaign2008
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) promised that if he is elected, he will provide “young democracies” like Georgia with “support and solidarity.” He spoke to the convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) on Monday. McCain also said he would create a Veterans’ Care Access Card to “provide those without timely access to VA facilities the option of using high-quality health-care providers near their homes.”
Sen. Barack Obama (AP) (D-IL) will speak to the VFW on Tuesday.
The Wall Street Journal’s Gerald Seib compares the responses of McCain and Obama to the crisis in Georgia and says it reveals compellingly different diplomatic styles.
Posted in General Election, Military, Morning Update, Russia | 0 Comments »
