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
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 Monday, August 4th, 2008 by campaign2008
Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) will unveil his “New Energy for America” plan (Chicago Sun-Times) on Monday in Lansing, Michigan. Under the plan, Obama would grant a rebate to help Americans cope with high gas prices, seek to create five million new “green jobs,” and eliminate U.S. dependence on Middle Eastern oil in ten years, says the Obama campaign.
The Democratic Party will call the Iraq war a “strategic blunder” in its 2008 convention platform, NBC reports.
In an interview with the Washington Post, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said President Bush should avoid confrontation with the Chinese during his trip to Beijing for the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. “You don’t want to go over there and insult the Chinese,” he said. “It would not be good for our relations.”
Posted in China, Energy Policy, General Election, Iraq, Morning Update | 0 Comments »
Posted on Friday, August 1st, 2008 by campaign2008
In a town hall meeting in Iowa on Thursday, Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) discussed his energy plan (Des Moines Register) and responded to news that Exxon Mobil made nearly $12 billion last quarter. “While big oil is making record profits, you are paying record prices at the pump, and our economy is leaving working people behind,” Obama said.
McCain adviser Doug Holtz-Eakin used the release of GDP data on Thursday as an opportunity to promote free trade. “When 95% of the world’s consumers live outside our borders, it is crucial that we do everything we can to expand markets for American goods and level the playing field for American businesses and workers,” he said in a statement.
Posted in Energy Policy, General Election, Morning Update, Trade | 0 Comments »
Posted on Thursday, July 31st, 2008 by campaign2008
The Wall Street Journal is hosting an online debate on trade policy between an economic adviser to Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), Daniel Tarullo, and an economic adviser to Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Phillip Levy. Both have offered differed responses to collapse of the WTO talks in Geneva.In a Washington Post op-ed, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who advises McCain, assesses the changing conditions in Iraq and says a withdrawal from Iraq is not necessary to free forces for Afghanistan.
A new poll (LAT) shows a slim majority of Californians favoring increased drilling off their coast. McCain discussed his energy views with Colorado’s KRDO radio on Tuesday.
Obama praised the reauthorization on Tuesday of the global AIDS bill, which he said represents “a renewed and expanded commitment by the United States” to fight AIDS around the world.
Posted in Afghanistan, Energy Policy, General Election, Iraq, Morning Update, Trade | 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
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
In an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press, Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) said too much U.S. financial assistance to Pakistan has been military aid, and “not enough of it has been in the form of building schools and building infrastructure in the country to help develop and give opportunity to the Pakistani people.” He also discussed Afghanistan and the troop surge in Iraq.
On ABC’s This Week, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) stressed the importance of basing Iraq policy on the “conditions on the ground.” He also discussed the economy, calling Wall Street “the villain” in the sub-prime mortgage crisis.
Posted in General Election, Iraq, Morning Update, Pakistan | 0 Comments »
Posted on Friday, July 25th, 2008 by campaign2008
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) meets Friday with the Dalai Lama (Denver Post) in Aspen, Colorado.
AFGHANISTAN: Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) defended Sen. Barack Obama’s plan to redeploy troops to Afghanistan in a USA Today op-ed Thursday.
IRAQ: Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE), recently returned from a congressional delegation to the Middle East with Obama, called on both candidates to stop debating the success of the troop surge in Iraq and to “project forward” (AP).
LATINO VOTE: A new Pew poll surveys Hispanic voter attitudes toward the presidential race.
Posted in Afghanistan, General Election, Iraq, Morning Update | 0 Comments »
