2008

Edwards Outlines Plan To Fight Terrorism

John Edwards gave a major speech on terrorism today. From his campaign:

At a press conference today in New York City, Senator John Edwards outlined his plan to keep Americans safe and fight terrorists. With terrorism around the world on the rise, Edwards believes we need a change from the Bush "Global War on Terror Doctrine," which hasn't worked and has only been used to justify the worst abuses of his Administration. Edwards laid out a mission-focused plan to shut down terrorists and stand up for American values.

Below are the six steps Edwards will follow to stop terrorism. These are truncated from the fact sheet:

  • Rebalance our force structure for the challenges of the new century
  • Ensure our intelligence strategy adheres to proven and effective methods
  • Hold regular meetings with top military leadership
  • Create a "Marshall Corps" to stabilize weak and failing states
  • Rebuild equipment
  • Create a National Security Budget

I'd be interested in your comments on the Edwards plan.

For more information on NDN's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election, click here.

UPDATE: Obama offers closed captioning for videos

Just a quick update from a prior post: Barack Obama expanded his website's closed captioning capability today with Spanish-language captioning. Check out BarackTV en Español.

For more information on NDN's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election, click here.

Quick '08 Update

- The Wall Street Journal tells us that Rudy Giuliani is set to release his health-care plan.

- More Rudy: Patrick Gavin and Jeff Dufour from The Examiner point out that Rudy Giuliani's comments on abortion, which were followed by a lightning strike , is quite popular on YouTube:

As of 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, Rudy Giuliani’s response to a question on abortion, which was accompanied by a lightning strike, was viewed 198,964 times. That’s 3.1 times more views than the rest of the GOP debate combined (64,409 views total) and a whopping 8.1 times the entire Democratic debate, which had 22,891 views during the same time frame.

- Mitt Romney's campaign released a boastful statement on the Iowa straw poll, which John McCain and Rudy Giuliani are opting out of. For more Mitt, check out this video interview of him in the Washington Post.

- Hillary Clinton picked up an endorsement from Senator Sheldon Whitehouse. In other news: Hillary recently turned down Univision's invitation to participate in the first ever Spanish-language debate, saying that she plans to only participate in debates sanctioned by the DNC. Chris Dodd and Bill Richardson, both fluent in Spanish, have accepted.

- Jonah Goldberg asks "Are we better off with Fred?" and begins his piece with some satirical stats on Fred Thompson who, because of them, joins the likes of Chuck Norris and Jack Bauer.

For more information on NDN's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election, click here.

Quick '08 Update

- Lots of articles are still being sifted through referencing last night's debate. Here's one article from the New York Times about how the G.O.P. candidates handled the immigration issue.

- Interesting follow: (via TPMCafé) an economic advisor to Mitt Romney's campaign, N. Gregory Mankiw, signed an op-ed in the Dallas Morning News in support of the immigration bill in the Senate. (It is also signed by Jeb Bush who recently coauthored an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal with Ken Mehlman.)

- Barack Obama gave a speech to the Annual Hampton University Ministers' Conference. More from the AP here.

- Fred Thompson's website is up at www.imwithfred.com.

- John Edwards' campaign released a very light video showing Joe Trippi and Jonathan Prince trying to bake a pecan pie, the recipe for which you receive if you contribute to Edwards' campaign before his birthday. Video is below:

For more information on NDN's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election, click here.

Quick '08 Update

(An emphasis on quick...more to come later)

- Don't forget to watch/record tonight's debate.

- Barack Obama defended his health care plan in a letter to the editor of the Boston Globe and further defined his stance on America's security post-9/11.

- If you missed CNN's discussion on Faith and Politics, check out highlights here.

- The WSJ Blog takes a perspective on one of Al Gore's recent speeches, showing how he is keen to point out how he'd run the show.

For more information on NDN's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election, click here.

Quick '08 Update

As the coverage from last night's Democratic candidate debate rolls in (check Simon's post for a quick re-cap), here are a few other articles to fill your Monday:

- Barack Obama launched a Faith-oriented section of his website entitled "People of Faith for Barack."

- The New York Times profiles Mitt Romney's business experience as well as Michael Bloomberg's reputation with gun rights advocates.

- John McCain is speaking today in Coral Gables, FL on comprehensive immigration reform. Read the speech.

For more information on NDN's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election, click here.

A quick reaction to the Democratic Debate

I saw about three-quarters of it (had to help put my kids to bed).  Some initial thoughts:

- Sure looked like a group of smart people trying to figure out the right path for the nation.  And it is clear that the Democrats know that actually being the next President is going to be very hard.  They are really trying to get to the heart of matter on most of the big issues, which perhaps made this debate seem less canned and political than previous ones. 

I really enjoyed the way, at times, the candidates refered to one another and talked about how they could work with them, etc.  It often felt like even though they may have disagreed on certain matters, they were all on the same team.  I thought Clinton and Obama were especially effective at this, and were very respectful of their peers.  One of the things the candidates are clearly picking up so far from voters is that after the disapointment and deceit of the Bush era they are looking for real answers and a real leader.  Folks want to have an honest and respectful discussion about their future. 

- In keeping with this last thought I thought the regular folks in the audience asked much better questions than the journalists.  It was amazing how thoughtful their questions were, how concise and understandable and germane, and how respectful the people were of the folks on the stage.   It was refreshing to watch, and the candidates seemed to really seemed to work hard to be respectful back and actually answer the questions.

- It still feels early.  It is only June, and it felt like it tonight.  

- CNN may have stumbled on to an important precedent tonight.  Their rule that the candidates had to answer the question asked, and could not talk about any other issue - or risk being cut off - helped keep the conversation more substantive.  I hope all future debates follow that rule.   All in all I thought the length - 2 hours - and novel format made this one much substantive and less scripted than usual.  CNN deserves credit for improving on the form, though the two other non-Wolf journalists seemed to be an afterthought

- Did it seem like Wolk kept cutting Richardson off? Or was that my New Mexico sympathies playing out?

- Why was Lou Dodds allowed to play a major role in the coverage tonight?  Is CNN unaware of how offensive he is to many Democrats?

All in all it was a good night for our democracy.  We desperately need more open forums like this, where there can be honest, forthright discussion of the big issues facing the nation.  CNN and the candidates did a good job.  It will be interesting to see how it contrasts with the Republicans Tuesday night. 

Be interested in hearing from you.

TiVo Watch: CNN's New Hampshire presidential debates

Just a reminder for those with TiVos to record the upcoming debates:

  • June 3rd (tonight) - Democratic candidates debate on CNN at 7pm EST.
  • June 5th (Tuesday) - Republican candidates debate on CNN at 7pm EST.

Obama and Romney on US foreign policy

In the most recent edition of Foreign AffairsMitt Romney and Barack Obama offer contrasting visions for the future of US foreign policy. It's interesting to see what they agree on as well. Read about it here.

Quick '08 Update

- John Edwards sent a letter to the FCC asking them to make the internet more available and affordable to Americans.

- Barack Obama encouraged Senator Chris Dodd - Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee - to hold a hearing on a bill he sponsored. Entitled the Shareholder Vote on Executive Compensation Act, the bill "would give shareholders an advisory vote on executive compensation and spur both increased transparency and public debate over pay packages." Dodd replied to Obama with this statement.

- According to his website, Chris Dodd just went on air in Iowa and New Hampshire. More to come...

- According to The Hill, Joe Anthony - the man behind Barack Obama's first MySpace page - now supports Al Gore.

- The Wall Street Journal blog takes a look at the variance in cost savings between a few Democratic candidates' health care proposals.

- Rudy Giuliani picked up the endorsement of Louis Freeh, President Clinton's FBI Director.

- Chris Cilliza from The Fix points out that John McCain is trying to build support (and mend existing tensions) among the Republican base for the Senate immigration bill by hitting the radio waves.

- Mitt Romney discusses Fred Thompson's likely entry into the campaign in the Boston Herald. Meanwhile, Thompson is plotting his strategy in Iowa.

- Bruce Ramsey from the Seattle Times says the GOP should listen to Ron Paul's message on Iraq.

- In an entry in the Huffington Post, Tom Edsall brings up a very interesting ad series that Ted Kennedy ran against Mitt Romney to regain the lead in the 1994 Senate race. Edsall wonders if something similar might surface during Romney's run at the White House. 

For more information on NDN's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election, click here.

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