Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama yesterday pressed ahead with attempts to burnish his foreign policy credentials, while his Republican opponent, Senator John McCain, promised to boost educational opportunities for students in failing schools.
Obama appeared with two Democratic heavyweights and potential vice presidential picks for an exhaustive outline of his plans to keep the US safe — especially from nuclear, biological and cyber attacks.
Obama pointedly chose Purdue University, a top institution in the US Midwest, for its location in Indiana, historically a Republican bastion where he is trying to engineer a Democratic breakthrough. He was joined by the state’s popular Democratic Senator Evan Bayh and former Georgia Democratic senator Sam Nunn, one of the nation’s top experts on nuclear issues, especially weapons proliferation.
Both men have been mentioned as possible running mates, but could also prove valuable in helping him make inroads in traditionally Republican states like those in the south.
As Obama campaigned relentlessly to overcome attempts by McCain to paint him as naive and untested on foreign policy issues, the four-term Arizona senator spoke to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) convention in Cincinnati, Ohio, vowing to raise educational opportunities for students in failing schools, many of which are in black communities.
McCain was received politely by members of the US’ oldest civil rights organization. Obama, who would be the first African-American president in US history, was given a hero’s welcome by convention-goers three days earlier.
McCain told the civil rights organization that he would expand education opportunities, partly through vouchers for low-income children to attend private school.
The Arizona Republican praised Obama’s historic campaign, but faulted the Illinois senator on his education policy, saying he was wrong to oppose school vouchers for students in failing public schools.
McCain said vouchers and other tools such as merit pay for teachers were needed to break conventional thinking on educational policy.
Obama has spoken in favor of performance-based merit pay for individual public school teachers. In a speech last year he told the National Education Association, the country’s largest teachers’ union, that the idea should be considered.
McCain also praised Martin Luther King, Jr, as a leader who “loved and honored his country even when the feeling was unreturned, and counseled others to do the same.”
In praising King to the NAACP, McCain used similar language to his mea culpa in April on the 40th anniversary of the civil rights leader’s assassination, saying he had been wrong to vote against a federal holiday honoring King.
Meanwhile, Obama, fighting perceptions that McCain is better prepared to deal with issues of foreign policy and national security, outlined his blueprint for keeping the country safe. Two goals of his administration, he said, would be securing all loose nuclear material during his first term and ridding the world of nuclear weapons.
He said adhering to nonproliferation treaties pressure nations such as North Korea and Iran. North Korea has tested a nuclear weapon, and Iran has an energy program the administration of President George W. Bush warns could be a precursor to nuclear weapon development.
Obama called for investing in methods to prevent, detect and contain biological attacks and said he would appoint a national cyber security adviser. He highlighted a proposal to spend US$5 billion over three years to develop an international intelligence and law enforcement infrastructure to foil terror networks.
“The danger ... is that we are constantly fighting the last war, responding to the threats that have come to fruition, instead of staying one step ahead of the threats of the 21st century,” Obama said.
As he prepares for an extensive trip abroad, including stops in Iraq, Afghanistan and Europe, Obama focused sharply on those wars and foreign affairs this week.
The presence of Bayh and Nunn with McCain inevitably raised questions on whether either was in the running for the vice president slot on the Democrat ticket.
Asked if he were interested in the vice presidency or had provided material to Obama’s vetters, Bayh repeatedly referred reporters to the Obama campaign. Nunn said he thought an Obama-Nunn ticket was unlikely, but he didn’t rule it out.
Packed crowds in India celebrating their cricket team’s victory ended in a deadly stampede on Wednesday, with 11 mainly young fans crushed to death, the local state’s chief minister said. Joyous cricket fans had come out to celebrate and welcome home their heroes, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, after they beat Punjab Kings in a roller-coaster Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket final on Tuesday night. However, the euphoria of the vast crowds in the southern tech city of Bengaluru ended in disaster, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra calling it “absolutely heartrending.” Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said most of the deceased are young, with 11 dead
By 2027, Denmark would relocate its foreign convicts to a prison in Kosovo under a 200-million-euro (US$228.6 million) agreement that has raised concerns among non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and residents, but which could serve as a model for the rest of the EU. The agreement, reached in 2022 and ratified by Kosovar lawmakers last year, provides for the reception of up to 300 foreign prisoners sentenced in Denmark. They must not have been convicted of terrorism or war crimes, or have a mental condition or terminal disease. Once their sentence is completed in Kosovan, they would be deported to their home country. In
Brazil, the world’s largest Roman Catholic country, saw its Catholic population decline further in 2022, while evangelical Christians and those with no religion continued to rise, census data released on Friday by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) showed. The census indicated that Brazil had 100.2 million Roman Catholics in 2022, accounting for 56.7 percent of the population, down from 65.1 percent or 105.4 million recorded in the 2010 census. Meanwhile, the share of evangelical Christians rose to 26.9 percent last year, up from 21.6 percent in 2010, adding 12 million followers to reach 47.4 million — the highest figure
LOST CONTACT: The mission carried payloads from Japan, the US and Taiwan’s National Central University, including a deep space radiation probe, ispace said Japanese company ispace said its uncrewed moon lander likely crashed onto the moon’s surface during its lunar touchdown attempt yesterday, marking another failure two years after its unsuccessful inaugural mission. Tokyo-based ispace had hoped to join US firms Intuitive Machines and Firefly Aerospace as companies that have accomplished commercial landings amid a global race for the moon, which includes state-run missions from China and India. A successful mission would have made ispace the first company outside the US to achieve a moon landing. Resilience, ispace’s second lunar lander, could not decelerate fast enough as it approached the moon, and the company has
RSS