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.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
JOINT EFFORTS: The three countries have been strengthening an alliance and pressing efforts to bolster deterrence against Beijing’s assertiveness in the South China Sea The US, Japan and the Philippines on Friday staged joint naval drills to boost crisis readiness off a disputed South China Sea shoal as a Chinese military ship kept watch from a distance. The Chinese frigate attempted to get closer to the waters, where the warships and aircraft from the three allied countries were undertaking maneuvers off the Scarborough Shoal — also known as Huangyan Island (黃岩島) and claimed by Taiwan and China — in an unsettling moment but it was warned by a Philippine frigate by radio and kept away. “There was a time when they attempted to maneuver
RSS