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red states rule
08-08-2007, 04:49 AM
Well, the Dem debate last night was somewhat interestinf, Not very much but somewhat

The debate was put on by the union thugs and the heat must have gotten to some of the candidates



Gloves come off at labor debate
By Christina Bellantoni
August 8, 2007

Tempers flared and accusations flew last night as the Democratic presidential hopefuls sparred during their nastiest meeting yet — a debate for 15,000 AFL-CIO members in Chicago.

The candidates pledged to revise the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), stand up for workers and expand health care, but their domestic proposals were overshadowed by testy exchanges.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York urged her rivals to get along early in the debate — advice they ignored as they attacked her and one another on stage at the Chicago Bears' Soldier Field.

"I'm here because I think we need to change America ... not to get in fights with Democrats," she said. "I want the Democrats to win, and I want a united Democratic Party that will stand against the Republicans."

Former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina accused Mrs. Clinton of being too closely tied to special interests because she won't refuse lobbyist donations and because she was the focus of a recent Fortune cover story "Business loves Hillary!"

"You will never see a picture of me on the front of Fortune magazine saying I am the candidate that big, corporate America is betting on," said Mr. Edwards, who recently has been on the covers of Men's Vogue and Esquire.

Mrs. Clinton stuttered and said she was "taking it all in" before she struck a general election tone and admonished her foes for fighting with each other.

"For 15 years, I have stood up against the right-wing machine. And I've come out stronger," she said, adding: "So if you want a winner who knows how to take them on, I'm your girl."

for the complete article

http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070808/NATION/108080069/1001

red states rule
08-08-2007, 05:24 AM
Obama brushes back foreign policy critics

By: Ben Smith
Aug 7, 2007 10:51 PM EST
CHICAGO — Sen. Barack Obama played his trump card against rivals who questioned his ability to run American foreign policy at a debate Tuesday night, reminding other leading presidential candidates that they — unlike him — voted for the Iraq invasion.

The rowdy, hometown audience for the debate in sweltering Soldier Field, sponsored by the AFL-CIO, welcomed Obama's response to the foreign policy criticism from fellow senators. First came Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut, who said Obama's threats to raid Pakistan in search of terrorists could destabilize a friendly but fragile regime.

"Well, look, I find it amusing that those who helped to authorize and engineer the biggest foreign policy disaster in our generation are now criticizing me for making sure that we are on the right battlefield
and not the wrong battlefield in the war against terrorism," Obama said to applause for the crowd.

New York Sen.Hillary Clinton echoed Dodd's criticism, reflecting the view of much of the Washington foreign policy establishment: that preserving Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's tenuous hold on power should be a key American goal.

”You can think big, but remember you shouldn't always say everything you think if you're running for president, because it has consequences across the world," she said, referring to the risk of a power grab in Pakistan by "Islamist extremists who are in bed with Al Qaeda and the Taliban."

She closed, amid boos: "We don't need that right now."

But Clinton was applauded elsewhere in a debate in which Obama and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards tried to cast themselves as Washington outsiders, and Clinton as an insider. Edwards and Obama were met with attacks from "basically the whole Senate cloakroom," Edwards adviser Joe Trippi said after the debate, saying Dodd and Delaware Sen. Joe Biden took after Edwards and Obama.

And Clinton herself tried to capitalize on recent dust-ups about her relationship with lobbyists by claiming that enduring name-calling marks her strength.

"You know, I've noticed in the last few days that a lot of the other campaigns have been using my name a lot," she said. "For 15 years, I have stood up against the right-wing machine. And I've come out stronger. So if you want a winner who knows how to take them on, I'm your girl."

Though the debate was staged in Obama's home state, it was also in a sense Edwards' turf. The 2004 vice presidential nominee has made the strongest pitch to labor leaders, having walking — he said — 200 picket lines in recent years.

"We don't want to change one group of insiders for a different group of insiders," Edwards said, in a veiled shot at Clinton. "We need to give the power in America back to you and back to working men and
women all across this country."

But he came under sharp attacks from Biden and Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich, who tried to paint Edwards as a latecomer to the labor cause who only cast himself as the candidate of workers after he was no longer running for Senate in North Carolina, where organized labor is weak.

"I'm your candidate if you want to get out of NAFTA," Kucinich said, after Edwards said that the treaty should be "fixed," not scrapped. "Let's hear it. Do you want out of NAFTA? Do you want out of the
WTO?" Kucinich said to a roaring crowd.

And Biden mocked Edwards' recent devotion to picket lines.

"Where were you the six years you were in the Senate? How many picket lines did you walk on?" he asked.

After the debate, Biden's campaign circulated newspaper articles from Edwards' first campaign in 1998, in which he was quoted supporting a local "right to work" law that makes union organizing harder.

For all their attempts to press their labor credentials, however, the candidates — other than Kucinich — didn't publicly differ on any issues of labor policy.

"The Democrats are united," said a labor adviser to Clinton, Mike Monroe.

The Chicago crowd seemed to lean heavily toward Obama, and Mary Crayton, a former official of the Office and Professional Employees International Union in Chicago was no exception.

"As well as Edwards talked, it’s also important what he did in North Carolina," she said after the debate, echoing Biden's criticism. "I love Obama."

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0807/5292.html

red states rule
08-08-2007, 06:06 AM
Hell of a turnout for the debate

red states rule
08-08-2007, 06:42 AM
Obama seemed to be searching for answers on alot of questions, Hillary clearly one, Where was gravel, Richardson was unengaged, Biden did great but nobody cares, Edwards was,,,,,errrr,,,,yuk and Kuncinich acted and sound like some kind of smiley wind up toy.

Three things I noticed, they all want to spend HUGE SUMS OF MONEY, one even wants the .gov to pay for nurses???? Obama got huge applause for his hawkish line ,,,,,attack in Pakistan. Lastly Kucinich got muted applause when he said we gotta get out of Iraq now