Obama bin Laden? Senator addresses AP luncheon

Presidential hopeful Barack Obama addressed the American Society of Newspaper Editors and the Newspaper Association of America at the Associated Press annual luncheon. Obama's speech took full advantage of his trademark public speaking skills. More critical of his democratic opponent Hillary Clinton in his opening statement than attendees of the luncheon might have expected, Obama talked about how he was not born into any amount of wealth and understood what it took for an American to work hard to succeed.

Obama was critical of the Bush Administration's tax cuts for the wealthy. Addressing the issue of Republican presidential candidate John McCain saying he was "out of touch" with the American people, Obama said that McCain was using his words against him and that he would "like to have" a debate with McCain over who was better able to relate to the American people.

Far and away, the most surprising moment of the luncheon came when the speech moderator accidentally referred to Osama bin Laden as "Obama bin Laden." Addressing a sincerely shocked audience, Obama coolly

corrected the moderator then noted this was not the first time he had heard such a misstatement.

Also, Obama said John McCain was running for "George Bush's third term" and that he was the candidate running "for the American people." McCain, said Obama, did not understand how to solve the foreclosure crisis sweeping through America.

Stressing he wanted to get the public more involved in politics should he become President, Obama said that our country needed to find a balance between protecting individual liberties and protecting our security regarding the Shield Law and FISA.

When addressing the fact that he is often labeled as being "too liberal," Senator Obama said he ran on a platform that is not liberal nor conservative, but one that is focused on uniting society to solve problems. Obama described Hillary Clinton as a "formidable" opponent, and said her reluctance to withdraw from the presidential candidacy race helped attract interest in each campaign and was actually good for the Democratic party.

Senator McCain delivers enthusiastic address at Associated Press luncheon

Presidential hopeful John McCain (R-AZ) spoke at the Associated Press Annual Meeting today, answering a wide variety of questions concerning everything from his relationship with the press to his stances on the war and ideas about restoring the sagging American economy.

McCain talked about how he hoped to build a strong relationship with the press, who he said often misinterpret his statements. Regarding the Shield Law, McCain said he felt the public should know what goes on behind "closed doors" by government officials, but at the same time laws and courts should outline what information can and cannot be released. Speaking to a group of reporters obviously concerned about such free- speech issues, the Senator said anything that could potentially allow Islamic radicals to have an advantage against us should be questioned.


McCain was asked if he thought one of his democratic opponents, Senator Barack Obama, was an "elitist." McCain responded by saying that he did not know Obama well enough to make such an assessment, but that the Senator's viewpoints are "fundamentally different" than his and not necessarily correct.

On the topic of America's economic situation, McCain was asked if he thought America was in a recession. McCain said he "certainly thought so," but that he was not concerned with terminology- he all he needed to know that "Americans are hurting," and that something has to be done to repair our economy. Describing himself as a "Teddy Roosevelt Republican" McCain explained that he thought there was a "role for the government" in business.

McCain said he would be "bothered" if he received votes based solely on the color of his skin, being that Obama is black. McCain emphasized that he would win voters over with his stances on critical issues, and did not feel he would lose voters due to his age.

Presidential campaigns discuss where education fits in

The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) is meeting in Washington, D.C. this week for their 2008 Legislative Conference. They held an education policy discussion this morning with the presidential campaigns. Catherine Brown from Sen. Clinton’s campaign, Phil Handy from Sen. McCain’s campaign, and Steve Robinson from Sen. Obama’s campaign each spoke on their candidate’s top issues for education.

Brown said Clinton has five key priorities for education: strengthening human capital, starting education earlier, raising expectations and standards, improving school infrastructure, and helping at-risk students. She said Clinton is critical of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), and would like to partner with states and the local level of education to provide flexibility while still sticking to the standards.

Handy said McCain believes in the principals that drove NCLB, and believes in assessment, but that assessment numbers should tell the truth and that usable data should be made available for parents and teachers. He said McCain is committed to collaboration with states and local education, and that he is a promoter of home schooling and charter schools.

Robinson said Obama also believes in the goals of NCLB for desegregating data on student achievement and identifying schools for improvement, but prefers a program to make every child a skilled graduate. He said Obama is focused on early learning, increasing research and development, expanding programs that work and using the data from them, revising standards and assessments, and that his number one priority is how to attract, prepare, develop, retain, and reward teachers.

The CCSSO also held a discussion called “Presidential Politics: Where Does Education Fit In?” with Gov. Roy Romer, Chairman of ED in ’08. Romer suggested that the future president of the United States should create a new partnership with the governors and chief school officers from all 50 states to find a way to have correct expectations and measurements for education throughout the country. He said key issues are the quality of teaching and finding a way to assess standards.

Romer said the measurements should be against the top ten nations in the world, since students will be competing with students from those nations for jobs. He said education is important to the solution of the nation’s economic problems, and is at the base of what he said are the four critical issues to the presidential campaign: national security, the economy, health care, and global warming.

Romer said that in this partnership, the state officers will be responsible for going back to their states and implementing the plans while the president will be responsible for funding the design and the administration of the programs.

Senators debate progress made in Iraq

The Senate Armed Services Committee today held a hearing focused on Iraq political reconciliation benchmarks. The Committee questioned Dr. Andrew Bacevich, General John Keane, and Dr. Robert Malley about issues concerning the progress made by the Government of Iraq, their thoughts about the statements made yesterday by General David Petraeus, and of course U.S. success since first entering Iraq.

Both Committee members, including presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), and the panelists, were split on their views about U.S. progress in Iraq, particularly since the highly publicized "surge" in American involvement.

Chairman Carl Levin (D-MI) discussed his feelings that we need to help make Iraq stable enough to function independently. "We cannot do for Iraqi's. They must do for themselves," Levin explained. Keane focused on the success the U.S. has had, describing Iraq in 2006 as "hell" and saying we are on the right course toward completely eliminating Al Qaeda forces in the northern part of the country.

McCain emphasized that pulling out of Iraq now would be the wrong choice for the U.S. to make.

Petraeus to the Senate: Success in Iraq is fragile

General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, U.S. ambassador to Iraq, testified before the Senate Armed Services committee about the situation in Iraq. The room was packed, almost all the committee members were there and there were several protesters dressed as dead Iraqi women holding signs that said things like "There is no military solution General Petraeus!" These protesters did interrupt several times, the loudest of which was a man who chanted "Bring them home!" as he was escorted out.

In his opening statement Petraeus said that there has been significant reduction in violence and that the surge in U.S. troops, Iraqi security forces and an uptick in diplomatic efforts. He addressed the recent flare-up in Basra, saying that it underscored the importance of the cease fire with Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr. He wrote that the threat of al-Qaida in Iraq is "still lethal and substantial" and that "withdrawing too many forces too quickly could jeopardize the progress made over the last year."

Petraeus recommended to the chain of command that withdrawal of surge forces continue through schedule withdrawals in July. Then, Petraeus said, the military should pause to look at all the conditions on the ground, which the general described as "battlefield calculus". After a 45-day period of evidence gathering Petraeus said that they would wait for conditions to be meet the criteria for a draw down before further recommending a withdrawal of troops. This second period of waiting could come immediately after the 45-day assessment or last for months depending on conditions, Petraeus said.

In his assessment of the political situation Ambassador Ryan Crocker testified that while benchmark legislation is slow to be enacted it has been passed by the parliament, which demonstrates progress. He said that the challenges to the rule of law are enormous and that development is not linear. He emphasized that Arab neighbors need to be more helpful and less destructive. He pointed to Iran as an unhelpful neighbor saying that they undermine success in Iraq and the recent fighting in Basra is one example. He said that training, signature weapons, and money still continue to flow from Iran into Iraq.



The two witnesses also emphasized the influence of Iran in training, equipping and funding Shiite militias in Iraq. Both Petraeus and Crocker said that they have seen evidence that "special groups"--Shiite militias not associated with Muqtada al Sadr, and other criminal militias, including those involved in last weeks fighting-- are supported and funded by the Iranian Quds force, loyal to Ayatolla Ali Khamenei. When Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) asked if the Iranian-backed groups responsible for the "murder of hundreds of American soldiers and thousands of Iraqi soldiers," Petreaus said, "I do believe that is correct."


Overall the Republicans praised the efforts of Petraeus and Crocker, the success of the surge at reducing violence and the initiative of the Maliki government in going after criminal elements in Basra. The Democrats generally said that the surge had not achieved the objective of creating political progress in Iraq and talked about how Iraqi oil revenues were not offsetting the cost of the war as promised at the start of the war.

Many topics about the status of the force and the situation on the ground in Iraq were covered in the question and answer sessions.

Sen. Clinton (D-NY), a presidential candidate, took part of her question time to respond to statements and suggestions that calling for a withdrawal of U.S. troops is irresponsible. "It might well be irresponsible to continue the policy that has not produced the results that have been promised time and time again at such tremendous cost to our national security..."

"I think it is time to being the orderly withdrawal of our troops," she said. Her main question for Crocker was about the strategic security agreement that the Bush administration has announced it will form with Iraq by July. Crocker told Clinton that the Iraqi government will submit the agreement to the Iraqi parliament and said that they intend to negotiate the agreement as "an administrative agreement" where the U.S. Congress will not be consulted or asked to ratify.

Clinton's question to Petraeus, surrounded the conditions that would have to exist for the general to recommend to the president a change in strategy. He responded that their has been progress in the political area and that the conditions are clear. He said that they will examine the enemy, the Iraqis, and the security situation. Petraeus expanded an earlier metaphor that this is not linear mathematical situation, but rather a long look at battlefield geometry and political/military calculus.

As ranking member, Republican presidential candidate John McCain made a statement where he defended the success of the surge in reducing violence. He said that because of the surge the U.S. can talk about success in Iraq. "We will insure that the terrible price we have paid has not been paid in vain" McCain said. He emphasized the need to help Iraq fight Iranian-backed special groups.

In an effort to combat an earlier gaffe about a 100-year war, McCain repeated, "I don't want to keep our troops in Iraq on minute longer than is necessary to secure our interests there." McCain speaking of the sacrifices of the American military, closed by saying, "The congress must not choose to loose in Iraq."

Another focus was Petraeus' role in the recent fighting in Basra. Chairman Carl Levin (D-MI) asked if the Maliki government had followed his advice in planning and executing the mission to route out criminal Shiite elements in Basra. Petreaus said that not only was he not informed until two days before the attacks, but that the advice he gave once informed was not followed and that the Iraqi security forces entered into combat ill prepared.

When asked by Sen. John Warner(R-VA), if the war in Iraq had been "worth it" to protect America's national security interests Petraeus answered that he would not have taken the job as Multinational Forces commander if he did not feel it was worth it. Crocker responded that al-Qaida is our "mortal and strategic enemy" and that going after al-Qaida in any context makes the United States safer.