{"id":438,"date":"2008-09-21T11:30:10","date_gmt":"2008-09-21T16:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/masonvotes.gmu.edu\/blog\/?p=438"},"modified":"2008-09-26T13:06:49","modified_gmt":"2008-09-26T18:06:49","slug":"albright-talks-foreign-policy-at-mason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/masonvotes.masonstudentmedia.com\/blog\/2008\/09\/21\/albright-talks-foreign-policy-at-mason\/","title":{"rendered":"Albright Talks Foreign Policy at Mason"},"content":{"rendered":"

By David Pierce, courtesy of Broadside<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em>
\nFormer U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright spoke at a foreign policy town hall meeting, sponsored by presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign, Saturday in Dewberry Hall. She was part of a three-person panel that included terrorism expert Richard Clarke and Rep. Jane Harman (D.-Calif.)<\/p>\n

Albright, 71, introduced herself as a life-long scholar of national security policy and expressed her opinion about the current global scene. \u201cI don\u2019t think I have ever seen the world in such a mess and that is a diplomatic term,\u201d Albrigh saidt.<\/p>\n

Albright outlined major foreign policy issues that she felt the next president has to face once elected. She explained that the country needs to fight terrorism without creating more terrorists in the process, placing blame on the Bush administration. \u201cEven former Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld said we were creating more terrorists,\u201d Albright said, adding \u201cnot everybody who dislikes us is part of Al Qaeda.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The former secretary of state claimed our nonproliferation system was broken. She said that the original agreement was that nations with nuclear arms should disarm, while those who do not have nuclear weapons should not acquire them. \u201cBoth sides of that bargain have been broken,\u201d said Albright. She felt that the United States has not disarmed and that North Korea has exploded a nuclear weapon, both occurring while President Bush has been in office.<\/p>\n

Albright also expressed concern regarding the negative aspects of globalization, especially the expanding gap between the rich and the poor. She felt that the recent financial crisis affecting the global stock market was of major concern to the next president, as well as the importance of talking to our enemies as a diplomatic tool.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen President Obama suggests we talk to Iran, it is a sign of strength, not of weakness,\u201d explained Albright. She had some advice for President Bush, \u201cYou don\u2019t say to a country \u2018I won\u2019t talk to you until you do all of the things that we are actually going to talk about,\u2019\u201d said Albright, \u201cwhich is what is going on now [in the Bush administration].\u201d<\/p>\n

Harman assured the audience of the capability of Senators Obama (D-Il.) and Joe Biden (D-Del.), if elected. \u201cDemocratic women and men understand security issues,\u201d claimed Harman adding \u201cIt\u2019s a slam dunk for Obama-Biden.\u201d She also criticized the Bush administration\u2019s handling of the September 11 terrorist attacks and the war in Iraq. \u201cWe\u2019ve had seven years to capture, or kill, Osama bin Laden,\u201d said Harman, \u201c[Instead we] went into Iraq, and took our eye off the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clark began his speech by emphasizing the importance of Virginia in the 2008 general election. \u201cThis is the battleground state,\u201d exclaimed Clarke, \u201cWe could be the pivot of this election.\u201d He expressed his support for Obama by saying that he was right for calling for a troop withdrawal timetable, an action that was opposed by the White House. \u201cThe Bush administration just agreed to a withdrawal timetable with the Iraqi government,\u201d said Clarke.<\/p>\n

Albright and Clarke both criticized Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain (R.-Ariz.) \u201cI very much want to see a confident president, rather than a certain president,\u201d said Albright. Richard Clarke questioned McCain\u2019s judgment. \u201cWhen McCain was singing about bombing Iran,\u201d Clarke said, \u201cObama was suggesting that we use something called diplomacy first.\u201d<\/p>\n

Questions were briefly accepted from the audience as the event neared conclusion. When asked about Republican claims that Obama does not have the experience required to become President, Albright immediately replied \u201cI\u2019ll start by saying they are totally wrong.\u201d She further explained that Obama is a person of incredible judgment and wisdom. \u201cHe knows the difference between the Sunnis and the Shias [in Iraq],\u201d said Albright, adding \u201che has also served very well on the foreign relations committee.\u201d<\/p>\n

Immediate feedback from audience members after the speech concluded was varied. Ian Cook, a Vienna resident, said \u201cI was more taken by Richard Clarke.\u201d Cook also expressed criticism of Albright\u2019s support of Obama, saying that the other panelists supported the Democratic presidential nominee more than she did.<\/p>\n

Jim Pflieger, a Fairfax resident, was very pleased with Albright\u2019s speech. \u201cI wish I could\u2019ve gotten a CD of [her] speech to use it to convert independents over to Obama\u2026 She had a very convincing argument.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Oscar Ramirez, the Virginia policy director for the Obama campaign, asked at the beginning of the event if there were any undecided voters in the audience, three hands were raised. By the conclusion of the event, one of those voters claimed to have decided to vote for Senator Obama.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By David Pierce, courtesy of Broadside Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright spoke at a foreign policy town hall meeting, sponsored by presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign, Saturday in Dewberry Hall. She was part of a three-person panel that included terrorism expert Richard Clarke and Rep. Jane Harman (D.-Calif.) Albright, 71, introduced herself […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,3,6],"tags":[22,17,21,9,23],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/masonvotes.masonstudentmedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/masonvotes.masonstudentmedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/masonvotes.masonstudentmedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masonvotes.masonstudentmedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masonvotes.masonstudentmedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/masonvotes.masonstudentmedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":537,"href":"https:\/\/masonvotes.masonstudentmedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438\/revisions\/537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/masonvotes.masonstudentmedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masonvotes.masonstudentmedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masonvotes.masonstudentmedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}