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Exactly my point!
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Yes, with considerable reluctance, based upon the best information available to those outside of the Bush Administration at the time.
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Begin immediate planning for a U.S. withdrawal, and carry it out as soon as practicable. The war has become unwinnable, due to egregious errors from the outset by the President and his inner circle, and no further purpose is served by keeping U.S. forces there. The country has become a training ground for Al Qaeda, our true enemy since 9-11, and is bleeding the U.S. Army and Marine Corps badly. We must also welcome far more Iraqis who have helped our forces and seek naturalization and citizenship here.
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I’m open to the possibility. The Sudan regime’s policy and goals are clearly genocidal. I’d want to meet with the JCS and the civilian Pentagon leadership, though, as the U.S. military is currently badly overstretched in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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No. I think that would do more harm than good right now. I do believe that we need to make it very clear to the PRC that we would not stand by if the PRC tried to attack or even invade Taiwan. I would be open to the prospect of a SEATO-style treaty with Taiwan.
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We are a nation of immigrants, and every day they make invaluable contributions to the United States, but we are also a nation under the rule of law. The current situation is untenable. We cannot be secure, as a nation, if our borders are not secure. I agree with the President that the current Democratic bill has real potential, but haven’t studied it closely enough to announce my support of it. I’d better huddle with my advisors on that.
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We’re already pretty competitive. I have no particular new policy on that front.
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That’s largely something the Palestinians and Israelis will have to do for themselves. I support, as have past administrations, any effort that will lead to a free, democratic and independent Palestine and Israel living peacefully side by side. My administration would lend its good offices to that end. I recall, however, that President Clinton worked long and hard on this issue, down to the level of detail of street-by-street border redrawing in Jerusalem, all to no avail. I have no illusions as to the prospect of success on this front, but we’ve got to try.
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That’s a close call. All in all, I think it has been a net good, but there have been serious economic dislocations in some industries such as textiles. I am at heart in favor of free and fair trade across the globe, and that is the great tide of history.
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Absolutely not. The UN would not exist but for the hard work and early commitment of Democratic Party leaders such as FDR and Harry Truman. For all its flaws, the UN still has an important role to play in the world. I would want to meet early in my term with the new UN Secretary-General and explore ways to improve the UN’s effectiveness, openness, efficiency and integrity.
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We need to learn the lessons of the failed 1993-1994 Clinton policy initiative and work more closely with the American business community, both big and small business, and the HMOs and insurance companies, to figure out the best approach. I don’t have a magic answer. Americans spend far more and get far less for their medical care, compared to other industrialized countries, and we can do much better on this front. I do not believe that a single-payer system is feasible in this country, either economically or politically.
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Tempting though that would be, no, never!
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I personally support gay marriage. I have gay friends who love each other just as much their straight counterparts, who want to raise families and have all of the benefits of marriage that the rest of us take for granted. Marriage in this country is far more endangered by domestic violence, adultery and substance abuse than by gay marriage. If I were a state legislator, I would vote in favor of gay marriage here in Ohio. However, marriage has historically been a state matter, and I agree with Sen. McCain that the Federal government ought to keep its nose out of it. If a bill to repeal DOMA reached my Oval Office desk, I would sign it, but I also recognize that is extremely unlikely. We are not yet there, as a nation.
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I oppose “Don’t ask, don’t tell.” It has been a failure, and has caused a grave injustice to patriotic gay Americans who want to serve their country. We are now forcing valuable men and women out of the U.S. armed forces under the policy, including, for instance, Arabic translators whose services are desperately needed post-9-11. I agree with Vice President Dick Cheney, who while Secretary of Defense called the exclusion of gays “an old chestnut,” as I agree with former Reagan Pentagon official Lawrence Korb, who suggested that there is no rational military basis for it. It is long overdue for repeal. I am struck that virtually all of the arguments that have been made against permitting gays to openly serve were also raised against President Truman’s courageous decision to desegregate the military. Truman did the right thing, and so should we.
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The Second Amendment refers to “a well regulated militia.” From the 1930s, when the issue was first litigated, until John Ashcroft’s lamentable term as Attorney General, the U.S. Department of Justice has argued in our nation’s courts that the right to bear arms is a collective and not an individual right. That is also my strongly-held view. Death and injury rates in America due to gun violence are far higher than in other Western democracies, and that’s just wrong. We should not be reading, week in and week out, about shootings throughout our country.
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I am strongly pro-choice. I agree with former President Bill Clinton that abortion in the U.S. should be “legal, safe and rare.” I personally oppose the Federal so-called “partial-birth abortion” law, recently and unwisely upheld by the Supreme Court, because it contains no exception for the health and safety of mothers. Repugnant though the procedure is, it is sometimes medically necessary, and the law should reflect that.
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There’s nothing preventing American schoolchildren from praying in school - quietly, to themselves, in such a manner as to not disturb their classmates or the educational mission of our schools. What the law requires, consistent with the wise and necessary “wall of separation” between church and state of which Jefferson wrote, is that the government not favor one religion over another, or force prayer on children who may feel stigmatized or persecuted because they don’t wish to pray. I support permitting religious student groups the same access to school facilities after hours as other extracurricular groups. But we have only to look at Iran to see the grave perils of blurring the line between church and state.
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I think the best policy would be to not erect new Ten Commandment plaques in public places such as courtrooms and government buildings. Where they have long been in place, however, I would be willing to leave them in place for the sake of history and tradition. If other religious groups wished to erect iconic representations of their own faith tradition in such places, it would only be fair to permit them to do so. As these displays grew ever more unwieldy and cluttered, the wisdom of keeping all religious iconography out of public places would become apparent.
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Nope!
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No one’s. I love my country and want to see it a better, freer, stronger and more farsighted place. That’s why I’m running.
