When President Bush's proposed Colombian free trade agreement came up in last night's debate, it was clear the candidates' stances couldn't be more different.
But it's not policy that the AFL-CIO and progressive interest group Americans United for Change are upset about: it's John McCain's facial expression.
McCain raised his eyebrows and rolled his eyes when Barack Obama repeated a staple attack on the agreement that has been U.S. labor unions' main argument in lobbying against it--that Colombian labor leaders have been the victims of extra-judicial assassinations at the hands of the Colombian military, making the country unsafe for unionizers and unfit for a trade agreement.
U.S. Central Command head Gen. David Petraeus refused to address the impact of the presidential election on efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan during a speech Wednesday at the conservative Heritage Foundation addressing a number of issues regarding the wars.
John McCain today rolled out a group of 100 former U.S. ambassadors who have endorsed him for president.
Notables include President George H.W. Bush and John Bolton, former ambassadors to the U.N.; former Ambassador to Portugal Frank Carlucci III, who served as secretary of defense under President Ronald Reagan; and former Ambassador to the Vatican Jim Nicholson, who served as secretary of veterans affairs under the current President Bush.
One of the group's co-chairs--an appointee of President Bill Clinton--offered criticism of Barack Obama's foreign policy credentials in the McCain camp's announcement of the group.
"I will vote for John McCain because the differences between the two candidates are so vast and profound," said MarkErwin, who was appointed by Clinton in 1997 to the board of directors of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and in 1999 became ambassador to the Republic of Mauritius, the Republic of the Seychelles and the Federal Islamic Republic of Comoros.
"Senator Obama does not have sufficient leadership experience, nor has he been tested in difficult times," Erwin said.
See a full list of the former ambassadors after the jump.
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The Bush administration is expected to notify Congress today that it wants approval to sell a major arms package to Taiwan, according to a congressional staffer. The package is expected to include seven weapons systems but not advanced F-16s.
The notification from the Pentagon and State Department would lift on on ban on the sale of the weapons imposed by the Bush administration before the summer Olympics in China.
The Bush Administration had initially approved arms sales to Taiwan in 2001, but had put off formally notifying Congress of the sale before August's politically sensitive Olympic games. The State Department announced a freeze in congressional notifications for arms sales in June, in hopes it would ease negotiations between Taiwan and Beijing on military maters.
Indications about whether or not a sale would be approved were unclear as late as July, when Admiral Timothy Keating, the head of the U.S. Pacific Command, said there is "no compelling need for at this moment arms sales to Taiwan of the systems that we're talking about," according to Reuters.
Pro-Iraq-surge group Vets for Freedom released another ad today accsing Barack Obama of being largely absent from Senate business during his tenure, skipping votes other than those for "emergency funding for our troops."
The groups says it is spending $2.2 million to air the ad on TV in California from now until Oct. 9 and hit Obama for his votes against emergency war funding bills.
The U.S. military's surge strategy has led to victory in Iraq, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said in her interview with CBS's Katie Couric.
Palin said that a similar surge was needed in Afghanistan to achieve what she implied was a "victory" in Iraq.
"I believe that a surge in Afghanistan also will lead us to victory there as it has proven to have done in Iraq," Palin said.
The Republican vice presidential candidate cited military leaders as having said the U.S. should "ramp it up" in Afghanistan during the second part of her interview with Couric, to be aired on tonight's CBS Evening News.
In part two of Katie Couric's CBS interview with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R), Palin explains her claim that Alaska's proximity to Russia enhances her foreign policy credentials.
Palin said Alaska engages in "trade missions" with Russia, and that Alaska's geography makes it critical to U.S. national security.
"As Putin rears his head and comes into the airspace of the United States of America, where do they go? It's Alaska, it's just right over the border," Palin said. "It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there, they are right next to our state."
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin had difficulty defining the "Bush Doctrine" during her interview with ABC's Charlie Gibson Thursday night.
Asked if she supports the Bush Doctrine, Palin asked "in what respect?:
"What do you interpret it to be?" Gibson asked.
"I believe that what President Bush has attempted to do is rid this world of Islamic extremism, terrorists who are hell-bent in destroying our nation," Palin said. "There have been blunders along the way, though. There have been mistakes made, and with new leadership, and that's the beauty of American elections, of course, and democracy, is with new leadership comes opportunity to do things better."
This doesn't exactly match up with 2002 national security memo outlining the Bush Doctrine, but in the Alaska governor's defense the way the term has been used by various politicians and pundits leaves it without a totally concrete definition.
An Iraq war veteran accuses Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) of disregarding success achieved by U.S. soldiers in a new web ad from Vets for Freedom, a veterans group that opposes withdrawal from Iraq and supports the so-called troop "surge."
"Senator Biden, I fought side by side with men who didn't return from Iraq. They laid down their lives for this country and for their mission. Don't tell me their service and sacrifice wasn't relevant," says Garrett Makovicka, a Marine Corps. infantryman in his mid twenties from College Station, Texas. Makovicka served in Iraq and is a member of the group.
Biden said on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday that "whether or not the surge worked is almost irrelevant now," and that the real issue is Iraq policy from this point forward.
The group may run the new ad on TV, it says, as part of its $7 million campaign pressuring senators to vote for a resolution, introduced by Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), that recognizes the success of the surge.
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