Obama: Bush fostered Chávez rise

[Human]

It was your group "The Democrats" who was fostering anti-American sentiment against the United States.

 

YOU HAVE NO CLUE AS TO WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT Barack Obama. At least try to get the facts before you EVEN open your mouth up on this one.

 

Trying to re-write history; same old democrat political game.

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http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles...red_chvez_rise/

 

 

Obama: Bush fostered Chávez rise

'Negligent' foreign policy created void

 

By Sasha Issenberg

Globe Staff / May 24, 2008

MIAMI - Democratic presidential front-runner Barack Obama yesterday accused President Bush of complicity in the rise of his most fervent nemesis in Latin America through what Obama called a "negligent" US foreign policy that has created a void for anti-American leaders to extend their reach in the region.

more stories like this"No wonder, then, that demagogues like Hugo Chávez have stepped into this vacuum," Obama said yesterday, referring to Venezuela's autocratic president who called Bush "the devil" during a United Nations speech and who has become a villain among American conservatives.

 

"The United States is so alienated from the rest of the Americas that this stale vision has gone unchallenged, and has even made inroads from Bolivia to Nicaragua," he said.

 

Obama made the charge before a luncheon at a Miami hotel hosted by the Cuban-American National Foundation, a nonpartisan group that has for decades held a hard line against easing relations between the United States and Cuba and found itself typically allied with Republicans.

 

"To be a Democrat meant that you were labeled a communist, and this organization was as reactionary as it gets," said Augusto Lopez, a Cuban-American lawyer supporting Obama. "To host Obama today reflects the sea change in Cuban-American politics down here."

 

Obama used the venue to reiterate his call to ease federal restrictions on remittances and travel by Cuban-Americans to the island, a position that Jorge Mas Santos, the CANF chairman, endorsed in his introductory remarks.

 

Obama also delivered a bolder call for "direct diplomacy" with dictator Raúl Castro, a policy that John McCain dismissed as naïve and counterproductive in a speech before a different Cuban-American gathering here days earlier. "I believe we should give hope to the Cuban people, not to the Castro regime," McCain said on Tuesday.

 

Though Cuban-Americans as a constituency tend to vote Republican, Obama addressed a largely friendly crowd. Still, his audience exhibited a common skepticism of Democratic candidates who have preached a new approach toward Cuba.

 

"He's a communist," Osmaira Lopez, a 78-year-old cosmetologist who came to Miami from Cuba 47 years ago, said of Obama. "You know he says 'Change'? What does he want to change?"

 

Obama presented his Cuba policy as part of a vision for broader security and economic engagement between the United States and other countries in the Western hemisphere.

 

Bush's reliance on "tired blueprints on drugs and trade, on democracy and development," Obama said, had allowed not only leaders like Chávez to rise but inadvertently helped Asian and European political and business interests expand their influence in Latin America.

 

"We are failing to join the battle for hearts and minds," he said.

 

Obama's campaign said his speech was in stark contrast with McCain's, delivered just miles away - a "box-checking exercise that touched on very few issues in a very vital part of the world," according to foreign policy adviser Denis McDonough.

 

"People want to hear something other than the traditional 'Next year in Cuba' without any way of achieving it," said Stephen Zack, a Miami lawyer who has been involved in Democratic causes but said he is not supporting a presidential candidate. "They want to know, 'How are you going to do that?' rather than just give lip service to the concerns everyone in this room has."

 

In a statement released yesterday, McCain's campaign criticized Obama for what they called "political expediency" and scolded him for "reckless judgment" exhibited in his speech.

 

"Senator Obama's promises of unilateral concessions to Cuba's dictators even in advance of an unconditional summit meeting with Raúl Castro is exactly the wrong approach to free the people of Cuba," according to McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds.

 

While exit polls have shown Obama has struggled to connect with Latino voters during the primaries, some in attendance said the changing demographics of Miami's Cuban community - typically among the most conservative voting blocs in American politics - could offer him a warmer welcome than past Democratic nominees have received here.

 

"As time goes on, and the younger generation of Cuban-Americans comes into power, we become more open to change and new ideas," said Marlene Quintana, president of the Cuban-American Bar Association. "What there isn't anymore is a taboo about being Cuban-American and being a Democrat."

[Human]

I usually don't give advice to a democrat running for President of the United States, but on the off chance you do become President? For Gods Sakes don't talk about Latin America, because the more you open your mouth about it, the more naive you sound. Leave it to your cronies.

 

Even though we are of different parties, my loyalty is to the Flag, and to the United States long Term Interests.

 

< Now as a Republican, Oh please!!!! keep on talking about Latin America. Look!!!! I will even say "PRETTY PLEASE TALK MORE ABOUT LATIN AMERICA.>

[Human]

Keep Jimmy Carter Muzzled.

 

Now Barack, would you like to take back what you said, or do you stand by your serious lack of understanding as to what's going on in Latin America?

 

It's a democrat who served Gore who agrees with my group "The Republicans".

 

<Remember what I said in my past posts about this people? Keep that In mind, for what I have told you about Latin America and how the democrats’ interference with in the region has put ALL of us at risk.

 

Just because the democrats wanted power back no matter what. What I have shown you is REAL.

This IS how real politics is. Even though the democrats treat it is as a game, IT'S NO GAME.

 

The democrat have used your ignorance "The General Public" on the subject of Latin America as a weapon for what they wanted most "POWER". NOW DO YOU BELIEVE????>

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http://www.projo.com/opinion/contributors/...v8.412a310.html

 

 

Lawrence J. Haas: In Latin America: Obama should shun Carter, follow Bush’s lead

 

01:00 AM EDT on Thursday, August 21, 2008

 

LAWRENCE J. HAAS

 

WASHINGTON

 

FOREIGN POLICY in the U.S. is about more than confronting immediate dangers. It’s also about promoting American values of freedom, democracy and human rights over the long term because we believe those values create the path for more peace and prosperity — not just at home but around the world.

 

Though freedom and democracy have spread to more nations than ever in recent decades, further progress is not guaranteed. From Russia to China and throughout the Greater Mideast, authoritarian regimes are digging in, determined to resist efforts to topple their iron rule.

 

The clash between democratic and authoritarian models is particularly intense in Latin America, where U.S. allies are facing a small cabal of populist leaders, led by Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez. These modern caudillos are seeking to turn back the clock on regional democratic progress — promoting greater state control of the economy and less respect for human rights.

 

With the lines drawn starkly, President Bush has gotten it mostly right in our own hemisphere. He has sought to build stronger ties with our friends, notably Colombia, and to contain the ambitions of our adversaries. Rather than shift course, the next president and Congress should reinforce those efforts.

 

Bush has strongly supported Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, who has worked hard to bring stability and prosperity to his once-troubled land while stepping up the fight against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the terror group that’s better known as FARC.

 

The results have been dramatic. Economic growth and living standards are way up, while drug trafficking, kidnappings and murders of labor leaders are way down. Bogota is applying the rule of law to a once-lawless land, prosecuting murderers and protecting human rights.

 

Colombia’s recent rescue of former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and more than a dozen others merely highlighted what was already clear — Uribe has FARC on the run. Half of its leadership is dead, and its ranks have shrunk from more than 25,000 to fewer than 8,000.

 

FARC has been supported — financially and otherwise — by Chavez, who promotes anti-Americanism, works with like-minded leaders in Bolivia and Ecuador, boasts of his growing ties to the terror-sponsoring and nuclear weapons-seeking Iranian regime, and threatens to use his oil as a weapon against the United States.

 

Colombia’s gain is our gain — it shows hundreds of millions of people south of our border that freedom, democracy and the rule of law help improve living standards. FARC’s loss is our gain as well — it weakens Chavez while showing that a free society can break the back of a terrorist threat.

 

Thus, the United States has no reason to change course in Latin America. Quite the contrary, we should strengthen our ties to Bogota, and strengthen Uribe at home, by enacting the long-delayed U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement, which Democratic congressional leaders have blocked largely because of the opposition of organized labor.

 

If Barack Obama wins the presidency, foreign leaders and populations the world over will quickly look for clues as to whether this young, charismatic, but inexperienced and untested leader will stick by America’s friends while remaining steadfast against its enemies.

 

In the late 1970s, an equally inexperienced new president chose a different route. President Carter played down the Soviet threat, abandoned our allies in Iran and Nicaragua, and sought warm ties to new regimes with a particularly virulent anti-American bent.

 

The results were disastrous. The Soviet Union and Cuba stoked Third World revolution across Africa, the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, and Iranian students seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran and held our diplomats hostage for 444 days. Through it all, the United States looked weak and uncertain.

 

We need not repeat that history. A President Obama would be wise not to abandon a policy that’s bearing fruit.

 

 

Lawrence J. Haas, former communications director to Vice President Al Gore, is vice president of the Committee on the Present Danger, an anti-terrorism group based in Washington

[Human]

Now Senator Joe Biden; here is a question I have for you, and to the News Reporters out there.

It would be most enlightening if you were to ask the Senator this question;

 

When Did you know? Or would you "Senator Joe Biden head of the Foreign Relations Committee" prefer to claim ignorance?