Some snippets with comments and questions.
SEN. EDWARDS: I reject this bumper sticker, Wolf. And that's exactly what it is, it's a bumper sticker. As president of the United States, I will do absolutely everything to find terrorists where they are, to stop them before they can do harm to us, before they can do harm to America or to its allies. Every tool available -- military, alliances, intelligence -- I will use. But what this global war on terror bumper sticker -- political slogan, that's all it is, it's all it's ever been -- was intended to do was for George Bush to use it to justify everything he does. The ongoing war in Iraq, Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, spying on Americans, torture, none of those things are okay. They are not the United States of America.
Elizabeth Hasselbeck from The View objected to this, but I don't see that it's problematic.
MR. BLITZER: Senator Clinton, do you agree with Senator Edwards that this war on terror is nothing more than a bumper sticker, at least the way it's been described?
SEN. CLINTON: No, I do not. I am a senator from New York. I have lived with the aftermath of 9/11.
And I have seen firsthand the terrible damage that can be inflicted on our country by a small band of terrorists who are intent upon foisting their way of life and using suicide bombers and suicidal people to carry out their agenda. And I believe we are safer than we were. We are not yet safe enough, and I have proposed over the last year a number of policies that I think we should be following.
Her Giuliani moment for the debate. Of course she has to show how "tough" she is, and tell us how much of a threat these Islamofascists are!
MR. BLITZER: Senator Biden, why are you reluctant to say now they were wrong and you were right?
SEN. BIDEN: Because I don't want to judge them. I mean, these are my friends. We work like -- we've worked together.
A lot of warm fuzzy talk, with many of the candidates emphasizing over and over again how they were friends with the others, and how they have more in common with each other than with the Republicans.
If you don't want to "judge" them, at least you can judge their vote, can't you? Or are you saying that those who voted no and those voted yes all voted correctly? (Now someone could argue that this is the case, referring to the virtue of prudence, but I wonder if Sen. Biden could carry this off.)
MR. BLITZER: Hold on one second. We're going to get back to this. I want to let Senator Gravel, he hasn't had a chance to speak yet.
Senator Gravel, I know you've been outspoken on all of these issues. Where very briefly do you disagree with these other Democratic candidates?
MR. GRAVEL: Totally. Totally. It's just that simple. Four of these people here will say that it's George Bush's war. It was facilitated by the Democrats. They brought the resolution up, one of them authored, co-authored it here, standing here, and so it's -- sure, it's George Bush's war, but it's the Democrats' war also.
Good for Gravel. Will the voters remember this?
SEN. OBAMA: This is an enormous distraction from the battle that does have to be waged in Afghanistan and routing out al Qaeda. That is something that we have failed to do. We have the opportunity to be successful there --
I think Afghanistan will turn out to be a no-win situation as well. But none of the "leading" candidates will admit this, instead relying on Afghanistan to score points against the current administration.
MR. BLITZER: Well, let me get back to the question. Almost all of these 12 million illegal immigrants who are here would qualify for this new Z Visa, which would make them legal residents of the United States, so here's the question: Why isn't this amnesty?
GOV. RICHARDSON: It isn't an amnesty.
MR. BLITZER: Why?
GOV. RICHARDSON: Because what this bill does is it sets standards, the standards that I mentioned -- learning English, passing background checks. There's a touchback provision -- the head of household has to go back and then apply. I believe that is unworkable, too. It divides up families. But you don't immediately get an amnesty, you don't immediately get citizenship; it's a process that takes about 13 years.
Sounds like you just admitted that it was an amnesty, just not an immediate one, Governor.
SEN. OBAMA: Well, we should certainly do a better job patrolling the borders in Canada. In fact, this recent case with the young lawyer who had tuberculosis being waved through by a border guard because, he said, he looked okay is a problem. And we've got to strengthen our border patrols on both sides.
But let's go back to the essential issue here. We are a country of immigrants. We're also a country of laws. And the question is, how do we balance that appropriately? I am hopeful that we can solve this problem constructively.
I think Joe is exactly right that we want to have a situation in which those who are already here, are playing by the rules, are willing to pay a fine and go through a rigorous process should have a pathway to legalization. And I think most Americans will support that if they have some sense that the border is also being secured. What they don't want is a situation in which there is a pathway to legalization and you've got another several hundred thousand of folks coming in every year. And that, I think, is a central position we should be able to arrive at.
What about the rule of entering the country lawfully?
SEN. CLINTON: Wolf, let me add that we faced that in the Senate last year, as to whether we would or would not vote for it. The problem is that if it becomes official, instead of recognized as national, which indeed it is, it is our national language, if it becomes official, that means in a place like New York City you can't print ballots in any other language. That means you can't have government pay for translators in hospitals so when somebody comes in with some sort of emergency there's nobody there to help translate what their problem is for the doctors.
I don't see how having an official language leads to the latter consequence. As for the former, shouldn't people learn how to speak English before acquiring citizenship? And if they are too old, perhaps they should be given some status other than that of citizen, one which would afford them most or all of the benefits--just no right to engage in the political process.
REP. KUCINICH: I reject this whole approach. And the American people should know that with half the bankruptcies in the country connected to people not being able to pay their doctor bills or hospital bills, premiums, co-pays and deductibles going so far through the roof -- 46 million Americans, no health care; another 50 million underinsured, there is only one way to get health care coverage for all Americans, and that is to have a universal single-payer, not-for- profit healthcare system, Medicare for All. Wolf, I've written the bill -- it's H.R. 676 -- with John Conyers, supported by 14,000 physicians.
MR. BLITZER: All right.
REP. KUCINICH: And you know what? What Senator Clinton, Senator Edwards, Senator Obama are talking about, they're talking about letting the insurance companies stay in charge. They're talking about continuing a for-profit health care system. (Applause.) And I think --
MR. BLITZER: All right. Hold on. No applause.
REP. KUCINICH: -- we need a president who's ready to challenge that. And I'm ready to challenge the insurance companies.
I need to read more about single-payer proposals.
All of the candidates endorsed getting rid of the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy in the military and letting "homosexuals serve openly."
GOV. RICHARDSON: I love all this parsing and senatorial courtesy and "on the one hand, on the other hand."
Here's what I would do. I would do what I did as governor of New Mexico. One, I would move in the Congress for a hate crimes law. I would have domestic partnerships. I would have civil unions. I would initiate laws that practice non-discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. I would get rid of "don't ask, don't tell." I voted against it as a congressman.
More radical social transformation.
MR. BLITZER: Thank you, Senator. But the question is, what would you do right now to reduce the price of gasoline?
SEN. DODD: Well, what we've offered already, in fact, and that is, of course, we ought to be saying here that when the price of a barrel of oil gets beyond $40 a barrel, where there's plenty of profit here, that those dollars ought to be returned to the consumers in a rebate or plowed back into the research that would allow us to develop alternative technologies.
A rebate? How is that going to happen? And how would he mandate oil companies do research? There are no alternative technologies or energy sources that can preserve our way of life--who is willing to admit this? Perhaps Ron Paul will be brave enough; he should have a talk with Roscoe Bartlett. Dennis Kucinich recognizes peak oil, but as far as I know he's enamored with alternative fuels as well.
SEN. EDWARDS: It needs to be not behind closed doors. Just 10 more seconds. And then the alternative, the stick, is if they don't do that, there are going to be serious economic sanctions.
We need to drive a wedge between the Iranian people and this radical leader.
Why wouldn't economic sanctions drive the people to support the leadership?
SEN. EDWARDS: But I think all of us recognize that this is a piece of a bigger puzzle, which is America no longer has the moral authority to lead in the world. Watching a genocide continue has contributed to that, but it is not the only thing. The spread of HIV/AIDS. I think America ought to actually lead an effort to make primary school education available to 100 million children in the world who desperately need it, and including in Africa.
More American do-goodism. How is he going to pay for it?
MR. GRAVEL: And obviously, I filibustered and forced the end of the draft. I don't think we need it back. If you want to volunteer for the military, you're entitled to do it.
I would like to see a voluntary program where young people would have an opportunity to render public service, whether it's in the military, whether it's the Peace Corps, whether it's the AmeriCorps -- all of the above. And then for every year that you serve, we'll give you four years of school free. (Applause.) That would give you an incentive to move forward and do something about education in this country.
Where's he going to get the $$$?
MR. EDWARDS: Well, I don't know if I know what a rich person is, but what I'd do for my health care plan is roll back the tax cuts for people who make over $200,000 a year, so $200,000 is a big value.
But I want to go to a piece of this question that you asked, which is, you talked about saving for your kids to be able to go to college, and we really haven't talked about that tonight.
Just a quick idea: College for everyone. It's something we've actually -- Elizabeth and I put in place in eastern North Carolina, in a small community in eastern North Carolina. And the idea is really simple. The idea is, if a kid graduates from high school, qualified to be in college, and they commit to work when they're there at least 10 hours a week, their tuition and books are paid for. And the idea is, we want to make it simple for kids to go to college. They have to work for it. We don't just give it to them.
And then, on top of that, so many young people are faced with this crushing burden of debt when they graduate from college. I think it's something we shouldn't just be doing. We've done this privately in this small area of eastern North Carolina.
No one wants to talk about the lack of vocational training, or protecting jobs for people with other skills and no college degree.
MR. EDWARDS: But it's something we ought to be doing all across this country -- college for everyone.
Moron. You don't need a college degree to work in the service economy, which is what the American economy is becoming increasingly.
MR. GRAVEL: Totally. Totally. It's abominable. And the only way you're going to get rid of it is to give the president the line- item veto, and of course they're not going to give the president the line-item veto. What we need to do is change the entire tax structure.
I want to point out that the comptroller general of the United States invited all the presidential candidates to come in for a briefing. I went in for a briefing. He said there was only two other people that came in for a briefing. What the briefing -- he told us is that we have a fiscal gap on the order of $50 trillion. And you're hearing all this money's going to be spent to do all these great things? My God, don't believe a word of it. Follow the money.
Heh. Gravel once again proves his usefulness.
GOV. RICHARDSON: Nobody's talked about your profession, education. I would upgrade our schools. I would have pre-school for every American, full-day kindergarten. I would pay our teachers what they deserve. I'd have a minimum wage for our teachers, $40,000. I did that in New Mexico; we went from 49th to 29th. I would bring science and math academies to get America more competitive. I would emphasize the arts. I would emphasize civics, again, science and math.
Mandatory preschool and fullday kindergarten. Richardson knows nothing about education, he shouldn't be talking about it. And how will he finance this minimum wage for teachers nationwide? Give Federal subsidies? That he might have implemented such policies while governor of New Mexico should tell us something about what he would do as Chief Executive.
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