I searched an earlier post here that said he wants to see china and india succeed and that he is for free trade, but he also wants to help the american worker. how’s he going to do it? and what about taiwan? anybody heard anything besides this: mobile.tdctrade.com/mas/doc/www. … us0602.htm
In the meantime, the Senate is moving to gather additional information on Chinese issues. Senators Norm Coleman (Republican-Minnesota) and Barack Obama (Democrat-Illinois) are establishing a new Senate China Working Group to gain a better understanding of China’s growing global influence. Coleman said the policy group will serve as a forum for discussion on the rise of China as a political, economic, and military actor in both the regional and global arenas, as well as the implications for US interests. The group will be created within the US-China Inter-Parliamentary Group, which facilitates dialogue between the US and Chinese legislatures.
It is difficult to know what to make of this new group or what influence it may have. Coleman said it is designed to help Senators “get a better understanding of China on all fronts,” but Congressional attention to China has certainly not been lacking in recent years. There are already several high-profile bodies (e.g., the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission and the Congressional-Executive Commission on China) dedicated to monitoring bi-lateral economic, military, and other issues. If nothing else, the formation of the group illustrates that US lawmakers remain uneasy about how China’s emergence may affect US interests.
A better thread than “What would X’s policy be?” might be “How would Candidate X formulate policy?” Policies change all the time with the political environment; opinion forming and decision making change less regularly. How these guys and gals think might be more important than what they (say they) think.
OK. right now I’m interested in Obama. I’m trying to figure out who to support so I can get out and volunteer early on (i’ll also be looking at clinton, edwards, mccain and guiliani). How would you suggest i find out about obama’s thinking process? do you know who his advisors are and how he picked them? i think you bring up a good idea, so i’ll try to see who he is listening to about china and taiwan. if it’s speaker pelosi, things are looking up for taiwan.
obama formed the senate china working group with norm coleman, who in 2003 was very happy about a company in his state getting a defense contract to help taiwan develop communications systems: coleman.senate.gov/index.cfm?Fus … ase_id=225
President Bush has stated that the United States will do what is necessary to prevent the “one China” policy from being instituted by military force. American policy-makers must now begin a debate on how we make that clear commitment more credible. For example, should American expertise and training accompany deliveries of weapon systems to Taiwan?
Should the United States develop logistical support for our own military forces in the area to enhance their readiness? Establishing a less ambiguous posture toward Taiwan will require a new level of energy in formulating American foreign policy for the entire Pacific region.
this was way back in 2001. can anyone who’s been following this tell me if anything came of lugar’s recommedation? anyway, people are judged by who they keep company with, and from what i’ve seen re coleman and lugar, it is possible that an obama presidency would be good for taiwan. just grasping at straws for now- but that’s all i’ve found so far.
If you’re trying to decide who to support, how are you deciding?
Do you have a list of issues?
Are you a policy wonk?
How do you envision the job this crowd is running for: salesman, commander-in-chief, steady hand, visionary leadership…?
Is past performance or future potential more important?
It’s too late to seriously comb through any files, so I just googled “obama policy team” and found this:
Asked how he would address the issue of his relative lack of experience, Obama said he thought that the campaign itself–how he managed it, his position on issues and his framing of a vision for the country–would answer the question. “That experience question would be answered at the end of the campaign,” he said.
“The test of leadership in my mind is not going to be what’s on a paper resume,” Obama said. Vice President Dick Cheney, a former defense secretary, and departing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld “had the best resume on paper of any foreign policy team and the result has been what I consider to be one of the biggest foreign policy mistakes in our history,” he said.[/url][/quote]
Unfortunately, his campaign website is pretty thin. I’ve seen or read some of what’s cited there, but not even those things which hit absolutely knocked out of the park are available in full. That’s dumb. On the other hand, the website’s gone 2.0. They’re even on flickr. That’s smart.
jaboney, i’m a policy wonk-wannabe. actually, i’m trying to do what every american should be doing- resarching who’s the best candidate. i think the ability to inspire (ie bully pulpit/jfk power) is important- obama has my vote above edwards and clinton on that score. good judgement based on available facts is important- obama has my vote based on his thinking not to support the iraq war at the getgo. anyone can sound good on any issue if you yourself don’t really know much about that particular issue. the two issues i know more about than the average american are taiwan and education (being a teacher), so those are the two issues i can better tell if obama is right about.
jaboney, i checked out your link. it makes it sound as if obama doesn’t have a lot of positions yet and has to hire people to help him form them. that’s hard for me to believe. he knew how to formulate a position on iraq, and he already has some positions up on his website. if i wanted to be suspicious, i woud say that he doesn’t want to be known for a lot of hard and fast positions at the moment, since then any one position can’t be used as a way to attack him. i went on vote-smart.org to see what his positions were, but he never filled out their form. neither did hilary clinton. that’s not some rinky dinky site. they must have a reason for not doing it. a lot of people don’t like hilary because she comes off as so calculating- but you have to be. and obama is, too.
Any “working group” that is “working closely” with China is going to be basically just a funnel for bribe money. Congress already has a more suitable China-related group. It’s called the Blue Team.
screaming J- i don’t know what makes you think it’s going to be a conduit for bribe money. i rather think that the main participants have already formed their opinions behind the scenes and any reports that come out of their group will just be PR to mold public opinion to their way of thinking. have any reports come out from that group? I can’t find any on the net.
Did you guess who Judicial Watch’s 1st Most Wanted Corrupt Politician of 2006 is?
Of course Jack Abramoff, Former Lobbyist
[url=http://1933key.com/news/bush_abramoff.html]
McCLELLAN: “The President does not know him (lobbyist Jack Abramoff),
nor does the President recall ever meeting him.”
[/url]
