Democrats stay
the course at AFL-CIO forum
The labor union forum in
Chicago, Illinois went by without any surprises by the
Democrats.
Total
of seven Democrats took the stage yesterday on Soldier Field to
win the vote of the labor union members. The forum was organized
by AFL-CIO, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of
Industrial Organizations, the largest federation of unions in
the United States with over 10 million members, including
Canada.
From the very beginning it was clear
that all seven presidential candidates will continue to battle
among themselves upon the usual points - foreign policy,
corporate donations and Hillary Clinton.
One doesn't need polls to know that
Hillary remains the most popular candidate for President among
the Democrats (if you do, the latest Gallup poll shows Clinton
leading over Barack Obama 22 points). There was hardly any topic
discussed by the other six presidential hopefuls, that avoided
mentioning Hillary Clinton. John Edwards took the chance to
"bite" Hillary for her latest appearance on the cover of the
Fortune magazine. Barack Obama reminded people about her vote on
the Iraq war. But in politics - the longer you talk about your
opponent, less time you have to talk about yourself.
The major points at the AFL-CIO forum:
Foreign policy: Sen. Barack Obama came
again under scrutiny for his comments on invading Pakistan and
Afghanistan, with or without the permission of the local
governments. Hillary Clinton, Joseph Biden and Christopher Dodd
took turns criticizing the Illinois Senator, but Obama defended
his stand with the words "I find it amusing that those who voted
to authorize and engineer the biggest foreign policy disaster in
our generation are now criticizing me for making sure that we
are on the right battlefield and not the wrong battlefield in
the war against terrorism."
Corporate donations: This fight was
mainly between Hillary Clinton and the former North Carolina
Sen. John Edwards. The former Senator opened the battlefield by
reminding the attendees that Hillary Clinton refused to forsake
campaign contributions from Washington lobbyists. This topic
could back-fire at John Edwards, as reported by the Washington
Post, he has received over $150,000 in contributions from
employees of Fortress Investment Group, an equity fund, where he
worked in 2005 as a part-time adviser, earning over $500,000.
Hillary retaliated focusing on her experience, rather than her
campaign contributions.
NAFTA: The North American Free Trade
Agreement is a hot issue with the labor unions, many blaming the
agreement for the lost of thousands of blue-collar jobs. Rep.
Dennis Kucinich was the first to call out the rest of the
candidates for not vowing to end the agreement. And he was right
- the rest of the presidential candidates agreed that revision
of this particular trade agreement is necessary, but no one
called for an end of NAFTA. The fact that NAFTA was signed
during the Clinton Administration was not overlooked. Everyone
was curious how would Hillary Clinton go about NAFTA and the
front runner also called for re-negotiation of the terms, "...we
have to have a broad reform in how we approach trade. Nafta's a
piece of it, but it's not the only piece of it," Hillary said in
front of the laborers.
The quote received the biggest applause:
Hillary Clinton, "For 15 years, I have stood up against the
right-wing machine, and I've come out stronger. So if you want a
winner who knows how to take them on, I'm your girl."
Following the AFL-CIO forum, here are
the latest odds on who will be chosen as the Democratic
candidate for the 2008 US Presidential Election:
Hillary Clinton - 2/5
Barack Obama - 12/5
Al Gore - 5/1
John Edwards - 8/1
Dennis Kucinich - 20/1
Joseph Biden - 30/1
Chris Dodd - 40/1
Mike Gravel - 40/1 (not included in the debate because he did
not complete an AFL-CIO candidate questionnaire)
Bill Richardson - 40/1
Field - 50/1
Odds courtesy of
Bodog Sports.
Published on 08/08/2007
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