Obama looks abroad for votes at home 17/07/2008 - 10:50:09
Presidential hopeful Barack Obama is pressing ahead with attempts to polish his foreign policy credentials, outlining his plans to keep America safe from nuclear, biological and cyber attacks.
As Mr Obama campaigned to overcome attempts by Republican opponent John McCain to paint him as naive and untested on foreign policy issues.
Mr Obama, fighting perceptions that Mr McCain is better prepared to deal with issues of foreign policy and national security, outlined his blueprint for keeping the country safe. Two goals of his administration, he said, would be securing all loose nuclear material during his first term and ridding the world of nuclear weapons.
He said adhering to non-proliferation treaties pressures nations such as North Korea and Iran. North Korea has tested a nuclear weapon, and Iran has an energy program the Bush administration warns could be a precursor to nuclear weapon development.
Mr Obama called for investing in methods to prevent, detect and contain biological attacks and said he would appoint a national cyber security adviser. He highlighted a proposal to spend five billion dollars over three years to develop an international intelligence and law enforcement infrastructure to tackle terrorist networks.
“The danger ... is that we are constantly fighting the last war, responding to the threats that have come to fruition, instead of staying one step ahead of the threats of the 21st century,” Mr Obama said.
As he prepares for an extensive trip abroad, including stops in Iraq, Afghanistan and Europe, Mr Obama this week has focused sharply on those wars and foreign affairs, jabbing at President George Bush and Mr McCain on Iraq.
“Instead of taking aggressive steps to secure the world’s most dangerous technology, we have spent almost a trillion dollars to occupy a country in the heart of the Middle East that no longer had any weapons of mass destruction,” he said Wednesday.
Mr Obama has made history as the first black presidential candidate of a U.S. major political party, but a new poll suggested it has not influenced Americans’ perception of race relations.
According to a New York Times/CBS News Poll released yesterday, 55% of whites said race relations are good, a finding that was virtually unchanged from a survey conducted in 2000. But only 29% of blacks said the same thing, also about the same as eight years ago.
Majorities of both whites and blacks – about two-thirds – agree the country is ready for a black president. But the perceptions of Mr Obama break along racial lines, with 80% of blacks saying they had a favourable opinion of him compared to 30% of whites, the poll found. For McCain, just 5% of black respondents had a favourable opinion of him, compared to 35% of whites, according to the poll.
Mr Obama is counting on strong support from African-Americans, and has said he believes he can increase black voter participation by 30% and crack Republican dominance across the US South.
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Presidential hopeful Barack Obama is pressing ahead with attempts to polish his foreign policy credentials, outlining his plans to keep America safe from nuclear, biological and cyber attacks.
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