I think there's a fairly broad consensus among the Democratic candidates at least that instituting a no-fly zone in Darfur is the bare minimum that we can do to help to roll back the Jamjawedd and some of the assaults on the refugees camps that still contact millions of displaced Darfurians in the region. More broadly we're going to have to get a UN peacekeeping force on the ground. And one of the tragedies of Iraq has been that it has led to very little leverage in the United Nations and in the world community for us to mobilize to deal with other troubled regions like Darfur. Part of the reason that I want to begin getting our tropps out and why I have been pushing so hard since we decided to get in for us to end this fiasco. It will free us up to go before the world community and say we want to work with you and not against you, but we've got to bring an end to the genocide that's taking place. Now that's gonna take some time. We now have a security council resolution that permits 25,000 UN peacekeeping troops on the ground. We've got to focus on getting those troops there. And a no-fly zone as well as logistical support for those troops on the ground can make a difference at least in preventing increased bloodshed as we try to initiate broader peacetalks between the rebel groups and the government in Kharthoum. Last point I would make, we've got problems like this all throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. And we can't wait until the genocide's taking place before we engage Africa. We've got to have an Africa policy that is active, that is involved, that is engaged, that is dealing with the health care infrastructure, that is dealing with the educational infrastructure, that is expanding trade opportunities for African nations and that is holding African nations accountable for rule of law, anti-corruption measures and so forth. Because if we're not a partner with Africa and we just wait until all heck breaks loose, then we're never gonna have enough troops. And keep in mind, as tragic as what happened in Darfur is, we've had IIImillionsIII of people die in the Congo in the last six years. And if you asked the average American, they wouldn't know a thing about it. And that is a consequence of us not being consistently engaged and we've got to understand it's not just a charity or a humanitarian issue, it is also a security issue, because if you've got chaos and anarchy in Africa, terrorists will find a way to exploit that chaos and anarchy, that's where they're gonna be based, that's where they 're gonna recruit and we're gonna have increased problems in years to come.
Hillary Clinton is a very capable person and I'm sure that she would be at the top of, or on the short list, of anyone's list for VP. She's on the short list for president too. [Laughter] So I have admiration for Senator Clinton and all the candiates in the field and I think they've got a lot of good qualities. One thing that people do ask me often though is, why you instead of Clinton, why you instead of Edwards? And my response, and this is what I prayed on before i got in... Because keep in mind, I was not a young man in a hurry, if I waited ten years, I would still be younger than most of the other candidates. [Laughter] And life was pretty good before I decided to become a presidential candidate. I told my wife, I've never be more popular than I am right now, on the brink of announcing I'm running for president. Once you do, it's all downhill. All y'all in the press start treating me terrible. [Laughter] That's just a joke, you guys have been fine... most of you.. [Laughter] But one of the things I had to ask myself was, is there something I can do as a Democratic nominee for president that no other candidate in the field or thinking about it can do? And I have the capacity, I believe, to attract new people into the process and change the political map in a fundamental way. And that's the only way that meaningful change is gonna happen in America. Think about this: Everybody is going to have a health care plan, everybody's going to have a plan for energy, everybody is going to come up and say we're going to deal with urban poverty and rural issues, but if we run on the same model that we've run on for the last three or four election cycles, which is basically you concede that 45% of the country is on the one side and 45% on the other, you've got ten percent in the middle, and they all live in apparently Florida and Ohio, [Laughter] and you try to eke out a victory, then the best you can do is win a fifty plus one victory. You eke out a victory, mabye you pick out a couple seats in the senate, a couple seats in the house. you haven't built up a working majority for broad-based, significant change. Now if I'm the Democratic nominee: Mississippi is in play. Because Mississippi is 40% African-American but votes 25% African-American. If I'm the nominee: Suddenly young people are coming out in record numbers. If I'm the nominee: Suddenly independents and some Republicans who have been not interested in the kind of tit for tat politics, the sharply partisan politics of the last several years, they start listening to why a progressive agenda might be common sense. We can scramble the political map. and that's the only way that real change is gonna happen. That's how you get a universal health care bill passed. Because we've got not fifty plus one but a sixty percent majority in America, that insists that if we spend two trillion dollars year on health care, we shouldn't have 45 million uninsured.
As President, obviously the day I'm inaugurated, the racial dynamics in this country will change to some degree. You've got Michelle as first lady and Malia and Sasha running around on the South Lawn. That changes how America looks at itself. It changes how white children think about black children, and it changes how black children think about black children. And I think that there is then an opportunity to have a broader conversation. But I'm more interested in us talking about action instead of us talking about talk. I'm sympathetic to efforts to have a racial conversation in this country, but I find that generally there's a lot of breast-beating and hand-wringing and then not much follow-through. And so the kind of conversation that i'm interested in having about race is very concrete. Do we have a criminal justice system that is color-blind. If we do not, how do we fix it? And that is a conversation that as president I would like ot initiate. If we know that the rates of drug use are comparable between African-Americans and whites, and yet the arrest record, the conviction, the prison terms --- all that is scewed in one direction--- that's something we should do something about. That violates the essential tenants of what this country was founded on. I want to have a very specific conversation about the achievement gap, because I know every child can learn, but if we're not investing in early childhood education, if we go to areas of South Carolina that they call the coorddior of shame, becasue school buildings were built right after the civil war and our children are sitll trying to learnin these buildings, that's a concrete conversation we should have.
We've got to have a planning process where it's not simply politics that determines where infrastructure is placed. We spend money on infrastructure, it's just that we spend it on bridges to nowhere in alaska as opposed to strengthening the levees in New Orleans. We've got to have a transparent process that identified what are the key vulnerabilities, places them in a rank order, and has a capital planning process where we're spending each year what's required to make sure that these porjects are taken care of. That will not only incrase our security, but it also will generate millions of jobs for Americans. One of the things that we've got to do in places like New Orleans, is to make sure that those jobs are going to those who have been displaced. When you have no-bid contracts that not transparency, and you have contracts going...
I interact with people in very unlikely places --- small farm towns in Iowa or old mill towns in New Hampshire --- and my strong impression is that people will vote for me if they believe that I can help them live out their dreams and achieve their hopes. If I lose this election, I don't believe it'll be becase of race. I think It'll be because the country makes a determination that either Barack's not projecting the kind of vision we want for the country or we don't think he can deliver on the promises he's making. Does that mean that there are going to be people who don't vote for me because I'm African-American? Absolutely. But I think that is a relatively small percentage of the country, and I think that most of them probably wouldn't vote for me because of my political philosophy anyway. So those aren't votes that I think John Edwards would get, and those aren't votes that Hillary Clinton would get. But look, this is part of the risk that I'm taking. But it pales in comparison to the risk that folks on the Edmund Petus bridge were taking, it pales in comparison to the risks that abolitionists were taking, their achievements were far more unlikely. And yet they said to themselves that if we act, if we are willing to take risks, then change may come about. And I'm always humbled by their sacrifice. The worse that happens to me is folks call me some names in the newspapers and I lose, and that's a relatively modest risk. The one thing that I think has been interesting in the dynamic of the campaign so far is it has said so far more about atttitudes within the African-Americn community than in the larger community. And so, since this is the NABJ, I do want to address that directly. I made a joke at the beginning about this whole question of: Is he black enough? This is a puzzling question. And the fact that it's been perpetrated through our press I think is interesting. We should ask ourselves why that is. It's not because of my physical appearance, presumably. It's not because of my track record. Because there's nobody in this race who has a stronger track record on the issues that directly pertain to the African-American community. If there's somebody else out there who has actually passed racial profiling legislation, or actually taken political hits because he voted against crime legislation that created unequal treatment among black and white youth, if there's somebody else out there who has reformed the death penalty or organized in public housing projects, or devoted their entire lives to civil rights, then I could understand why someone would pose the question. So it's not my track record, it's not that I can't give a pretty good speech, from what I heard. I can preach once in a while So what it really does lay bare is... I think .... in part, we're still locked in this notion that somehow if you appeal to white folks, then there must be something wrong. And we're still kind of working that through. There is some of that is he keeping it real because he went to Harvard issue, which a lot of you in the audience had to deal with and you'd think that we'd be over that by now. And part of it has to do with fear --- which is you know what, we don't want to get too excited about the prospects here because we feel like we'll be let down in the end. My attitude is: Let's try. Let's see. Why defeat ourselves ahead of time? Why say we can't do something? Let's take a chance and see if we can. Now, if there are people here who end up deciding Barack Obama is not the right candidate because he's inexperienced, or I don't like his health care plan, or what have you --- those are perfectly legitimate, because I expect to earn the African-American community's support like I have to earn everybody's support. And I respect that. But it certainly shouldn't be because we're confused about our racial identities. I think that time has passed. It's time to move forward.
So what it really does lay bare is... I think .... in part, we're still locked in this notion that somehow if you appeal to white folks, then there must be something wrong. And we're still kind of working that through. There is some of that is he keeping it real because he went to Harvard issue, which a lot of you in the audience had to deal with and you'd think that we'd be over that by now.
And part of it has to do with fear --- which is you know what, we don't want to get too excited about the prospects here because we feel like we'll be let down in the end. My attitude is: Let's try. Let's see. Why defeat ourselves ahead of time? Why say we can't do something? Let's take a chance and see if we can.
Now, if there are people here who end up deciding Barack Obama is not the right candidate because he's inexperienced, or I don't like his health care plan, or what have you --- those are perfectly legitimate, because I expect to earn the African-American community's support like I have to earn everybody's support. And I respect that. But it certainly shouldn't be because we're confused about our racial identities. I think that time has passed. It's time to move forward.
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