Friday, February 24, 2012
Politics Lamar Alexander, Jon Huntsman, Bill Richardson, Vicente Fox at Vanderbilt
Posted by Jonathan Meador on Fri, Feb 24, 2012 at 5:01 AM
ATTN: Policy wonks and political nerds:
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — United States Sen. Lamar Alexander; retired Gen. Wesley Clark; Jon Huntsman, the former Utah governor who has served as ambassador to Singapore and China and was a recent contender for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination; Vicente Fox, former president of Mexico, and Bill Richardson, a former governor of New Mexico who has served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and as secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy, will deliver public lectures at Vanderbilt University March 19-21 as part of the university’s annual Impact Symposium.
The theme of this year’s lectures is “Rise of the Rest: What is the Future of American Foreign Policy?”Alexander will give his talk Monday, March 19, at 6:30 p.m. in Benton Chapel.
Clark’s and Huntsman’s discussion, which will be moderated by Vanderbilt political scientist Brett Benson, will be held Tuesday, March 20, at 7 p.m. in Langford Auditorium.
The final night of the symposium on Wednesday, March 21, will feature a discussion between Fox and Richardson at 7 p.m. in Langford Auditorium. The discussion will be moderated by Vanderbilt sociologist Katharine Donato.
Tickets go on sale today, Friday, Feb. 24, and can be purchased via Ticketmaster or by calling 1-800-745-3000.
Currently, Vandy's Impact Symposium website is barren of information on the event, but we're sure they will update it soon.
Comments (35)
Showing 1-35 of 35
I've had a total mancrush on Gen. Clark since the NATO campaign in the Balkans. Gore-Edwards should have been Gore-Clark.
like
dislike
Even Gore-Edwards would have been better than Gore-Lieberman.
And Kerry-Clark would have been better than Kerry-Edwards. But of course the GOP scumbags would have tried to claim that Clark was some sort of foreign-loving communist who wasn't really a general, as they did with Kerry's war valor. (Thinking back on how totally fucked up that purple band aid thing helps me remember that the crazies didn't start when Obama got elected.)
This list reads like a who's who of smart people drummed out for attempting to do smart things.
Fox tried and failed to goad the United States into adopting a more sensible immigration policy based on an expansion of guest worker status but chose to propose this during a time when building border fences between the US and Mexico got many politicians re-elected.
Richardson is an experienced statesman whose unsanctioned but partly successful efforts to try to get North Korea back to the negotiating table invoked so much ire among GOP faithful that his eventual nomination to Secretary of Commerce ran into nearly every roadblock possible.
Alexander recently turned in his party leadership creds because he found himself at odds with others in his own tent; he continues to speak out about campaign finance reform ideas that have been repeatedly stuffed in the closet.
Clark had some novel ideas about dealing with foreign policy issues through diplomacy due to his successful experience keeping the "peace" in Bosnia but found his views marginalized through two successive administrators.
Huntsman, one of the GOP's most well-regarded diplomats, cratered in the GOP presidential field by being a moderate voice of reason.
It's like a Super Bowl of What-If!
Ha! American foreign policy a la Vicente Fox: "When we think of 2025, there is not going to be a border [between the United States and Mexico]. There will be a free movement of people just like the free movement of goods." (Fox, January 2001)
(Don't, however, try to get into Mexico without permission and a wad of money. The Mexican government won't let you stay. It's the law.)
When he was president of Mexico, Fox's idea of fixing his corrupt, richly resourced, wealthy, failed country was to have his government issue survival kits to Mexicans preparing to crash the border. The former Coca-Cola executive spent his presidential visits to the United States on his demands for free health care, college admission, and general amnesty for Mexican illegal aliens.
Bill Richardson was/is a Fox compadre.
What's in this for the average American? Well, cheap Mexican food that comes with a big bill.
Sorry for confusing the candidate pairings. It was early & I hadn't had my coffee yet.
You can bet your sweet ass Don't ask would sing a different tune if Huntsman had been more successful in his run for the nomination.
john: Don't be so sure that you know me so well. Hell, I've been a member of the NRA since age 6.
I've cast votes on both sides of the party line for a very long time (even did a little campaigning for Sen. Thompson, a family friend)... and Huntsman's centered approach was (and is) very appealing to me. It's just too bad the GOP ditched the candidate most threatening to the Democrats so early.
John, if Huntsman had been more successful, it would have been because he pandered mercilessly and thrown a bunch of red-meat to "the base" that wasn't grounded in reality. You know the meme: Obama apologizes for America, he is "the other" and not truly American, he's not really Christian, he doesn't recognize the supposed divine nature of our relationship with Israel, he is waging a war on religion, blah, blah, blah. Oh, and he supposedly can't speak without a teleprompter. That's one of the more bizarre ones.
So yes, you're right, probably we would all be singing a different tune. Huntsman actually has a more small-government resume than any of the Republicans who ran this cycle, save Ron Paul. But he refused to lie about Obama and pander to the people who believe everything they hear from their favorite Fox News and right-wing radio personalities, and this torpedoed his campaign. That says about as much as one needs to know about the modern Republican party.
I found it kind of endearing, when GWB had that dopey grin and the twinkle in his eye every time he could remember Vicente Fox's name. I bet he felt so smart!
Bill Richardson ruined everything Gary Johnson achieved in New Mexico.
Vicente Fox is a clown, same with the actual president Hinojosa., both destroyed, society in Mexico, or what was left from 70 years of, corruption, and ruling of a single party, no wonder 5 % of mexico's population is now in the usa, and i dont blame them,The right wingers would feel welcomed in mexico's PAN(national action party), which is so religious, so narrow minded, and so full of outlandish , stupid, unworkable ideas...
Marduk, that 5% are up here working.
Mexico is a thriving country with a rising GNP and a hard working populace.
Many have gone north but send money back and it appears to me work hard where our locals disdain.
The peso has been strengthening against the dollar, the Mexicans have free trade agreements with 40 nations. Looks like they are doing rather well.
The figures I've read said there are eleven million illegals immigrants in our country. They are nearly all Mexican and that would be ten percent of Mexico. Also, the money they send home is Mexico's second largest source of dinero for their economy, right behind Pemex. It would be better for our economy if that money was spent here. And then there is always the assumption that illegals do work Americans don't want to do, so let me ask: who built the home you live in? Who used to mow the lawns, re-roof the houses, wash dishes, etc, before the illegal influx? Send eleven million illegals home, cut back on welfare, and then let's see what happens to our unemployment figures.
John: Mexico is in serious trouble. Crime syndicates/drug cartels have taken over large sections of territory, including entire towns, and are exercising increasing control. Many thousands of people have died in the drug wars there, and the violence has spread to our country. The cartels are here.
Mexico is particularly unsafe for Americans. I know Americans who were living down there, had planned to stay there, but have returned to this country because of the unsafe situation.
The United States has been propping up Mexico in a number of ways for a long, long time.
We really have no idea how many Mexicans are in the United States -- no one knows -- but I guarantee you the number is way more than the percentage claimed above.
gast=as always the title given to you as the priest of ignorance is quite right..11 millions of mexicans illegaly in the us? according to serious resources is most likely 6 millions, , thats 5-6 % of the mexicos population, if you want mexicans spend the money here..well, call your senator, and representative, and ask them to find a way to legalize those mexicans, as who was doing the jobs mexicans do now? quite the canned answer.., teenagers and some others spend most of the time, thinking about video games, ipods, computers, facebook, texting.. that kind of mentality does not replace hard working people...
@Marduk: Quite the canned answer? Actually I'm the only one I know of that has ever mentioned the fact that the work now done by illegals was once done by Americans. It's a problem that people like you like to avoid. In boom times in north San Diego county in California in the late eighties, union carpenters were being paid twenty dollars an hour for building houses. Illegals took over, doing the same work for five dollars an hour. In the early nineties, when I came to Nashville, all the guys riding mowers at the airport were American. Then one day I saw a latino riding a mower. I said to a friend, "In three years it"ll be all Mexican mowers." I was right. You can come up with all the reasons you want for wanting them up here but the only Americans to benefit are the owners of businesses such as construction and gardening. And illegals do put Americans out of work. To paraphrase one homeless fellow's lament in a Pith blog last summer, "I can't find work because of the Mexicans."
I was in Mexico last year, specifically the Yucatan coast below Cancun. I do not think anyone felt unsafe there.
Mexico is doing very well in spite of the drug cartel issues which really are created right here at home, ie , the USA. I do not feel safe in north Nashville or anywhere near the projects.
I'm for anyone who wants to work.
gast gast, as always your narrow mind... if somebody can not find a job''cause the mexicans'', then something must be rotten in denmark..most of mexicans i know, and i work with on a daily basis, have only basic education and some maybe middle education, some cannot speak proper english, live in large groups,. and some have no means of transportation.. and yet, they are able to get a job..maybe your fellow homeless, should put more effort trying to find a job, and shut the hell up, complaining.and for the''wanting them here'', i did not open the door, was the federal goverment that left the gate unguarded, and of course the republican bussines owners, so good at cheap labor, but you missing the point..the thread is not about mexicans or aliens..its about something else..but i bet you dont know it yet...
@Marduk: The suspicion arises that you either employ illegals or supervise their employment, and even if not so I'd still bet you benefit from their presence. I'm fully aware of what the blog is about and also aware that the comments on the blog are about Fox's hypocrisy over the way he wants us to treat Mexican emigrants to the north versus the way Mexico treats immigrants from the south.
@Benjamin: Kerry was done in by Vietnam veterans familiar with his antics and you're calling them scumbags? You should tell that to the next one you meet. Also, after Kerry was discharged he consorted with the enemy in Paris while his former fellow servicemen were still dying in Vietnam. That cost him a few votes.
Oh, Kerry is a disgrace and he lost the election. He threw his medals away which, IMO, should have resulted in prison time or at least a good beating. The Swift boaters were telling the turth. He does look like a Frenchman and is married to the very rich but seriously ugly Te-RAY-sa Heinz.
"'@Marduk: The suspicion arises that you either employ illegals or supervise their employment, and even if not so I'd still bet you benefit from their presence. I'm fully aware of what the blog is about and also aware that the comments on the blog are about Fox's hypocrisy over the way he wants us to treat Mexican emigrants to the north versus the way Mexico treats immigrants from the south."'
so, now you are gaSt the implyer, neither i employ or supervise any kind of people, i wish i could own a bussiness. i merely a peasant,LOL to your assumptions gast..mexicans are ahead in migration policy, where is no longer a felony or a crime being in the country illegally, but go ahead and assume anything you want to..i bet you never ever been at any other country, other than the glorious usa, heck i bet my underwear you never been outside davidson co. or the surrounding areas...
Commenters above: I've written about the jobs situation many times for many years and won't go into the numbers again, except to sum it with the facts that Americans have been losing jobs while immigrants, legal and illegal, and imported guest workers have been gaining them here. Many of these jobs are in construction, according to fairly recent studies. I know something about the construction end of things, because a number of my family members work in that field. Or used to....
Legal labor, including legalized former illegal aliens, has organized in some states to press for mandatory verification of work authorization and for enforcement of such laws already on the books. Many of those legal workers are/were working in construction and can't get jobs. This situation has been highlighed by recorded video done undercover by legal workers and by TV stations.
Except for agriculture, the majority of the job areas in which illegal aliens are working, if they are working, are filled by Americans. So much for jobs Americans won't do. And Americans were also doing the agricultural jobs until they were systematically run out of the fields and replaced by imported labor.
Americans subsidize in many ways illegal labor and low-wage guest workers, which aren't temporary workers in the least, particularly after they have children (automatic U.S. citizens eligible for every U.S. welfare program) here. The cost of mass immigration extends far beyond the jobs losses.
The U.S. "labor shortage" was a fabricated thing to begin with, to justify bringing in cheaper, easily exploited labor.
John: Even the Mexican resort areas, which have been guarded by police, are not safe. I certainly wouldn't let my kids go there on spring break or anything else. Venture outside the resorts, and you will start seeing men with machine guns, and they are not the police. I've seen it myself.
Well, Donna, I just did not have that experience in my travels in the Yucatan. I'm sure it is a problem in some places particularly the north. The scariest place I've been was crossing the border fom Belize to Guatemala on the way to Tikal a couple of years ago.
This line-up sounds like the President Obama's Republican cheering squad.
The students and citizens attending will learn the "Art of apology" and then
surrender! While many of us cheered when Vincente Fox unset his opponent
from the party that had been in power for decades, little did we know that
we would get a constant tongue lashing from him on how we should take
in 40% of their population especially the poor and uneducated masses.
After reading so may comments, I noticed that there is a common thread and that would be prevailing ager. I have to wonder why?
America is a country that permits the sharing of ideas and thoughts and they are not necessarily the same but we have to right to offer them. So,I have to ask broad questions - why do we take so much for granted in our lives? Why do we seem to beat up on one another because we think differently? Why, when we took out Bin Laden and others, do we take to the streets with pride with chants of "U S A
USA" and then we seem to go back to "business as usual" filled,once again, with the blame games and anger at one another for difference of opinions? For me, I think I will continue to shout "U S A" in gratitude of living in a country that offers so very much to so many...I don't want to lose when others have fought and died...including a wonderful member of my family....thoughts?
@1 believer: The animosity you notice is because everybody likes to be right. Years ago I read a piece by a psychologist who made that statement and he added that each of us have a personal limit to the extent of our reaction when we are contradicted. If you're debating someone you're essentially telling that person he/she is wrong and a lot of people can't handle that without getting angry, especially if you're challenging cherished beliefs. Some people won't argue at all, others will call you vile names, while still others will come after you with a weapon. So now you know why political conventions are so passionate: "We're right! We're right!" But you watch, some idiot will argue with me.
Don't blame me, you were _totally_ asking for it, wearing your opinion so short like that.
"Why do we seem to beat up on one another because we think differently? "
Because, somewhere along the line, certain people started talking in terms of who was a real American and who was not. You cannot have a productive discussion with someone who challenges your legitimacy as a citizen.
We don't beat up on one another because we think differently....for me, the anger comes from the fact that a bunch of bigoted self-righteous republicans continue to try to keep the rich white man status quo in place and are now using religion as part of the arsenal because it's easy to herd the sheeple. Let me take that back, they aren't satisfied with the status quo, some even want to roll back time to allow child labor again!!! No wonder they don't want women to have access to contraception. If you can't see the blatant racist, sexist, homophobic, hypocritic nature of the GOP party today, your head is in the sand. When the GOP party reigns in these nutcases that are at the front and center of their party and allow political discourse to get back to a secular debate with respect for honesty, equality and respect for human beings that aren't of your stripe or color, then the anger will fade away. Until then, I'm angry.
"...for me, the anger comes from the fact that a bunch of bigoted self-righteous republicans continue to try to keep the rich white man status quo in place and are now using religion as part of the arsenal because it's easy to herd the sheeple."
I love this kind of drivel. How can so much paranoia and insecurity be crammed into so little prose?
