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Aug. 06, 2007
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'SIMPLE PROPOSITION': Obama stands by comment

Senator draws cheers for Pakistan invasion remark

By ED VOGEL
REVIEW-JOURNAL CAPITAL BUREAU

Democratic presidential hopeful U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., addresses a crowd during a town meeting Sunday in Elko.
Photo by The Associated Press

ELKO -- Residents of this conservative Republican bastion cheered enthusiastically Sunday evening when Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said if elected president he might call for an invasion of mountainous areas of Pakistan in an effort to capture terrorists like Osama bin Laden.

The freshman senator from Illinois told a crowd of at least 700 people packed into the Elko Convention Center that he was not backing off the controversial statement he first made last week in Washington.

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    • It had prompted criticism from Democrats, Republicans and the government of Pakistan.

    He told his Elko audience, "I made a simple proposition that I'd like anybody here to challenge me on."

    "If those folks who killed 3,000 of us are training to act again, and we have actionable intelligence and can take them out, and the (Pakistani) government won't act, then we should act," he said.

    Obama also sought to clarify his assertion that nuclear weapons would be "off the table" in such an attack. His top rival, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, pounced on the comment, saying leaders should not discuss hypotheticals involving nuclear weapons.

    Obama portrayed the question and Clinton's critique as absurd.

    "Everybody knows that you'd use conventional weapons in those circumstances ... every military expert knows that you'd never use nuclear weapons in that situation," he said.

    He said the U.S. needs to end the war in Iraq and go after the real terrorists.

    "We are spending $275 million a day in Iraq and I want to get that money back and spend some of it here in Elko," he said.

    He also told the crowd that America's dependency on oil has the nation paying for both sides of the war on terror.

    Obama appeared pleased by the response he received in Elko. He told the crowd that he is drawing more support from independents and Republicans than the other Democratic candidates are.

    "I suspect some of you are Republicans who decided to come here because you had nothing better to do on a Sunday afternoon," he said.

    He was the third presidential candidate to visit this prosperous northeastern Nevada mining city of 18,000 this year.

    Candidates of both parties suddenly have discovered Elko in their quest for votes in the party caucuses next Jan. 19.

    Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona stopped here in May and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson was the first Democrat to visit, on July 13. Republican Mitt Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, is due on Aug. 13.

    So far, however, Obama is the only candidate to open a campaign office in Elko, a fact he emphasized to his audience Sunday night.

    "I want to spend most of my time here listening," said Obama during the 65-minute town hall meeting. "I don't presume to know everything about rural Nevada."

    He repeatedly asked people to talk about rural issues, but the Elko crowd posed questions that were typical of what candidates are asked in other parts of the country. Audience members asked about the war, health care, illegal immigration and the No Child Left Behind law.

    "Everybody should have health care," Obama said. "If you are paying my salary, you should have health care insurance as good as mine. My mother died of cancer. None of the doctors talked to each other. It was like we had to coordinate the case."

    Regarding illegal immigrants, he said, "We aren't going to ship the 12 million people out of here. It would take all of our law enforcement, fill up our jails and fill all of our school buses for the next 10 years."

    Illegal immigrants must pay a fine, learn English and go to the back of the line on a path to citizenship, he said.

    He said people need to keep in mind why the vast majority of illegal immigrants came to the United States, however.

    "If Canada was paying a hundred bucks an hour for jobs, how many of us would be pouring across the border to Canada?"

    As for No Child Left Behind, he said, "Don't tell the schools to improve if you don't give them anything to improve with."

    Only one resident, Don Miller, posed an Elko-specific question. Miller asked Obama if he would vote to rewrite the Mining Law of 1872 and support an 8 percent royalty on mineral revenues.

    "I want to make sure mining thrives and the federal government is adequately compensated," Obama said, adding that he wanted to know more about the issue.

    Miller told him an 8 percent royalty would shut down most mines and he advised Obama to leave the law as it is.

    "I am still in the learning phase of this process," Obama said. "I don't want to destroy jobs and the interests in this area of Nevada."

    He advised those who are cynical about government to look to his campaign and check his record.

    He said they would learn that he delivers on his promises.

    "You just keep on truckin'," one supporter shouted.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report



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    Scott Romanov wrote on August 06, 2007 10:37 PM: Obama has an excellent health care plan with no new taxes. Hillary Clinton says universal coverage, yet has no plan. Obama cares about people. All Hillary Clinton cares about is the presidency. Hillary Clinton has done nothing for New York as senator. Obama is more of a centrist, independant. Hillary Clinton and Edwards are tax and spend liberals. Edwards said he would raise taxes on the "rich". What is "rich". 50k a year? Edwards' tax plan is absurd. Obama has never said he would increase taxes.


    Scott Romanov wrote on August 06, 2007 10:31 PM: Obama is tougher on terrorism than Giuliani who watched the WTC fall while he was mayor. Romney is a wimp. He is afraid to meet with leaders like Putin, Castro, Chavez, Kim. Obama isn't afraid to meet with these leaders because he has the strength to do so. Romney is weak. He looks like Jane Fonda. He's also real strange, what a wimp. He knows that these leaders will dislike him, because he's a wimp. Not surprising that Romney and Hillary Clinton share the same position.


    Kevin wrote on August 06, 2007 08:15 PM: Bush has been the worst president in American history and now we're going to elect this guy? Obama is simply this cycle's media darling. When are the Democrats going to stop letting the press pick their candidate?
    Let's elect a real president this time. Hillary, Richardson, McCain if he doesn't melt down, Thompson if he can make up his mind. Obama isn't qualified for the job and neither is Rudy.


    Jeff Hush wrote on August 06, 2007 06:12 PM: Elko Nevada Government Grants
    http://government-grant.us


    Bob Jack wrote on August 06, 2007 05:11 PM: As the Senator says, we should invade the tribal areas of Pakistan where al Qaeda and bin Laden are residing.
    I disagree with his stance on illegal immigration. It will not take any longer to gain compliance with the existing laws than it will to enact and enforce the new laws. We should enforce the existing laws on illegal immigration. There is no need to resort to nuclear weapons at this time,but we must always leave that option on the table. Obama is a Democrat. I vote Republican. Enough said.


    B-Fab wrote on August 06, 2007 01:00 PM: Obama gave an ambiguous statement to appease Republicans. If and when the time comes, he will not follow thru with his actions because that would upset his fellow Democrats. It's easy to say you "might" do something, neither side can fault you. When the time comes for action, that's when he'll start having problems.


    RANDY wrote on August 06, 2007 09:52 AM: OBAMA IS NOT TO BRIGHT WHEN IT COMES TO FOREIGN POLICY. SIMPLE GEOGRAPHY MAP WOULD SHOW YOU THAT INVADING PAKISTAN WOULD BE A MILITARY BLUNDER.WE WOULD BE DOING THE SAME MISTAKE GERMANY DID IN W.W.2 WHEN IT TRIED TO INVADE RUSSIA. I WOULD HAVE MORE RESPECT FOR HIS STATEMENT IF HE WOULD SAY HE WOULD USE NUKES TO GET THE JOB DONE. REMEMBER PAKISTAN HAS NUKES. PAKISTAN IS A MUSLIM STATE.PAKISTAN IS OUR FRIEND WHEN IT COMES TO THE WAR ON TERROR.POLITICIAN'S PROMISE THE MOON AND DELIVER A PEBBLE.


    RussBBinVegas@aol.com wrote on August 06, 2007 09:43 AM: Isn't it the war-monger Republicans who think the way you "fight terrorism" is to send the Keystone Kop American military off to the four corners of the world to go bomb bomb bomb. One of these days a real leader is going to have to face the fact that hatred of the United States is fueled by our brutal foreign policy (supporting Arab dictators like Mubarak in Egypt and the Saudi Royals while hypocritically advocating democracy .. blindly favoring Israel over the Palestinians .. attacking & occupying Iraq based on lies & lust for oil). C'mon Obama & the Democrats, show some intelligence and new ideas for leadership! Or this country with our blundering & bullying & mass-murdering & Treasury-bankrupting, is doomed.


    andy wrote on August 06, 2007 09:40 AM: After 9/11 we went into Afghanistan to find and destroy al Quaeda. We didn't finish the job there because Afghanistan and Pakistan don't have anything of economic value to Bush - there's no oil in those mountains, so Bush turned to Iraq and its oil fields. Bush misled us, allowing al Quaed to reinvigorate itself and become stronger. Obama wants to go back to where the founders (Bin Laden and al Quaeda) of terrorism reside. He's intelligent to know that using nuclear weapons is not a sound decision.

    JH, Obama will make the right decisions to make America a better and safer nation and will place us on a path to being the number 1 power again.


    JH wrote on August 06, 2007 07:11 AM: We should all know by now that you can't trust one word that comes out of a politician's mouth. Key word, MIGHT, call for an invasion. The word MIGHT, gives him an out. I give him credit for coming up with the ideas, but that is just rhetoric to get himself elected. Just like all other politicians. They will say anything that is necessary to get elected, and once they are in and start getting all the big money from special interest groups, they forget about who put them there. Any one person has no real power. They just think they do. If anyone one of those idiots had any real power, the U.S. would be back to being the number 1 power in the world like it was in my father's day, and like it should be today. Today it is all just about who will fill their pockets, and it doesn't matter who it is,legal or illegal (mostly from illegal operations) as long as the politicians get rich. The only thing they need us for, is to get the numbers. Then they don't know us for another 2,4, or 6 years, when they need to get re-elected. It is time for American people to wake up and smell the coffee.


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