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Picking the next president
Country should be focused on candidates’ ideas, approach
By KEVIN FRYLING
Reporter Staff Writer
A leading voice in American politics came to UB last week to talk about the 2008 presidential race and outline his vision for America in the 21st century.
FORD
Harold Ford Jr., chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council and a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Tennessee, spoke on Feb. 7 as part of the 32nd annual Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration Event, which is part of the 2007-08 Distinguished Speakers Series. His visit came only two days after “Super Tuesday,” in which 24 states held presidential primaries or caucuses.
“There’s a good chance we will see a historic thing happen,” Ford said of this year’s presidential contenders. “We will certainly see a Democratic nominee who represents history—and perhaps the next president of the United States will be someone very different than anyone who has ever occupied the Oval Office in a big way.”
Even more important than who turns out to be the next president, however, will be his or her take on key issues facing the nation, he added.
“Everyone wants to focus on the woman, on the black, and what that may mean,” he said. “What we really should be focused on is their ideas, their approach, the path they want to take, the experience they have to take us there and the specifics of how they will get us there and what they will expect when we arrive.”
One of the next president’s greatest priorities should be restoring the “standing, stature, respect and moral authority” of the United States, Ford said, noting that the U.S., when its reputation is strong and good, is an example to which the world aspires.
“Poverty and lack of literacy and lack of hope are fueling and feeding a kind of hatred about who we are around the globe,” he said. “That hate in a lot of ways has at its root a total misunderstanding of who we all are.”
Other important issues facing the next U.S. president, he added, include improving services for veterans returning from combat overseas and reducing the country’s dependence on foreign sources of energy.
“You and I are the only generation of Americans that has sent a group of people to war and at the same time asked the loved ones of those who are serving in the war to subsidize those who are trying to kill them,” he said, suggesting that America pursue independence from Mideast oil by developing new technologies to cleanly and safely tap coal reserves in the northwest United States. “Equally tragic,” he said, “is we’re the only generation of Americans who brag about loving our soldiers, yet when they come home they can’t find health care, jobs or the chance to be treated decently or fairly by their government. Something’s wrong with people who behave like that.”
Ford said a lot of people have asked him which Democratic candidate he thought Martin Luther King Jr. would support as president, but he replied that he doesn’t believe in playing games of speculation. “He might be supporting Mike Huckabee,” he noted. “He was a Baptist preacher.” What he does know, however, is that King’s “whole life was dedicated to trying to figure out what was right and what was wrong.”
Martin Luther King Jr. Day should be regarded as “an accounting day,” Ford said, in which everyone reflects on the actions they’ve taken over the past year to promote “hope, opportunity, chance, freedom and fairness,” which were at the core of King’s beliefs—as well as the principles upon which the United States was founded. “The greatness of a nation,” Ford said, “is only sustained when the people…understand their role” in the process.
“I love the fact [the Democratic nomination] is taking a little longer,” he added. “It gives more voters a chance to weigh in about what America’s future should look like and who should help change it. It’s good for America and it’s good for democracy.
“If there was ever a time in which I think every voice needs to be heard,” he said, “it’s this election.”