“The wind is at our back” said Senator Charles Schumer concerning the 2008 senatorial races, but cautioned that it would be “hard” for the Democrats to win enough to get to 60 in the Senate. In a briefing today, Schumer claimed that he would still be excited if the Democrats reached 57 seats, saying, “We haven’t had 57 seats since 1979.”
He reacted to the McCain campaign’s recent claim that a Democrat president combined with a Democrat majority in both houses of Congress would be dangerous, by stating that the Republicans are using this argument because their foreign and domestic policies are not working. He further stated that if too many Republicans win their senatorial races, they will “block change” and “more gridlock” will ensue. Referring to the Democrats, Schumer added that “Nothing would make us happier than reducing the partisanship.”
Schumer attributed much of the success in both the Democratic presidential and senatorial campaigns to their “ground game.” He said that the Democrats have poured “significant resources” into their ground game, and that “We do not see evidence of a strong ground game” from the Republicans.
Referring to specific senatorial races, Schumer said the race in Kentucky between incumbent Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and challenger Bruce Lunsford (D) is tight as they expected “from the get-go.” In Georgia, the election between Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) and Jim Martin (D) is “razor tight” and in Minnesota, Sen. Norm Coleman’s (R-Minn.) decision to support President Bush’s economic policies is “hurting him” in his reelection campaign against Al Franken (D). Schumer also felt the battle in North Carolina between Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.) and Kay Hagan (D) was close, but Hagan was ahead by more than the polls have shown. He also thought that the the calls for resignation of Ted Stevens by Republicans such as Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and McConnell will allow Mark Begich (D) to win the senatorial seat in Alaska.
If the Democrats reach 60 seats, Senator Schumer felt Congress would be better on “issue after issue.” He mentioned specific issues including the war in Iraq, energy, education, and health care that would be improved in that event. Although, he felt that even if they don’t reach 60, some “mainstream conservative” Republicans might “smell the coffee.”
Schumer said that, while he supports Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), a Democratic Senate will not “rubber stamp” his policies if he is elected president. He concluded that the difference between Obama and other democrats is “not that great,” Obama “consults a lot.”

The youth vote is expected to play a significant role in this election, and according to Erica Williams of Campus Progress Action, they will vote down the ballot and with unique attention to the issues, especially college affordability.
“Young people are voting, and they are voting in record numbers, because of the issues they care about,” said Williams during a National Education Association conference call.
“We found out that since 2000 the cost of an average public college’s tuition and fees has risen over 58%. The average debt a college graduate faces can sometimes prevent 22% from attending any college at all, and 48% of college qualified high school graduates from attending a four year institution.”
The low youth turnout in previous elections has been partially attributed to difficulties in the registration process. To counter this, organizations like Rock the Vote have been holding massive voter registration drives.
“This year we’ve had over 2.54 million people download a voter registration form from our website…we’re injecting million of young voters into the political process, and if we look back to 2004, 82 of registered young people voted, and we expect to see at least those same rates again,” said Executive Director of Rock the Vote Heather Smith.
The youth vote is expected to play a role in state elections as well. Harris Parnell of the League of Youth Voters pointed to a California ballot initiative that would fund prisons at the expense of the education.
“California voters are going to have to vote on proposition 6, which basically puts more money from the California general fund into the prison system, which is happening at the same time the state has defunded the University of California system, so young voters are making a connection between the educational hardships they’re facing, and the state’s decision to direct resources elsewhere.
Smith says that the importance of the youth vote has been acknowledged by those running. “Candidates are paying attention to them, and you’re seeing everyone from senate candidates on down the ballot to the presidential [candidates], really for the first time in history, reaching out and asking young people for their votes.”

“We need to make sure these hearings aren’t merely a fact-finding expedition or whether it is laying the groundwork for action in Congress next month on a stimulus package,”Ranking member, Jim McCrery, said at the Ways and Means Committee hearing on Economic Recovery, Job Creation and Investment in America.
The Governor of New York, David Paterson, stated that as part of the second economic stimulus package, states need direct and immediate fiscal relief to help close their massive budget deficits. “Much of the good that would be done through proposals like expanding unemployment or food stamp benefits would be undone if states do not receive necessary federal budget relief,” Paterson said.
The Governor of South Carolina, Mark Sanford, said that he doesn’t believe that throwing more money to the institutions that put our economy in this situation is the way to go. Sanford said that no matter what amount of money is thrown at the consumer, individuals and businesses will likely choose to wait to make their purchases or investments. “Essentially, you’d be transferring taxpayer dollars out of the frying pan- the federal government- and into the fire- the states themselves,” Sanford said. Sanford believes that giving states more freedom, flexibility, and more options instead of more
Chief Administrative Officer for Montgomery County, Maryland, Timothy Firestine, said that it is important to note that while the state and local governments are suffering the effects of the current credit crisis, the general problems in the municipal market are not due to any fundamental problem with the underlying credits themselves. “In a quest to stimulate the economy, create jobs and help state and local governments, Congress could act to infuse capital in the municipal securities market in order for governments to begin vital infrastructure projects,” Firestine said.
Firestine and Sanford both agree that any taxation would exacerbate the economic crisis and they both stated that if anything needs to be done with taxes it would be to lower them.

Luc Gnacadja, Executive Secretary of the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), met with reporters to discuss failures in the current global system to combat drought and respond adequately to global environmental challenges.
The UNCCD works with the international community to stop policies that lead to desertification. Land dryness is a major economic, social and environmental problem of concern to many countries in all regions of the world and land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas has intensified in recent years especially in Africa.

The recent economic crisis may pose a threat to HIV/AIDS patients worldwide. With the financial future of so many countries in question, it appears that the funding that has provided retro viral therapy for over 300 million people may be cut. Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS, gave a strong warning about cutting funding.
“Interrupting that…or slowing down would not only be a disaster for millions of people but also, it would undermine the huge investments that have been made over the last few years, just when the return of the investment is starting to come now.”
Speaking at a Center for Strategic and International Studies discussion on “the past and present challenges for Global Health and AIDS”, Piot said that the U.S.’s effort in combating AIDS internationally has saved millions of lives.
“It was really heartening to hear President Bush and Secretary Rice…at the summit on development, to make a plea for continuing American leadership here, and I hope the next President will follow on the same lines.”
Piot stated that the world’s funding must continue to be a priority to guarantee that 3 million people on retro viral therapy can remain in treatment, those who do not have treatment find it, and that AIDS prevention continues to be pursued.
Piot discussed the necessary steps to continue fighting AIDS, including confronting HIV/AIDS with a multilateral approach; using an approach that blends science with human rights, and adopting an attitude of immediate action.
“If we would have waited until Health systems and Health services [were] functioning very well before starting with retro viral therapy, which was the conventional wisdom of every single donor, I know what would have happened with the 3 or 4 million people on retroviral therapy today. They would be dead,” said Piot.

It has long been acknowledged that there were intelligence failures in the lead up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, such as the absence of weapons of mass destruction. According to Wayne White, former deputy director of the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research’s Office of Analysis for the Near East and South Asia, the lack of understanding over Iraq shared by both the government and the public is much more complex and far-reaching.
Speaking at a conference on Iraq held at Georgetown University, White placed some of the responsibility for today’s confusion over Iraq on mainstream sources, such as popular articles written by uninformed scholars and military documentaries. White said that these sources led to the widespread neglect of a possible insurgency.
“I saw this in the Iran-Iraq war, warned about it in an assessment to policy makers in the first week of the 2003 war regarding the impending occupation of Sunni Arab areas farther north and was essentially ignored, with one response being from a senior State Department policy maker, ‘can somebody go tell Wayne we’re winning the war’,” said White.
“Even as late as the summer of 2003, when the intelligence community began to craft in reaction to violence a national intelligence estimate on the sources of violence and instability in Iraq…I was the only representative in the room that said we faced a growing insurgency.”
White said that there was a number of basic threats that were overlooked in the initial invasion, such as the negative effects of anti U.S. propaganda taught in schools and presented through Arab media. White also noted that there are threats that still have not been addressed, like a conflict between the increasingly powerful Iraqi army and the Iraqi civilian government, which White describes as corrupt and more disconnected from the needs of the people than the army.
“A core problem affecting U.S. intelligence analysis as well as, and even more so, the formulation of U.S. policy since 2003, has been the inability to grasp the full sweep of Iraq’s multidimensional societal matrix,” said White.

“Our [nuclear] weapons are safe, reliable, and secure,” said Secretary of Defense Robert Gates at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; “the problem is the long term prognosis, which I would characterize as bleak.” Gates spoke of the United States’ effort to reduce its nuclear arsenal while at the same time maintaining a modern nuclear stockpile to deter enemies and enable allies to depend on the United States and not seek nuclear weapons of their own.
Gates spoke extensively on the United States’s effort to reduce its massive, aging Cold War nuclear stockpile. “Within a few years, we will have 75 percent fewer nuclear weapons than at the end of the cold war,” said Gates. He added that the United States must maintain a deterrent capacity in order to prevent rogue states such as Iran and North Korea from threatening their neighbors and US allies with nuclear, biological and chemical attacks. A large number of countries rely on United States’ arsenal of weapons for protection, and without the US deterrent these countries would seek to develop their own nuclear weapons.
The United States’s nuclear arsenal is badly dated, however. “No one has designed a new nuclear weapon since the 1980s, and no one has built a new one since the early 1990s,” said Gates; “…currently the United States is the only declared nuclear power that is neither modernizing its arsenal nor has the capability of producing a new warhead.” The nuclear weapons the US currently possesses were designed to have a limited shelf life, and while it is possible to extend the shelf life for a period, this method is not as effective as building new weapons.
The nuclear development program in the US is also experiencing a brain drain, as old scientists are retiring and young scientists have little experience designing and building nuclear weapons. “By some estimates within the next several years three quarters of the work force in nuclear engineering at the national laboratories will reach retirement age,” said Gates.
To try to improve the state of the US arsenal, the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy are pursuing a replacement warhead program, but Congress has refused to fund the program beyond its conceptual phase. “Let me be clear,” said Gates; “the program we propose is not about new nuclear capabilities…it is about safety, security and reliability.”

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates speaks about the current state of the United States’s nuclear arsenal. (1:46)

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Secretary of Defense Robert Gates speaks about the need to update the United States’s nuclear arsenal and the funding required to do so. (1:40)

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Obama-Biden Senior Adviser Anita Dunn says that McCain Senior Adviser Doug Holtz-Eakin’s admission that the presumed health care plan a person has at has at their job is better than any plan they could
receive with the McCain tax credit, is a “huge October surprise.” Dunn said that the McCain campaign “was coming clean” in a teleconference today.
Dunn continued, saying that the Obama campaign’s assertions that McCain’s health care plan is “inadequate” have been proven “accurate” with Holtz-Eakin’s admission. She echoed her surprise at the McCain campaign quote, and said that the Mc Cain campaign has had a “loose relationship with the truth.”
Neera Tanden, Obama-Biden Domestic Policy Director, said that 20 million people will lose their employment health care under McCain’s plan. She stated that putting people in an individual-based health care was inadequate because “people pay more for less.” She added that the statistics and Holtz-Eakin’s quote “reinforce that Senator Obama’s plan has been right all along.” She said that Obama’s system is employer-based instead of individual-based like McCain’s plan.
Tanden claimed that while Obama’s plan is expensive, every cent of the plan is “fully paid for.”