Mayor Rudy Giuliani campaigned in Hampton, NH, Sunday afternoon and ONE’s Marine Michael Castaldo made it to the town hall to make sure that he heard and saw the ONE Campaign.
Although Michael did not get a chance to ask his question, he told me that many people at the event were already aware of the ONE Campaign and our efforts to save lives around the world. Some even signed up for ONE from the ONE literature he passed out. In fact, one of Rudy’s top campaign advisors told me at the Winter Stroll that he had just talked with ONE advisor Jack Oliver and said how Jack is a great advocate for such a great organization.
Michael told me that after the event, it was very hard to get close to Rudy, but he saw Michael and made sure to go over and speak with him and take a photo with Michael in his ONE shirt.
In this election season, Republicans and Democrats are divided by party lines, and sometimes even divided by candidate campaigns…but no matter who you are, no matter who you support, everyone can agree that the ONE Campaign crosses all lines to make sure that the next president of the United States is a leader in the fight against global disease and extreme poverty.
On Sunday, Gov. Mitt Romney made a campaign stop at a toy store in Concord, NH. Keene State college student and Concord resident Kevin Schmidt came out to lend his voice to the world’s poorest people.
As Gov. Romney made his way through the toy store, Kevin spoke with him about the ONE Campaign. He thanked Gov. Romney for his ideas about saving lives in Africa. Gov. Romney thanked him, and Kevin told him about his Uncle Ken Hackett who is the President and CEO of Catholic Relief services and serves on the board of the Millennium Challenge Corporate with ONE Vote ’08 chair Sen. Frist. Kevin told him about all of the good work that the MCC was doing and urged him, if elected, to support the MCC.
Gov. Romney seemed very familiar with the work of the MCC and posed for a picture. You can even see the stuffed animal monkey that Gov. Romney’s grandson Parker Mitt picked out.
ONE by ONE, we are making progress with all of the candidates. By staying informed at ONE.org, we can use our voice to articulate the change we want to see in the world, save lives, and lift millions out of stupid extreme poverty.
World AIDS Day is this coming Saturday. More than 30 million people are living with HIV/AIDS. As ONE members, we should use this moment to raise awareness and take action.
For the last few weeks we have been turning on the heat for the presidential candidates to tell us exactly what, if elected, they would do fight extreme poverty and global disease.
So far this “On the Record” campaign has been stunningly successful as we’ve delivered more that 55,000 petition signatures to each of the campaigns. But if we’re going to get all of the presidential candidates to take this challenge and make the On the Record campaign a success, we need to go all out. It’s phone call time.
To make a call:
1. Go to ONE.org/OnTheRecordCalls/
2. Use the drop down menu to look up candidate’s numbers.
3. Use the talking points to help you with your call.
4. Fill out the form and check off each candidate you called.
This is a huge chance to make a real difference in the fight against poverty. If we can get all the candidates to make commitments to fighting poverty now, before the primaries and caucuses, we stand a good chance of our next president being dedicated to our cause.
“In a speech that emphasized the importance of “soft power” to prevent and end conflicts, Gates suggested beefing up the State Department’s foreign affairs budget of $36 billion, even as he acknowledged that Pentagon observers might consider it “blasphemy” for a sitting defense secretary to make such an appeal for another agency…
“We are miserable at communicating to the rest of the world what we are about as a society and culture,” Gates said. “It is just plain embarrassing that al-Qaeda is better at communicating its message on the Internet than America.”
The idea that development assistance is a key component to smart foreign policy is not a new one. It has, in fact, garnered increasing attention among high profile Washington foreign policy experts. Earlier this month, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (a bipartisan, nonprofit focused on global security and prosperity) released “the CSIS Commission on Smart Power,” which argues that investment in the global good is integral to America’s ability to tackle global challenges. You can read the full report here.
Last week, Adam C from the blog RedState posted this video of Senator John McCain talking global AIDS funding and foreign aid spend accountability at a townhall in Haverhill, NH.
While corruption is harmful to all governments, losing resources to corrupt leaders is particularly devastating in poor countries where every dollar lost results in one less child in school or one less well dug to provide clean water. Approaches like America’s Millennium Challenge which direct assistance to honest governments are the most effective, as is channeling assistance through private (and faith-based) relief and development agencies.
More information about fighting corruption in the poorest countries here.
Yesterday, Senator Barack Obama released a broad strategy to promote global development.
In it, there are many specific commitments:
· Senator Obama renewed his commitment to double foreign assistance to $50 billion a year by 2012.
· Senator Obama committed to at least $2 billion a year in funding for global education and will leverage those commitments through the World Bank’s Fast Track Initiative (FTI). FTI approved countries have national education plans and are coordinated in their approach to achieving universal basic education.
· Senator Obama renewed his commitment to provide $50 billion over five years to fight global HIV/AIDS and will increase U.S. contributions to the Global Fund.
· Senator Obama has committed to 100% debt cancellation for the world’s heavily indebted poor countries and to pressing for reforms at the World Bank to ensure that poor countries receive grants rather than loans.
· Senator Obama has further commitments that support growth of developing country economies through support for agricultural development, a microfinance initiative, and infrastructure growth. These are all critical to the future of developing countries and we applaud their inclusion in the Senator’s global development plan.
· Senator Obama’s development plan also discussed reforms to the federal government’s development infrastructure that would include strengthening USAID and placing several government agencies working on development within USAID.
ONE Vote ’08 thanks Senator Obama for presenting his plans to target extreme poverty and global disease.
ONE is campaigning to ensure that the Congressional budget does not cut foreign assistance programs like Feed the Future that help people break the cycle of poverty and hunger.
The Horn of Africa is experiencing its worst drought in 60 years. More than 11 million people, mostly nomadic pastoralists and farmers in south-central Somalia, north-eastern Kenya, and south-eastern Ethiopia, are severely lacking access to food.
2011 marks 30 years since the first cases of AIDS were documented. Take a closer look at the specific, achievable goals we must hit by 2015 to make this year the beginning of the end of AIDS.
As aid agencies warn more than 9 million people could be affected by a food crisis in East Africa, world leaders are failing to keep their 2009 promises to tackle the causes of chronic hunger and support farmers in the world's poorest countries.
