Sen. John McCain

Just before temporarily suspending his presidential campaign, Senator McCain spoke at the Clinton Global Initiative this morning and addressed many of ONE’s issues.

An excerpt, plus a link to a video of his remarks, is below. Senator Obama will also be speaking at CGI later today, so we’ll be covering that here too.

As we deal with this challenge, we must also address the others that imperil our global security. Today too many around the world are excluded from the benefits of globalization. Disconnected from the prosperity that has lifted millions out of poverty, too many societies are plagued by violence, disease, and scarcity.

It need not be this way. And in places where scarcity can breed resentment, despair, and extremism – where problems cannot be contained by borders – it must not be this way. We can never guarantee our security through military means alone. True security requires a far broader approach, using non-military means to reduce threats before they gather strength. And this is especially true of our strategic interest in fighting disease and extreme poverty across the globe.

Promoting development, creating opportunities, and eliminating disease do not only serve our national interests; they also accord with our deepest American values. We are a great and generous country, and we believe that all men and women, everywhere, are created equal and endowed by God with certain rights. In fighting disease, and sparing unnumbered lives across the world, we serve not only strategic interests. We serve our moral interests, and we show the good heart of America.

Malaria alone kills more than a million people a year, mostly in Africa. Nearly three thousand children are lost every day just to this one affliction – a disease well within our ability to eradicate. To its lasting credit, the federal government in recent years has led the way in this fight. But, of course, America is more than its government. Some of the greatest advances have been the work of the Gates Foundation and other private, charitable groups. And you have my pledge that, should I be elected, I will build on these and other initiatives to ensure that malaria kills no more.

I will also make it a priority to improve maternal and child health. Millions around the world – and especially pregnant women and children – suffer from easily preventable nutritional deficiencies. As a result, a million children under age five die every year, millions more are born mentally impaired, and entire economies are left to stagnate. An international effort is needed to prevent disease and developmental disabilities among children by providing nutrients and food security. And if I am elected president, America will lead that effort.

As we have done with the scourge of HIV and AIDS, we should embark on a more concerted effort to fight tuberculosis, which accounts for nearly two million deaths each year. We should work to dramatically raise agricultural productivity in Africa: America helped to spark the Green Revolution in Asia, and they should be at the forefront of an African Green Revolution. We should reform our aid programs, to make sure they are serving the interests of people in need, and not just serving special interests in Washington.

Aid is not the whole answer. We need to promote economic growth and opportunities, especially for women, where they do not currently exist. Too often, trade restrictions – combined with costly agricultural subsidies for the special interests – choke off the opportunities for poor farmers and workers abroad to help themselves. That has to change. And by promoting free trade, and ending unfair subsides, I intend to be the agent of change.

On Thursday, Senator John McCain came to Iowa for the first time with new running mate Governor Sarah Palin.

The event was held at an air hanger in the Cedar Rapids airport and thousands of people attended, including many University of Iowa students in ONE T-shirts!

After the event, and after Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin toured parts of Cedar Rapids to see devastation from recent flooding, their motorcade pulled up to a long line of people, including ONE members, waiting for the senator and governor to board their plane.

As they walked through the line and shook hands, Senator McCain saw our ONE shirts and said that ONE is a wonderful organization and thanked us for what we do.

Next in the line came Governor Sarah Palin who shook hands with a ONE member who handed her a ONE band. She said “right on!” and immediately put on the band. (See our video). We were so happy to have represented ONE on Gov. Palin’s first visit to Iowa!

-Michele Meyer

Earlier today Republican presidential nominee, Senator John McCain made a campaign stop at the Convention Center in Tampa, Florida, addressing more than 1,500 community members that came out to hear him speak.

I met ONE Field organizer Jedidiah Hall and some volunteers at the event where we spoke to several people in the crowd about ONE and our efforts to raise awareness about AIDS and extreme poverty in the world’s poorest countries.

A number of Florida state and local politicians spoke about the McCain/Palin ticket, but it was Cindy McCain and Senator Mel Martinez (R-FL) who introduced John McCain to the crowd.

ONE volunteers are creating a real presence on the campaign trail in Florida as we continue to show the candidates that no matter what party you belong to, fighting global disease and extreme poverty is a priority.

-Sara J. Paterni, ONE Field Organizer

Pennsylvania ONE members’ ONE shirts were clearly visible throughout CNN and MSNBC’s live coverage of the McCain-Palin Lancaster rally yesterday afternoon. See this screenshot from MSNBC below.

Go ONE!

Having just returned from 2 weeks at the DNC and RNC conventions, I was browsing through ONE’s “On The Record” microsite, where anyone can learn the (current and former) 2008 presidential candidates’ plans for fighting extreme poverty.

Below see short video clips from Senator Obama, Senator McCain and Senator Biden. (Gov. Palin was not a presidential candidate in 2008 so we don’t have her on the record on global poverty on the site.)

Senator Obama on doubling foreign assistance:

Senator McCain on the global AIDS crisis and PEPFAR

Senator Biden on global poverty and U.S. security:

You can read more about all their plans on each of their individual pages on the site. (Obama’s page here, McCain’s page here, and Biden’s page here.)

-Virginia Simmons

Senator John McCain announced his running mate for this election- Governor Sarah Palin. When Obama announced his vp-pick last week, ONE members wrote to him immediately calling on him to be a leader on global poverty, now we need to make sure we contact Governor Sarah Palin right away too.

Soon Palin will be engulfed in campaigning and national media, so now is our moment to break through the clutter. Send the below digital postcard to McCain vp-pick now and then forward the news to your friends. We want her to hear from ONE members first.

-Virginia Simmons

Yesterday, John McCain was campaigning in Sparks Nevada and as always ONE was there to great him.

On the rope line as Senator McCain entered the town hall he spotted my ONE shirt and pointed it out to his wife. Having just returned from Rwanda with ONE it was a familiar sight. I was able to thank Cindy for traveling with ONE and asked her how the trip went. “Amazing,” she said, “it was fantastic.”

Well it must have stayed on her mind. Prior to introducing her husband, Cindy spoke to the packed high school auditorium about the ONE Campaign and her “incredible journey through Rwanda.” She went on to offer her support for the efforts by ONE to make fighting extreme poverty and disease a foreign policy priority during this election season, and for the many organizations on the ground in Africa “offering hope to mothers and children through selfless aid work and service.”

Mrs. McCain went on to comment about the strength of African families and noted that the key to fighting these dreaded diseases will be to empower African women and mothers.

-Matt Higginson

Listen to this NRP piece from Thursday about McCain and Obama’s interest in boosting foreign aid. The beginning of the piece is transcribed below, but the full clip is just over 4 minutes and worth the listen.

The economy may be in trouble and the budget deficit growing, but supporters of U.S. foreign aid see some promising times ahead. That’s because both leading candidates for president have talked about the need to continue to help poor nations develop.

Every so often at town hall meetings on the campaign trail, Republican John McCain calls on people from a grassroots organization known as the ONE campaign. They ask him what he’ll do to help poor nations fight HIV/AIDS, malaria and illiteracy. McCain has said he sees foreign assistance as a key factor in securing America.

“It really needs to eliminate many of the breeding grounds for extremism, which is poverty, which is HIV/AIDS, which is all of these terrible conditions that make people totally dissatisfied and then look to extremism, particularly Islamic extremism,” he told a town hall meeting in New Hampshire last month.

At a speech in Washington this summer, Democrat Barack Obama also spoke about development aid as a strategic imperative for the U.S. in today’s world.

“I know development assistance is not the most popular of programs, but as president, I will make the case to the American people that it can be our best investment in increasing the common security of the entire world and increasing our own security,” he said. “That’s why I will double our foreign assistance to $50 billion by 2012 and use it to support a stable future in failing states and sustainable growth in Africa, to halve global poverty and to roll back disease.”

McCain has not been that specific about how much money he would spend, but he has set a goal of trying to eradicate malaria in Africa and fight corruption.

Steve Radelet of the Center for Global Development sees a total change in Washington’s attitude about development aid, and he’s hoping this will translate into some real reform….

Sen. McCain held a town hall meeting in Rochester, NH, yesterday to campaign for President. And just like we did for all the candidates from both parties during the NH Primary, and just we did in Unity, NH, last month – ONE was there to help advocate for the world’s poorest people.

As you can see from earlier posts, Sen. McCain recognized ONE at the start of the town hall and even briefly mentioned how Cindy McCain was joining ONE on a bi-partisan trip to Rwanda.

Later during the town hall meeting, ONE’s Marine, Michael Castaldo raised his hand and spoke with Sen. McCain about US efforts to fight AIDS and poverty in Africa and how it relates to Def. Sec. Gates’ recent call for more funding for humanitarian aid to help win hearts and minds around the world.

Programs like PEPFAR and the Millennium Challenge Corporation, are helping to save millions of lives around the world and lift millions more out of extreme poverty. But it also helps to create a safer and more secure future for those in need, and for us at home.

-Matthew Bartlett

Just a couple hours ago on MSNBC:

A quick transcription:

“And could I also recognize another organization that is very, very popular and a very important one, not only here in New Hampshire but across the country, and that’s an organization called ONE.

This is an organization inspired by a lot of people including Bono and they have over 2 million volunteers in this nation, and they go all over the world, especially Africa, to help cure malaria, AIDS, cholera, and help people. This is one the great examples of what America is all about.

I’m proud that Cindy, and a group, a number of other people, are in Africa as we speak, with the organization called ONE trying to do what we can to help those people and that organization and publicize their great work.

Thank you to the group from ONE, will you guys stand? Thank you very much. Thank you.”

-Virginia Simmons