South Carolina Democratic debate transcript

Williams: Senator Edwards, Russia has been in the news of late. Just today, they suspended an arms deal over a squabble. Simply, do you regard them as a friend or a foe?

Edwards: Well, what's happened in Russia, of course, is they've moved from being a democracy under Yeltsin to being a complete autocracy under Putin. The government has been centralized. Any kind of democratic effort, any opposition party, any opposition voice has been squashed.

I think the question we should be asking ourselves -- and I've thought a lot about this. I've spent a fair amount of time since the last election working overseas and working on these issues. I think the question we should be asking ourselves is how does America change the underlying dynamic of what's happening in the world?

We need to maintain our strength, military, economic, political. But how do we ultimately change what's happening, the threats that America faces?

I think for that to occur, the world has to see America as a force for good again, which is why I talked about making -- leading an effort to make primary school education available to 100 million children in the world who don't have it, in the Muslim world, in Africa, in Latin America.

Leading an international effort on sanitation, clean drinking water, economic development using microfinance as a tool. I mean, here's a way that America could actually demonstrate its commitment to humanity, which I think is critical for our leadership.

Williams: Senator, thank you. Governor Richardson, with your forays into diplomacy, four nominations for Nobel Peace Prizes, when you consider that President Bush said he once looked into the soul Putin, how would you do things differently with Russia?

Richardson: What I would do is, I would assess what our strategic interests are. What would I want from Russia?

Number one, I want them to control some of the loose nuclear weapons in their domain.

Number two, I'd want them to be more humane in dealing with Chechnya.

Number three, I'd want them to be a stable source of energy for this country.

Number four, I would want them to promote more democracy in their own nation.

Now, my precepts in foreign policy are this -- I think this president characterizes this -- being stubborn isn't a foreign policy. And power without diplomacy is blank.

I would focus my presidency on dealing with the real threats to America. International terrorism, nuclear proliferation. I've dealt directly with North Korea. I think we've made the situation better.

Number three, I would deal with issues like Darfur.

Why is it that America does not care about Africa, about genocide, about issues relating to enormous amount of deaths that are brought forth by international poverty?

Williams: Governor, thank you.

We are all out of time.

Senator Clinton, a friend of yours from back home, said this week: Quote, "the Democrats do not understand the full nature and scope of the terrorist war against us."

Another quote: "America will be safer with a Republican president."

How do you think, Senator, that it happened that that notion of Republicans as protectors in a post 9/11 world has taken on so?

Clinton: Well, Brian, I think that, as a senator from New York, it is something that I have worked on very hard ever since 9/11 -- to try to convince the administration to do those things that would make us safer. And I think there's a big disconnect between the rhetoric and the reality.

We haven't secured our borders, our ports, our mass transit systems. You can go across this country and see so much that has not been done.

The resources haven't gotten to the front lines where decisions are made in local government the way that they need to.

And I think that this administration has consistently tried to hype the fear without delivering on the promise of making America safer.

And its foreign policy around the world, as you've heard from all of my colleagues here, has also made the world less stable, which, of course, has a ripple effect with respect to what we're going to face in the future.

So I hope that we can put that myth to rest. It is certainly something I will try to do during the campaign.

Williams: Senator Dodd, same question. How has this label been attached to the Democratic Party, that the Republicans will protect America best?

Dodd: Well, that's a great question, Brian, because it's a myth in the sense when you consider what this administration has done over six years, given the attacks we faced on 9/11.

Here our first responders are not getting the support they deserve, the administration has been resistant in supporting them; the war in Iraq, rather than dealing with the Taliban in Afghanistan where our efforts should have been over the last number of years; not building the kind of international support -- stateless terrorism is a multinational problem. It's a tactic.

It requires a multinational response. This administration has walked away from that. The very institutions we need to build to have us effectively engage and fight back against terrorism, this administration seems to take the other track and move in another direction.

I would have asked your question earlier on what's the serious threat we face. It is stateless terrorism. It isn't states. It's the absence of diplomacy, the absence of engaging with nations around the world to build those relationships that allow us to have a far more effective response to the scourge that we face in this century.

We need to have leadership that knows how to build those relationships to encourage that kind of participation. This administration's done just the opposite.

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