The AFT executive council had a chance to hear from five of the major 2008 Democratic presidential candidates at its meeting May 15-16 at the National Labor College in Silver Spring, Md. Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York each spent about an hour with the council. (Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut also was scheduled to appear but a late-scheduled Senate vote prevented him from coming.)

"We've got a great group of candidates this year," AFT president Edward J. McElroy said. The AFT endorsement process for 2008 includes candidate meetings with him and the council, questionnaires on AFT priority issues, other meetings with labor leaders and input from members. The candidates preferred a forum where there could be interaction and questions, and the council meeting allowed for that. Three members, selected through voting on the AFT's You Decide 2008 Web site, attended to ask their winning questions of each of the candidates. (See related story.)

Additional candidates will be invited to the executive council's July meeting. (Sen. Dodd hopes to appear then.) Republican candidates also will be invited to participate in the AFT's endorsement process. "We would love to have them" speak to the council, as well, McElroy said.

The AFT videotaped each of the candidates and plans to put video highlights on the You Decide site when they are available. In the meantime, here are highlights from the candidate visits.

Sen. Joseph Biden
Sen. Biden used his time before the executive council on May 15 to connect the military situation in Iraq with a stalled agenda at home. Biden, the senior senator for Delaware and a well respected foreign policy expert on both sides of the aisle, said that "the war in Iraq is the boulder sitting in the middle of the road that prevents us" from moving forward on all essential domestic initiatives, educational opportunities at colleges and universities and tax relief for working Americans.

"We've lost flexibility at home and credibility abroad" because of the war, said Biden, and he asked for AFT support in his presidential bid based in large part on a candidacy that features a full plan for promoting stability in the region once troops are removed.

Biden said he would break with the Bush administration's current efforts to join different ethnic groups in a strong central government in Iraq. Better prospects for peace lie in a "Bosnia model," with important government functions resting in regional governments.

Biden said the country also needs a chief executive who will be an unabashed ally in helping turn back "the war on labor's house"—the well-funded, systematic efforts to weaken union strength in the legislatures and the courts.

During the question-and-answer portion, Biden said that he would work as president to double funding for Head Start, offer new early childhood education incentives to states and support after-school programs.

Sen. John Edwards
Former Sen. Edwards invited AFT leaders to envision a president who will walk out on the White House lawn and talk to the public about how important unions are to the survival of the middle class, to economic security, and to preserving democracy. "I will be that kind of president," said Edwards, "because I believe it to my core."

Both of Edwards' parents were union members, as is his brother today. "The only reason they got healthcare is because they were in a union," he stated. He articulated a cohesive vision for an America with labor law reform, universal healthcare, education reform, adequate housing, affordable higher education and meaningful tax reform.

Edwards would have employers provide healthcare benefits or pay into a government fund that would do the same. He would fund health coverage for everyone in the country by rolling back President Bush's tax cut for the wealthiest one percent.

He would improve education by fixing the "dysfunctions" of No Child Left Behind, investing in early childhood education, providing better pay and training for teachers, and ensuring affordable college education for all qualified students. He recently introduced a plan, known as College for Everybody, that would get hundreds of thousands of students into college. Right now, the program is being privately funded with great success on a small scale in North Carolina.

Regarding the war, "America needs to be getting out of Iraq," he said. He advised Democrats in Congress to continue what they've started: Submit a bill to the president with timetables for withdrawal. If it's vetoed, they should do it again. "We ought to stand our ground. We are right about this."

Gov. Bill Richardson
If Bill Richardson were elected president in 2008 he would be the "real education president."

"That would be my legacy," the New Mexico governor told the AFT executive council. As president, Richardson added, he would increase teacher salaries, establish a national preschool program and create special academies to emphasize the importance of math and science.

Richardson's other priorities would include withdrawing troops from Iraq, making the United States energy independent and creating good-paying jobs to stimulate economic development.

The governor, who restored collective bargaining in his state shortly after taking office, said he would be a pro-union president who would support card check nationally. "I believe the American workforce is stronger if it is allowed to unionize," he said.

Richardson asked council members to look at his record and support his candidacy on the basis of the steps he will take to move the country forward. He also pledged to unite what he called "a divided country."

"I've worked all my life as a diplomat; I can bring people together to solve problems," said Richardson, who served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under President Bill Clinton.

"I know how to deal with foreign countries. I know how to get us out of Iraq," said Richardson. "I was the secretary of energy: I know how to become energy independent. I'm a governor. This country elects governors because we directly affect people."

Sen. Barack Obama
It was Sen. Obama's first meeting with the AFT executive council, "but we feel from your background that we already know you," McElroy told the former community organizer and civil rights attorney, adding: "You've brought a tremendous amount of excitement to the race."

For his part, Obama thanked the union because the first endorsement before his 2004 U.S. Senate win came from the Illinois Federation of Teachers. "This was at a time when no one could pronounce my name," he said.

His chief goals as president, Obama said, would include enacting universal healthcare, overhauling education policy, strengthening national labor law, shrinking the gap between rich and poor, and stopping the war in Iraq. Opposing NCLB isn't an education policy in itself, he said, "but it's a good start."

Obama noted that the half a trillion dollars spent in Iraq could have helped education. "We're going to have to act like grownups for a change," he said. Otherwise, we'll create "an America that's a little poorer and a little meaner than the one we inherited."

Like other Democratic candidates, Obama complimented his opponents. "We're all on the same team," he noted, but he did try to differentiate himself.

"The question for this union," he said, "is who you think has the best opportunity—not just to win an election but to transform the country." It's not that his party's other contenders are wrong, he explained, but that winning isn't enough. "We need someone who can change how America thinks about itself, inspire our country to re-imagine itself. That's something I think I can do."

Obama asked AFT members for their endorsement, promising: "You will have a friend in the White House."

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton
Sen. Clinton is running for president to help the United States "renew our greatness at home and abroad," and make us a nation that sets common goals and has a sense of a shared mission, she told the AFT executive council. Among the goals she wants to focus the country on: universal healthcare coverage, energy independence, and educational opportunities from preschool through college and beyond.

Clinton, of course, is associated with her husband's effort to promote comprehensive healthcare reform during his first term as president. "Nobody knows better than I how hard that is," she said, but added, "I know it can be done."

She called education "the passport to opportunity" and said the country has a lot of work to do to improve in this area. On No Child Left Behind, she declared, the AFT will get "no argument from me that we need to change it drastically," and she vowed to oppose any bill that doesn't address the shortcomings in areas such as funding, testing and supplemental services.

Clinton's remarks also addressed education needs among the very young and those entering adulthood. She supports universal preschool, efforts to make college more affordable, and much more attention on students who don't go to college but aren't getting the training they need to fill many good-paying jobs that are available.

"We can't get anything done unless we find the money to do it," she noted. And one place to find some of that money is by ending the war in Iraq and drastically reducing the U.S. military presence there. While the United States will still need to spend substantial amounts in the region to promote national security and defend its interests, she said, ending the war would free up resources to devote to the other priorities she identified. [Mike Rose, Barbara McKenna, Adrienne Coles, Annette Licitra, Dan Gursky]

May 18, 2007