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The Hamas bombings had made a Likud victory in...
Posted on 2010-Mar-2 at 12:30
The Hamas bombings had made a Likud victory in the election more likelyI wanted Netanyahu to know that if he won, I would be his partner in the fight against terror, but I also wanted him to stick with the peace process
I couldnt go home without making the trip up Mount Herzl to visit Rabins graveI knelt, said a prayer, and, following Jewish custom, placed a small stone on Yitzhaks marble markerI also took another small rock from the ground around the grave home with me as a reminder of my friend and the job he had left for me to do
While I was preoccupied with trouble in the Middle East, China roiled the waters of the Taiwan Strait by test-firing three missiles close to Taiwan in an apparent attempt to discourage the Taiwanese politicians from pushing for independence in the election campaign then under wayEver since President Carter normalized relations with mainland China, the United States had followed a consistent policy of recognizing one China while continuing to have good relations with Taiwan, and saying that the two sides should resolve their differences peacefullyWe had never said whether we would or wouldnt come to the defense of Taiwan if it were attacked
It seemed to me that the Middle East and Taiwan were polar opposite foreign policy problemsIf nothing was done by political leaders in the Middle East, things would get worseBy contrast, I new prada replica handbags thought that if the politicians in China and Taiwan didnt do anything foolish, the problem would resolve itself over timeTaiwan was an economic powerhouse that had moved from dictatorship to democracyIt wanted no part of the mainlands bureaucratic communismOn the other hand, Taiwanese businesspeople were investing heavily in China, and there was travel back and forthChina liked the Taiwanese investment, but could not agree to give up its claim to sovereignty over the island; finding the right balance between economic pragmatism and aggressive nationalism was a constant challenge for Chinas leaders, especially during election season in TaiwanI thought China had gone too far with the missile tests, and quickly, but without fanfare, I ordered a carrier group from the UNavys Pacific fleet to sail to the Taiwan Strait
After a rocky start in February, Bob Dole won all the Republican primaries in March, wrapping up his partys nomination with a late-month victory in CaliforniaEven though Senator Phil Gramm, who ran to the right of Dole, would have been easier to beat, I was pulling for DoleNo election is a sure thing, and if I lost, I believed the country would be in more solid and more moderate hands with him
While Dole was moving toward the nomination, I campaigned in several states, including an event in Maryland with General McCaffrey and Jesse Jackson to highlight louis vuitton purple bag our efforts to stem teen drug use, and a stop at Harman International, a manufacturer of premier speakers in Northridge, California, to announce that the economy had produced 8 million jobs in just over three years since I took office; I had promised 8 million in four yearsMiddle-class incomes were also beginning to riseIn the last two years, two-thirds of the new jobs created were in industries that paid above the minimum wage
During the course of the month, we didnt reach agreement on the appropriations bills still outstanding, so I signed three more CRs and sent my budget for the next fiscal year up to Capitol HillMeanwhile, the House continued to follow the NRA, voting to repeal the assault weapons ban and to delete from the anti-terrorism legislation sections the gun lobby opposed
At the end of the month, I initiated an effort to accelerate the approval of anti-cancer drugs by the Food and Drug AdministrationAl Gore, Donna Shalala, and FDA administrator David Kessler had worked to cut the average approval process for new drugs from thirty-three months in 1987 to just under a year in 1994The latest approval for an AIDS drug was issued in just forty-two daysIt was important for the FDA to determine how drugs would affect the body before they were approved, but the process should be as speedy as safety permitted; lives were riding on it
Finally, on March cheap chanel jewelry 29, eight months after Bob Rubin and I had first requested it, I signed a bill to increase the debt limitThe Damocles sword of default was no longer hanging over our budget negotiations
On April 3, with springtime in full bloom in Washington, I was working in the Oval Office when I received word that the air force jet carrying Ron Brown and a Utrade and investment delegation he had organized to increase the economic benefits of peace to the Balkans had flown off course in bad weather and crashed into StJohns Mountain near Dubrovnik, CroatiaEveryone on board was killedBarely a week earlier, on their trip to Europe, Hillary and Chelsea had been on the same plane with some of the same crew membersRon was my friend and my best political advisor in the cabinetAs chairman of the DNC, he had brought the Democratic Party back from our loss in 1988 and played a pivotal role in uniting the Democrats for the 1992 electionIn the aftermath of the 1994 congressional election losses, Ron had remained upbeat, lifting everyones spirits with his confident prediction that we were doing the right things on the economy and would win in 1996He had revitalized the Commerce Department, modernizing the bureaucracy and using it to further not only our economic objectives but our larger interests in the Balkans and Northern IrelandHe had also worked hard to increase Uexports to ten emerging pink gucci watch markets that were sure to loom large in the twenty-first century, including Poland, Turkey, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa, and IndonesiaAfter he died I received a letter from a business executive who had worked with him, saying he was the finest Secretary of Commerce the United States ever had
Hillary and I drove to Rons house to see his wife, Alma, and his children, Tracey and Michael, and Michaels wife, TammyThey were part of our extended family, and I was relieved to see them already surrounded by loving friends and dealing with their loss by telling Ron Brown stories; there were many worth repeating from the long journey he had traveled from his boyhood home at the old Hotel Teresa in Harlem to the pinnacle of American politics and public service
When we left Alma, we went downtown to the Commerce Department to talk to the employees, who had lost both their leader and their friendsOne of those who died was a young man Hillary and I knew wellAdam Darling was the idealistic and spunky son of a Methodist minister who had entered our lives in 1992 when he made news by riding his bicycle across America to support the Clinton-Gore ticket
A few days later, just two weeks before the first anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, Hillary and I planted a dogwood on the back lawn of the White House in memory of Ron and the other Americans who had died in omega aqua terra watch Croatia
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