Clinton, DNC, PEPFAR and the GOP

New York Times

For­mer U.S. pres­i­dent, Bill Clin­ton at the 2012 DNC.

The first pres­i­den­tial debate between Barack Oba­ma and his Repub­li­can chal­lenger, Mitt Rom­ney in the 2012 U.S elec­tions is set for Wednes­day, Octo­ber 3 in Den­ver, Colorado.

As I have heard, for those of us who live and com­mute to work dai­ly in Den­ver, we need to be pre­pared for the traf­fic night­mare that will hap­pen from blocked streets and roads the day of the debate.

As Den­ver pre­pares for the his­toric event, we take a look back at the 2012 Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Con­ven­tion and exam­ine for­mer pres­i­dent, Bill Clinton’s speech dur­ing the con­ven­tion and its con­nec­tion to Repub­li­cans (GOP) and inter­na­tion­al affairs.

While Clinton’s speech has been praised for a strong affir­ma­tion and case for the re-elec­tion of Barack Oba­ma, it is also con­sid­ered a well-bal­anced speech, giv­en that it not only made a case for the Democ­rats, but point­ed to many good things that Repub­li­cans have done for Amer­i­ca and the world.

More over, it was a bril­liant speech not because Clin­ton trashed the Repub­li­cans for their failed poli­cies, which he said led to the onset of America’s cur­rent eco­nom­ic woes, but more impor­tant­ly because he gave praise where it was due. In his speech, Clin­ton acknowl­edged the impor­tant role that oth­ers, besides Democ­rats, were play­ing in build­ing the Amer­i­can nation.

“Mr. Clin­ton extolled coop­er­a­tion in his speech,” accord­ing to The New York Times.

The exam­ples of coop­er­a­tion that Clin­ton hit on include the U.S. Inter­state High­ly sys­tem, start­ed by a Repub­li­can pres­i­dent, Dwight Eisen­how­er. That high­way sys­tem stretch­es through Col­orado and includes the acclaimed Eisen­how­er Tun­nel on U.S. Inter­state I‑70. The tun­nel is the high­est vehic­u­lar tun­nel in the world, accord­ing to the Col­orado Depart­ment of transportation.

Among many oth­er things Clin­ton allud­ed to is PEPFAR, oth­er­wise known as the President’s Emer­gency Fund for AIDS Relief. We’ll look at PEPFAR in a moment.

But here is what Clin­ton said:

“Though I often dis­agree with Repub­li­cans, I nev­er learned to hate them the way the far right that now con­trols their par­ty seems to hate Pres­i­dent Oba­ma and the Democ­rats. After all, Pres­i­dent Eisen­how­er sent fed­er­al troops to my home state to inte­grate Lit­tle Rock Cen­tral High and built the inter­state high­way sys­tem. And as gov­er­nor, I worked with Pres­i­dent Rea­gan on wel­fare reform and with Pres­i­dent George H.W. Bush on nation­al edu­ca­tion goals. I am grate­ful to Pres­i­dent George W. Bush for PEPFAR, which is sav­ing the lives of mil­lions of peo­ple in poor coun­tries and to both Pres­i­dents Bush for the work we’ve done togeth­er after the South Asia tsuna­mi, Hur­ri­cane Kat­ri­na and the Hait­ian earthquake.

Through my foun­da­tion, in Amer­i­ca and around the world, I work with Democ­rats, Repub­li­cans and Inde­pen­dents who are focused on solv­ing prob­lems and seiz­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties, not fight­ing each other.”

What is PEPFAR and what it is sup­posed to do? 

The pro­gram was start­ed in 2003 by for­mer pres­i­dent George W. Bush with strong bi-par­ti­san sup­port.

Designed as a “U.S. Gov­ern­ment ini­tia­tive to help save the lives of those suf­fer­ing from HIV/AIDS around the world”, PEPFAR is “a his­toric com­mit­ment from the U.S. gov­ern­ment” to help com­bat a sin­gle dis­ease inter­na­tion­al­ly. The ini­tia­tive address­es a broad range of issues to include HIV and AIDS in sub Saha­ran Africa.

On July 30, 2008, PEPFAR was reau­tho­rized by the U.S. con­gress under the  Tom Lan­tos and Hen­ry J. Hyde Unit­ed States Glob­al Lead­er­ship Against HIV/AIDS, Tuber­cu­lo­sis, and Malar­ia Reau­tho­riza­tion Act of 2008, with a com­mit­ment of $48 bil­lion over five years in deal­ing with HIV/AIDS, malar­ia and tuber­cu­lo­sis worldwide.

Cur­rent­ly, 20 African nations are par­tic­i­pat­ing in PEPFAR programs.

“Work­ing in part­ner­ship with host nations, over ten years PEPFAR plans to sup­port treat­ment for at least 3 mil­lion peo­ple; pre­ven­tion of 12 mil­lion new infec­tions; and care for 12 mil­lion peo­ple, includ­ing 5 mil­lion orphans and vul­ner­a­ble chil­dren,” the PEPFAR orga­ni­za­tion states on its website.

In his speech at the Clin­ton Glob­al Ini­tia­tive on Sep­tem­ber 25, Mitt Rom­ney picked up on the sub­ject of PEPFAR as well. Rom­ney char­ac­ter­ized the pro­gram as an object of U.S. for­eign aid as follows:

“There are three, quite legit­i­mate, objects of our for­eign aid.

First, to address human­i­tar­i­an need. Such is the case with the PEPFAR ini­tia­tive, which has giv­en med­ical treat­ment to mil­lions suf­fer­ing from HIV and AIDS.

Sec­ond, to fos­ter a sub­stan­tial Unit­ed States strate­gic inter­est, be it mil­i­tary, diplo­mat­ic, or economic.

And there is a third pur­pose, one that will receive more atten­tion and a much high­er pri­or­i­ty in a Rom­ney Admin­is­tra­tion. And that is aid that ele­vates peo­ple and brings about last­ing change in com­mu­ni­ties and in nations.”