But im not going to make decisions that i think are wrong for america. New question, mr. President. Do you believe that diplomacy and sanctions can resolve the nuclear problems with north korea and iran, taking them in any order you would like. North korea, first i do. Let me say i certainly hope so. Before i was sworn in, the policy of this government was to have bri lateral negotiations with north korea, and we signed an agreement with north korea that my administration found out that was not being honored by the north koreans. So i decided that a better way to approach the issue was to get other nations involved, just besides us. And across texas, crawford and i agreed a free north Korean Peninsula was in his interest and our interest and the worlds interest. So we began a new dialogue in north korea, one that included not only the United States but now china and china has a lot of influence over north korea. In some ways more than we do. As well we included south korean, japan and
[ applause ] good evening, mr. President , senator kerry. As determined by a coin toss, the first question goes to you, senator kerry. You have two minutes. Do you believe that you could do a better job than president bush in preventing another 9 11type terrorist attack on the United States . Yes, i do. But before i answer further, let me thank you for moderating. I want to thank the university of miami for hosting us, and i know the president will join me in welcoming all of florida to this debate. Youve been through the roughest weeks anybody could imagine. Our hearts go out to you, and we admire your pluck and perseve perseveran perseverance. I can make america safer than president bush has made us. And i believe president bush and i both love our country equally, but we just have a different set of convictions about how you make america safe. I believe america is safest and strongest when we are leading the world and we are leading strong alliances. Ill never give a veto to any cou
In the 2004 president ial race between president george w. Bush and senator john kerry, the two candidates met at the university of miami for the first of three president ial debates. It focused on foreign policy. [ applause ] good evening, mr. President , senator kerry. As determined by a coin toss, the first question goes to you, senator kerry. You have two minutes. Do you believe that you could do a better job than president bush in preventing another 9 11type terrorist attack on the United States . Yes, i do. But before i answer further, let me thank you for moderating. I want to thank the university of miami for hosting us, and i know the president will join me in welcoming all of florida to this debate. Youve been through the roughest weeks anybody could imagine. Our hearts go out to you, and we admire your pluck and perseverance. I can make america safer than president bush has made us. And i believe president bush and i both love our country equally, but we just have a differen
Lehrer good evening from the university of miami Convocation Center in coral gables, florida. Im jim lehrer of the newshour on pbs. And i welcome you to the first of the 2004 president ial debates between president george w. Bush, the republican nominee, and senator john kerry, the democratic nominee. These debates are sponsored by the commission on president ial debates. Tonights will last 90 minutes, following detailed rules of engagement worked out by representatives of the candidates. I have agreed to enforce their rules on them. The umbrella topic is Foreign Policy and Homeland Security, but the specific subjects were chosen by me, the questions were composed by me, the candidates have not been told what they are, nor has anyone else. For each question there can only be a twominute response, a 90 second rebuttal and, at my discretion, a discussion extension of one minute. A green light will come on when 30 seconds remain in any given answer, yellow at 15, red at five seconds, and
But also a very special welcome to our cspan audience who will be following this event on cspan2 today, and were delighted to have you here, if only virtually, and delighted to have everyone who was been ablo participate in this discussion. This i think is going to be one of the most interesting and significant events that weve done here at hudson, particularly given the fact that we are less than a week away from the election when so many of these issues that were going to be talking about today, the question of what america is going to do, where americas going to go from here, those issues are going to be decided very, very soon. And so what happens in our discussion here i think will help us to understand as a guide to what takes place, regardless of who it is who will be sitting in the oval office come january january 21. I want to say a few words about our distinguished guest. Robert obrien was born in los angeles and graduated from the university of california berkeley with a law