Prez Contenders Invited to Speak

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Prez Contenders Invited to Speak

February 28, 2008

By Cahir O’Doherty

SENATORS Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain have been invited to attend the 2008 Irish Presidential Forum in New York this March at the request of former New York State Assemblyman John Dearie, who created the first presidential forum in 1984 and has run the event in every presidential election since.

Announcing his plans for this year’s forum, which he hopes to schedule around St. Patrick’s Day, Dearie told the Irish Voice, “The invitations have been sent out to Senators Clinton and McCain — we’ve been talking to both campaigns — and also to Senator Obama and former Governor Mike Huckabee.

“All eyes are focused on the primaries a week from today and Hillary will either be moving ahead and anxious to participate, or in a different state — I personally hope not — but it’s not inconceivable that could happen,” Dearie added.

Learning from an aborted attempt to hold the Irish Presidential Forum in 2004, Dearie acknowledged that he learned it was virtually impossible to schedule each candidate to appear on the same night.

To combat this, in 2008 he has introduced a “flexible schedule,” which will be determined by the individual campaigns, and which the Irish Presidential Forum have pledged to accommodate.

“The important thing is to have the candidates respond to the agenda,” says Dearie. “We’ll make ourselves as flexible as possible to ensure that happens. At the end of the day we want the candidates responses.”

To date no Republican candidate has ever attended an Irish forum, but Dearie hopes that McCain will change that. “I think it would be a big headline and a big plus for him if the senator is the first to attend. I have my fingers crossed that he will do just that,” said Dearie.

The questions the senators will be asked, if they attend, concern America’s role in the Irish peace process. They will be asked if they will send a special peace envoy to Northern Ireland as both Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush did.

The forum will ask the candidates to outline their position on immigration and how their administration would handle the contentious issue.

The fourth question reminds the candidates of the success of previous White House Irish trade conferences and asks if they will be continued, and the fifth question asks if the candidates would welcome an annual visit and progress report from Northern Irish political leaders.

The final question asks the candidates if they will make a presidential visit.

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