Matt Gonzalez Criticizes McCain/Obama Debate
Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Toby Heaps: 202-441-6795, toby@votenader.org
NADER VP, MATT GONZALEZ, SHARPLY CRITICIZES OBAMA AND MCCAIN'S FIRST PRES. DEBATE
Independent Vice-Presidential Candidate Matt Gonzalez responded to last night's presidential debate Between John McCain and Barack Obama from Bill Maher's Los Angeles studio where his running mate Ralph Nader appeared.
Gonzalez described the candidates' performances as sounding like "cut and paste stump speeches" and criticized them for dodging questions on the $700 billion bailout bill and the Iraq war.
He said he was surprised to hear Obama say that the U.S. occupation must be paid for with Iraqi money, and noted a contradiction in his talk of diplomacy and openness to meet with foreign leaders critical of U.S. policy such as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
"[Obama] says he would meet with them and they could spew their hatred. This is precisely what diplomacy is not. You don't characterize a meeting in the worst light possible before it happens," Gonzalez said. "You try to talk about the goals and objective and perhaps the common ground that you have [and] the shared interests you have for peace and for stability, and you work from there."
Gonzalez also attacked the two candidates for supporting nuclear power and ridiculed Obama's notion of safe nuclear waste storage which, Gonzalez said, has proven to be a "tremendous failure."
Referring once more to the Wall Street bailout, Gonzalez said: "I like to refer to it as a bailout of the two-party system because it's really the system that failed to adequately protect the American people from this."
Find his response here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Bq_6XMzuGY
