Chicago Tribune voter guide: My Ballot

John McCain: The campaign did not respond to requests for this information.

Party: Republican

Web site: www.johnmccain.com/

Read more: See the Chicago Tribune's chart on where Obama and McCain stand on various issues (pdf). Complete coverage of the McCain campaign

Barack Obama: Immediately upon taking office, Barack Obama will give his military commanders a new mission in Iraq: ending the war. Obama will change our mission in Iraq and responsibly redeploy our combat brigades in consultation with our commanders and the Iraqi government. We can safely redeploy at a pace that removes our combat brigades in 16 months, with a residual force to target remnants of al Qaeda, to protect our service members and diplomats, and to train Iraq's Security Forces if the Iraqis make political progress. This change in mission will ease the burden on our troops and their families while increasing our flexibility to address more pressing challenges in Afghanistan. Obama will also increase diplomacy in the region and act immediately to address the humanitarian crisis in Iraq.

Barack Obama: On health care reform, the American people are too often offered two extremes - government-run health care with higher taxes or letting the insurance companies operate without rules. Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe both of these extremes are wrong, and that’s why they’ve proposed a plan that strengthens employer coverage, makes insurance companies accountable and ensures patient choice of doctor and care without government interference.

The Obama-Biden plan provides affordable, accessible health care for all Americans, builds on the existing health care system, and uses existing providers, doctors, and plans to implement the plan. Under the Obama-Biden plan, patients will be able to make health care decisions with their doctors, instead of being blocked by insurance company bureaucrats. Under the plan, if you like your current health insurance, nothing changes, except your costs will go down by as much as $2,500 per year.

If you don’t like your health insurance, or you don’t have health insurance, you will have a choice of new, affordable health insurance options.

The Obama-Biden plan will make health insurance work for people and businesses - not just insurance and drug companies by:

• Requiring insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions so all Americans regardless of their health status or history can get comprehensive benefits at fair and stable premiums;

• Creating a new Small Business Health Tax Credit to help small businesses provide affordable health insurance to their employees;

• Lowering costs for businesses by covering a portion of the catastrophic health costs they pay in return for lower premiums for employees;

• Preventing insurers from overcharging doctors for their malpractice insurance and invest in proven strategies to reduce preventable medical errors;

• Making employer contributions more fair by requiring large employers that do not offer coverage or make a meaningful contribution to the cost of quality health coverage for their employees to contribute a percentage of payroll toward the costs of their employees health care;

• Establishing a National Health Insurance Exchange with a range of private insurance options as well as a new public plan based on benefits available to members of Congress that will allow individuals and small businesses to buy affordable health coverage; and

• Ensuring everyone who needs it will receive a tax credit for their premiums.

The Obama-Biden plan will reduce costs and save a typical American family up to $2,500 as reforms phase in by:

• Lowering drug costs by allowing the importation of safe medicines from other developed countries, increasing the use of generic drugs in public programs and taking on drug companies that block cheaper generic medicines from the market;

• Requiring hospitals to collect and report health care cost and quality data;

• Reducing the costs of catastrophic illnesses for employers and their employees; and

• Reforming the insurance market to increase competition by taking on anticompetitive activity that drives up prices without improving quality of care.

The Obama-Biden plan will promote public health by requiring coverage of preventive services, including cancer screenings, and increasing state and local preparedness for terrorist attacks and natural disasters.

Barack Obama will pay for his $50-$65 billion health care reform effort by rolling back the Bush tax cuts for Americans earning more than $250,000 per year and retaining the estate tax at its 2009 level.

Barack Obama: Barack Obama’s tax plan delivers broad-based tax relief to middle class families and cuts taxes for small businesses and companies that create jobs in America, while restoring fairness to our tax code and returning to fiscal responsibility. Coupled with Obama’s commitment to invest in key areas like health, clean energy, innovation and education, his tax plan will help restore bottom-up economic growth that helps create good jobs in America and empowers all families achieve the American dream. The Obama-Biden plan will:

• Cut taxes for 95 percent of workers and their families with a tax cut of $500 for workers or $1,000 for working couples;

• Provide generous tax cuts for low- and middle-income seniors, homeowners, the uninsured, and families sending a child to college or looking to save and accumulate wealth;

• Eliminate capital gains taxes for small businesses, cut corporate taxes for firms that invest ant create jobs in the United States, and provide tax credits to reduce the cost of healthcare and to reward investments in innovation; and

• Dramatically simplify taxes by consolidating existing tax credits, eliminating the need for millions of senior citizens to file tax forms, and enabling as many as 40 million middle-class Americans to do their own taxes in less than five minutes without an accountant.

Under the Obama-Biden plan, middle-class families will see their taxes cut – and no family making less than $250,000 will see their taxes increase. The typical middle class family will receive well over $1,000 in tax relief under the Obama plan, and will pay tax rates that are 20 percent lower than they faced under President Reagan. According to the Tax Policy Center, the Obama plan provides three times as much tax relief for middle class families as the McCain plan.

Families making more than $250,000 will pay either the same or lower tax rates than they paid in the 1990s. Obama will ask the wealthiest 2 percent of families to give back a portion of the tax breaks they have received over the past eight years to ensure we are restoring fairness and returning to fiscal responsibility. But no family will pay higher tax rates than they would have paid in the 1990s. In fact, dividend rates would be 39 percent lower than what President Bush proposed in his 2001 tax cut.

Obama’s plan will cut taxes overall, reducing revenues to below the levels that prevailed under Ronald Reagan (less than 18.2 percent of GDP). The Obama tax plan is a net tax cut – his tax relief for middle class families is larger than the revenue raised by his tax changes for families over $250,000. Coupled with his commitment to cut unnecessary spending, Obama will pay for this tax relief while bringing down the budget deficit.

Barack Obama: Barack Obama has played a leading role in crafting comprehensive immigration reform and believes that our broken immigration system can only be fixed by putting politics aside and offering a solution that strengthens our security while reaffirming our heritage as a nation of immigrants. He believes we must secure our borders, fix our broken immigration bureaucracy, and require the 12 million undocumented to get on a responsible path to citizenship. They must pay a fine, learn English, and go to the back of the line for citizenship. Obama and Biden also will increase the number of people we allow in the country legally to a level that unites families and meets the demand for jobs employers cannot fill.

Barack Obama: Barack Obama and Joe Biden oppose same-sex marriage, but support full civil unions that give same-sex couples equal legal rights and privileges as heterosexual couples

Barack Obama: America has always risen to great challenges, and our dependence on oil is one of the greatest we have ever faced. It’s a threat to our national security, our planet and our economy. Barack Obama and Joe Biden have a comprehensive energy plan that provides immediate relief to families struggling to pay for skyrocketing energy costs and invests in a long term plan to break our addiction to oil.

The Obama-Biden comprehensive New Energy for America plan will:

• Help create five million new jobs by strategically investing $150 billion over the next ten years to catalyze private efforts to build a clean energy future;

• Within 10 years save more oil than we currently import from the Middle East and Venezuela combined;

• Put 1 million Plug-In Hybrid cars – cars that can get up to 150 miles per gallon – on the road by 2015, cars that we will work to make sure are built here in America;

• Ensure 10 percent of our electricity comes from renewable sources by 2012, and 25 percent by 2025;

• Implement an economy-wide cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050.

Barack Obama: Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe that trade with foreign nations should strengthen the American economy and create more American jobs. They will stand firm against agreements that undermine our economic security. Obama and Biden will:

• Fight for Open Markets: Obama and Biden will fight for a trade policy that opens up foreign markets to support good American jobs. They will insist that trade agreements include strong, enforceable labor and environmental standards and will oppose agreements like the Central American Free Trade Agreement that fail to live up to those important benchmarks. Obama and Biden will also work through the World Trade Organization to enforce trade agreements and stop countries from continuing unfair government subsidies to foreign exporters and nontariff barriers on U.S. exports.

• Amend the North American Free Trade Agreement: Obama and Biden believe that NAFTA and its potential were oversold to the American people. They will work with the leaders of Canada and Mexico to amend NAFTA so that it works for American workers.

• Improve Transition Assistance: To help all workers adapt to a rapidly changing economy, Obama and Biden will update the existing system of Trade Adjustment Assistance by extending it to service industries, creating flexible education accounts to help workers retrain, and providing retraining assistance for workers in sectors of the economy vulnerable to dislocation before they lose their jobs.

• End Tax Breaks for Companies that Send Jobs Overseas: Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe that companies should not get billions of dollars in tax deductions for moving their operations overseas. Obama and Biden end these tax breaks and use that money to reward companies that create jobs here in the United States.

Barack Obama: Barack Obama understands that abortion is a divisive issue, and respects those who disagree with him. However, he has been a consistent champion of reproductive choice and will make preserving women’s rights under Roe v. Wade a priority as president. Obama opposes any constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court’s abortion rights ruling in the Roe v. Wade case. Obama opposes late-term abortions, but believes that there must be exceptions for the life and health of the woman.

Obama believes we must work to prevent unintended pregnancies and is an original cosponsor of legislation to expand access to contraception, health information, and preventive services to help reduce unintended pregnancies. Introduced in January 2007, the Prevention First Act will increase funding for family planning and comprehensive sex education that teaches both abstinence and safe sex methods. The Act will also end insurance discrimination against contraception, improve awareness about emergency contraception, and provide compassionate assistance to rape victims.

Barack Obama: Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe that building a strong middle class is the key to making our economy strong. They will deliver the change we need by reversing the policies of the last 8 years and rebuilding an economy that works for the middle class.

Obama and Biden will begin by reforming the tax code so that it doesn't reward the lobbyists who wrote it, but the American workers and small businesses who deserve it. They will eliminate capital gains taxes for small businesses and start-ups, so that we can grow our economy and create the high-wage, high-tech jobs of tomorrow.

Obama and Biden will cut taxes for 95% of all workers and their families. Anyone making less than $250,000 a year will not see their taxes increase one single dime - because in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle-class. Under the Obama-Biden plan, middle class families will face the lowest income tax rates in over 50 years. And overall taxes will be below what they were under Ronald Reagan.

To create new jobs, Obama and Biden will invest in rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure - our roads, schools, and bridges. They will rebuild our outdated electricity grid and build new broadband lines to connect America. And they will create the jobs of the future by transforming our energy economy. They will help our auto companies re-tool so that the fuel-efficient cars of the future are built right here the United States. They will invest 150 billion dollars over the next decade in affordable, renewable sources of energy - wind power and solar power and the next generation of biofuels – an investment that will lead to new industries and five million new jobs that pay well and can't ever be outsourced.

In addition, Obama will modernize our outdated financial regulations and put in the place the common-sense rules of the road he been calling for since March - rules that will keep our market free, fair, and honest; rules that will make sure Wall Street can never get away with the stunts that caused this crisis again.

Barack Obama: Today, more than ever, our schools must prepare students not only to meet the demands of the global economy, but also to take their place as committed and engaged citizens. Public schools must also be the great equalizer, allowing every American, regardless of race or class or background, to achieve his or her potential.

Barack Obama and Joe Biden are committed to strengthening our public schools to maximize our country’s greatest natural resource – the American people. Their comprehensive education plan will:

• Provide children with access to quality early childhood education from birth to age 5 by providing Early Learning Challenge Grants for states to implement and expand universal pre-K programs, expanding Head Start, and quadrupling Early Head Start enrollment;

• Ensure an effective teacher in every classroom by recruiting, training, retaining, and rewarding teachers and school leaders; creating career ladders and increasing pay for effective teachers who serve as mentors, teach in high-need subjects (math, science), and who excel in the classroom; and by identifying ineffective and struggling teachers, providing them with individual help and support, and removing them from the classroom in a quick and fair way if they still underperform. The Obama-Biden plan will also attract and prepare tens of thousands of new teachers by creating Teacher Service Scholarships for those who serve in a high-need location or subject area for at least four years and by creating Teacher Residency Programs (expanding on Senator Obama’s proposal that was recently signed into law) to provide high quality alternative routes to certification for teachers in high-need areas;

• Create meaningful public school choice options for parents by doubling federal funding for successful charter and other new schools, while improving or closing down those that fail;

• Set high expectations for students. The Obama-Biden plan calls for a 50% increase in the number of students taking AP, IB, and college-level courses, and will establish a new program to support these efforts nationwide. The plan will also support academic interventions in middle school years to stem the dropout crisis and an expansion of afterschool and summer learning programs to help students continue to learn after the school day and year ends;

• Demand responsibility from parents and Washington. Responsibility starts at home – need to have parents involved and active, and Barack Obama and Joe Biden will provide help for parents to play that role. Their plan calls for states and districts to provide parents with more meaningful parent report cards to inform parents how their children are performing and whether they are on track for college and careers. The Obama-Biden plan also calls for making federal education programs more performance-based and pledged to provide an annual report on the state of our schools as president; and

• Make college more affordable. Obama and Biden will make college affordable and accessible for all Americans by creating a new fully refundable $4,000 tax credit in exchange for community service. Because the tax credit is fully refundable, it will help low-income families that need it the most. They will ensure that our Pell Grant system remains strong and that aid awards increase every year with inflation to keep pace with rising costs. They will eliminate wasteful government subsidies to private student lenders and invest the savings in more student aid. They will also simplify the financial aid process by eliminating the FAFSA and its complicated calculations altogether. Instead, aid would be based on a much simpler yet equally accurate formula, so that students can predict their eligibility well in advance. Families would be able to apply for aid simply by checking a box on their tax form, authorizing their tax information to be used to calculate their aid award.

Barack Obama: Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe that the Constitution conveys an individual right to bear arms, not just a right of militias as some have argued. They respect the right of lawful gun owners to hunt, target shoot, and use guns to protect their families. Obama is against the confiscation of guns. When a vote came before the U.S. Senate to prohibit the confiscation of legally acquired firearms during an emergency, Obama voted yes. Obama is on record voting against allowing the federal government to confiscate guns.

At the same time, Barack Obama and Joe Biden support commonsense measures to reduce gun violence and the illegal trafficking of guns. These measures include responsibly closing the gun show loophole so that terrorists, criminals, and the mentally ill don't have access to guns. And Obama and Biden will provide our law enforcement officials with the tools to trace guns that have been used in crimes to unlawful gun dealers and will enforce existing law to keep armor piercing ammunition off the street. These commonsense measures will keep our communities safe without infringing on the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding gun owners and hunters in this country.

Barack Obama: Barack Obama will lead this country in a new direction by focusing on five essential goals to make America safer.

End the War in Iraq Responsibly: Obama will change our mission in Iraq and responsibly redeploy our combat brigades in consultation with our commanders and the Iraqi government. We can safely redeploy at a pace that removes our combat brigades in 16 months, with a residual force to target remnants of al Qaeda, to protect our service members and diplomats, and to train Iraq's Security Forces if the Iraqis make political progress. This change in mission will ease the burden on our troops and their families while increasing our flexibility to address more pressing challenges in Afghanistan. Obama will also increase diplomacy in the region and act immediately to address the humanitarian crisis in Iraq.

Finish the Fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban: Obama will refocus American resources on the greatest threat to our security—the resurgence of al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He will increase our troop levels in Afghanistan, press our allies in NATO to do the same, and revitalize Afghanistan’s economic development. Obama will demand the Afghan government do more, including cracking down on corruption and the illicit opium trade. He’ll increase nonmilitary aid to Pakistan and hold them accountable for security in the border region with Afghanistan.

Secure All Nuclear Weapons and Materials from Terrorists and Rogue Nations: Nuclear material in the hands of terrorists is the gravest threat we face. Obama will lead a global effort to secure all loose nuclear materials around the world in four years. We must insist that Iran and North Korea verifiably account for its nuclear programs. He will use all elements of American power to pressure those regimes, starting with aggressive, principled, and direct diplomacy coordinated with our allies and backed by strong sanctions.

Achieve True Energy Security: Obama will put America on a path to energy independence by investing $150 billion in renewable and alternative energy over the next ten years—an investment that will create millions of jobs along the way. He’ll also make the U.S. a leader in the global effort to combat climate change by leading a new international global warming partnership.

Rebuilding Our Alliances to Meet the Challenges of the 21st Century: Obama will strengthen our alliances against threats like terrorism, proliferation, and climate change. He will reinvigorate longstanding diplomatic efforts around the world and launch new ones. He’ll double our foreign assistance to $50 billion so that we can help bring stability to failing states, cut global poverty in half, fight poverty and disease, and support sustainable growth.

Barack Obama: Barack Obama has worked to ensure that our nation's environmental laws and policies balance America's need for a healthy, sustainable environment with economic growth. He has reached across the aisle to sponsor ambitious legislation to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and turn this crisis of global warming into a moment of opportunity for innovation and job creation. The League of Conservation Voters has endorsed Barack Obama for president, based on his strong pro-environment record.

Obama and Biden bring the leadership we need to our major environmental challenges, including:

• Climate Change: As president, Barack Obama will make combating global warming a top priority. Obama and Biden support implementation of a market-based cap-and-trade system to reduce carbon emissions by the amount scientists say is necessary: 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. They will start reducing emissions immediately by establishing strong annual reduction targets, and they will also implement a mandate of reducing emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. Obama and Biden will invest $150 billion over 10 years in advanced energy technologies. They will make energy conservation a top priority and help provide the American people the tools they need to begin reducing their energy consumption and energy bills. And they will make the U.S. a leader in combating climate change around the world.

• Clean Air: As president, Barack Obama will restore the force of the Clean Air Act. He and Joe Biden will fight for continued reductions in smog and soot and continue his leadership in combating toxins that contribute to air pollution. Unlike President Bush, they will listen to his scientific advisers on air quality standards. And they will reverse the Bush administration’s attempts to chip away at our nation’s clean air standards.

• Clean Water: Barack Obama and Joe Biden will strengthen the Clean Water Act that has been weakened under the Bush administration. They will help communities by restoring better federal financing for water and wastewater treatment infrastructure, and will commit to protecting national treasures like the Great Lakes from threats such as industrial pollution, water diversion, and invasive species.

• Healthier Communities: As president, Barack Obama will continue his fight, begun as a community organizer, to protect our children from health hazards and developmental disabilities caused by environmental toxins, such as lead, mercury, particulate matter, and industrial land waste. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will fight to clean brownfields, restore abandoned industrial riverfront sites, and give communities the tools they need to expand livable, walkable neighborhoods and green spaces.

• Preserving Our Land: Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe that we have a responsibility to our children to leave this Earth better than we found it. All Americans have an interest in the protection and proper maintenance of our irreplaceable national treasures. Conservation is also vitally important to providing clean drinking water, cleaning our air, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe we need a new vision for conservation that both protects our existing publicly-owned lands while dramatically expanding investments in protecting and restoring forests, grasslands, and wetlands across America for generations to come.

Barack Obama: The lack of accountability and efficiency that has plagued our government under the Bush administration not only robs money from critical programs, it also erodes taxpayer’s confidence that Washington can be responsible stewards of their money. When people lose faith in their government, it is hard to build the consensus needed to tackle our great problems: ensuring affordable, accessible health care for all; eliminating our addiction to foreign oil; securing our homeland; educating our children; and rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure.

Barack Obama and Joe Biden will make government work for the people again. They will take lobbyists on and fix the system from the bottom up to ensure that taxpayer dollars are being spent wisely. Their plan will stop wasteful spending by creating a high-performance government; eliminating ineffective government programs; and reforming government contracting. They will curb the influence of lobbyists and special interests by ending the practice of writing legislation behind closed doors; shining a light on government spending and special interest tax breaks; enforcing ethics rules in the Executive Branch; and stopping the revolving door between federal procurement officials and the contractors they supervise.

Barack Obama: Fifty years ago, nine brave African American schoolchildren sought to realize the promise of Brown v. Board of Education by walking past an angry mob and into the doors of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. The event marked a great moment in America’s long march toward equality and freedom. The federal government put itself firmly on the side of justice and equal opportunity for all. And this was only the beginning. That same month, the Civil Rights Act of 1957 was signed into law, and the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division was created shortly thereafter. In the years that followed, another Civil Rights Act and a Voting Rights Act were passed. These laws, and the institutional practices they created, helped transform our nation into one that is more just, more equal, and more free.

While we have made significant progress over the last five decades, there is no question that we have more work to do. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will build upon our nation’s commitment to equal justice and opportunity for all. Specifically, they will restore professionalism to the Civil Rights Division and reinvigorate federal civil rights enforcement and reform our criminal justice system so that it works for all, regardless of race, wealth, or other circumstances.

Barack Obama: Barack Obama and Joe Biden are committed to ensuring Social Security is solvent and viable for the American people, now and in the future. Obama and Biden will be honest with the American people about the long-term solvency of Social Security and the ways we can address the shortfall. Obama and Biden will protect Social Security benefits for current and future beneficiaries alike. And they do not believe it is necessary or fair to hardworking seniors to raise the retirement age. Obama and Biden are strongly opposed to privatizing Social Security. As part of a bipartisan plan that would be phased in over many years, they will ask those making over $250,000 to contribute a bit more to Social Security to keep it sound.

Obama does not support uncapping the full payroll tax of 12.4 percent rate. Instead, he and Joe Biden are considering plans that would ask those making over $250,000 to pay in the range of 2 to 4 percent more in total (combined employer and employee).

Barack Obama: Obama and Biden will protect homeownership and crack down on fraudulent brokers and lenders. As part of their plan to protect and promote homeownership for American families, they will:

• Create a Universal Mortgage Credit: Obama and Biden will create a 10 percent universal mortgage credit to provide tax relief to homeowners who do not itemize. This credit will provide an average of $500 to 10 million homeowners, the majority of whom earn less than $50,000 per year.

• Ensure More Accountability in the Subprime Mortgage Industry: Obama has been closely monitoring the subprime mortgage situation for years, and he introduced comprehensive legislation over a year ago to fight mortgage fraud and protect consumers against abusive lending practices. Obama's STOP FRAUD Act provides the first federal definition of mortgage fraud, increases funding for federal and state law enforcement programs, creates new criminal penalties for mortgage professionals found guilty of fraud, and requires industry insiders to report suspicious activity.

• Mandate Accurate Loan Disclosure: Obama and Biden will create a Homeowner Obligation Made Explicit (HOME) score, which will provide potential borrowers with a simplified, standardized borrower metric (similar to APR) for home mortgages. The HOME score will allow individuals to easily compare various mortgage products and understand the full cost of the loan.

• Close Bankruptcy Loophole for Mortgage Companies: Obama and Biden will work to eliminate the provision that prevents bankruptcy courts from modifying an individual's mortgage payments. They believe that the subprime mortgage industry, which has engaged in dangerous and sometimes unscrupulous business practices, should not be shielded by outdated federal law.

Barack Obama: Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe that America has a sacred trust with our veterans. They are committed to creating a 21st Century Department of Veterans' Affairs that provides the care and benefits our nation's veterans deserve. Obama and Biden will:

• Allow All Veterans Back into the VA: One of Obama's first acts will be reversing the 2003 ban on enrolling modest-income veterans, which has denied care to a million veterans.

• Fully Fund VA Medical Care: Barack Obama and Joe Biden will fully fund the VA so it has all the resources it needs to serve the veterans who need it, when they need it. Obama and Biden will establish a world-class VA Planning Division to avoid future budget shortfalls.

• Strengthen VA Care: Obama and Biden will make the VA a leader of national health care reform so that veterans get the best care possible. They will improve care for polytrauma vision impairment, prosthetics, spinal cord injury, aging, and women's health.

• Fight Veterans Employment Discrimination: Obama and Biden will crack down on employers who commit job discrimination against guardsmen and reservists. Obama and Biden will improve the quality of health care for veterans, rebuild the VA's broken benefits system, and combat homelessness among veterans by:

• Ensuring a Seamless Transition: Obama and Biden will demand that the military and the VA coordinate to provide a seamless transition from active duty to civilian life.

• Fixing the Benefits Bureaucracy: Obama and Biden will hire additional claims workers, and improve training and accountability so that VA benefit decisions are rated fairly and consistently. They also will transform the paper benefit claims process to an electronic one to reduce errors and improve timeliness.

• Combating Homelessness among Our Nation's Veterans: Obama and Biden will establish a national "zero tolerance" policy for veterans falling into homelessness by expanding proven programs and launching innovative services to prevent veterans from falling into homelessness.

Obama and Biden will improve mental health treatment for troops and veterans suffering from combat-related psychological injuries by:

• Improving Mental Health Treatment: Obama and Biden will improve mental health care at every stage of military service. They will recruit more health professionals, improve screening, offer more support to families and make PTSD benefits claims fairer.

• Improving Care for Traumatic Brain Injury: Obama and Biden will establish standards of care for Traumatic Brain Injury, the signature injury of the Iraq war.

• Expanding Vet Centers: Obama and Biden will expand and strengthen Vet Centers to provide more counseling for vets and their families.

Barack Obama: Barack Obama will set a new direction in nuclear weapons policy and show the world that America believes in its existing commitment under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to work to ultimately eliminate all nuclear weapons. Obama fully supports reaffirming this goal, as called for by George Schultz, Henry Kissinger, William Perry, and Sam Nunn, as well as the specific steps they propose to move us in that direction. Obama has made it clear that America will not disarm unilaterally. Indeed, as long as states retain nuclear weapons, the U.S. will maintain a nuclear deterrent that is strong, safe, secure, and reliable. But Obama will not authorize the development of new nuclear weapons. And he will make the goal of eliminating nuclear weapons worldwide a central element of U.S. nuclear policy.

To make progress towards this goal, Obama will seek real, verifiable reductions in all U.S. and Russian nuclear weapons — whether deployed or non-deployed, whether strategic or non-strategic — and work with other nuclear powers to reduce global stockpiles dramatically by the end of his presidency. As a first step, Obama will seek Russia’s agreement to extend essential monitoring and verification provisions of the START I Treaty before it expires in December 2009. He will work with Russia in a mutual and verifiable manner to increase warning and decision time prior to the launch of nuclear weapons.

Obama will initiate a high-level dialogue among all the declared nuclear weapons states on how to make their nuclear capabilities more transparent, create greater confidence, and move toward meaningful reductions and the eventual elimination of all nuclear weapons. As president, Obama will reach out to the Senate to secure the ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) at the earliest practical date and will then launch a diplomatic effort to bring on board other states whose ratifications are required for the treaty to enter into force. Finally, Obama will lead a global effort to negotiate a verifiable treaty ending the production of fissile materials for weapons purposes, and will work with other interested governments to establish a new nuclear energy architecture.

Barack Obama: It is no coincidence that the disastrous policies of the Bush-Cheney years have been accompanied by unprecedented secrecy for the American people and unprecedented access by lobbyists, the wealthy, and the well-connected.

Barack Obama has made ethics reform and transparency a cornerstone of his career. As a state senator, Barack Obama passed the most sweeping ethics reform in Illinois history. In Washington, he helped push Congress to pass the most ambitious lobbying reform legislation since Watergate. The legislation Obama championed bans gifts from lobbyists and eliminate Senate floor, gym, and parking privileges for former senators who are lobbyists. Obama’s decision to not accept donations from Washington lobbyists and political action committees has put his campaign in the hands of everyday Americans, who have made more than 2 million donations averaging less than $100.

The Obama-Biden administration will build on these successes to wrest the federal government out of the hands of lobbyists and make sure it works for the American people.

Barack Obama: Global warming is real, is happening now and is the result of human activities. Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe we have a moral, environmental, economic, and security imperative to tackle climate change in a serious, sustainable manner.

Barack Obama and Joe Biden support implementation of an economy-wide cap-and-trade system to reduce carbon emissions by the amount scientists say is necessary: 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. This market mechanism has worked before and will give all American consumers and businesses the incentives to use their ingenuity to develop economically effective solutions to climate change. The Obama-Biden cap-and-trade policy will require all pollution credits to be auctioned. A 100 percent auction ensures that all industries pay for every ton of emissions they release, rather than giving these valuable emission rights away to companies on the basis of their past pollution. A small portion of the receipts generated by auctioning allowances will be used to support the development of clean energy, invest in energy efficiency improvements, and help develop the next generation of biofuels and clean energy vehicles – measures that will help the economy and help meet the emissions reduction targets. It will also be used to provide new funding to state and federal land and wildlife managers to restore habitat, create wildlife migration corridors, and assist fish and wildlife to adapt to the effects of a warming climate. All remaining receipts will be used for rebates and other transition relief to ensure that families and communities are not adversely impacted by the transition to a new energy, low carbon economy.

Barack Obama and Joe Biden understand that the only real solution to climate change requires all major emitting nations to join in the solution. While it is time for America to lead, developing nations like China and Brazil must not be far behind in making their own binding commitments. To develop an effective and equitable global program, Barack Obama and Joe Biden will re-engage with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) – the main international forum dedicated to addressing the climate problem. They will also invigorate the Major Economies (MEM) effort and bring all the major emitting nations together to develop effective emissions reduction efforts.

Party: Democrat

Web site: www.barackobama.com

Previous political experience (elective and appointed): Obama began his career as a community organizer on Chicago’s South Side and headed a voter registration drive. Obama practiced civil rights law and taught constitutional law. He served eight years in the Illinois State Senate before his election to the U.S. Senate.

Education: Obama graduated from Columbia University and Harvard Law.

Read more: See the Chicago Tribune's chart on where Obama and McCain stand on various issues (pdf). Complete coverage of the Obama campaign.

Charles O. Baldwin: The campaign did not respond to requests for this information.

Party: Constitution Party

Web site: www.constitutionparty.com/

Published e-mail address: contact@baldwin2008.com

Education: Chuck graduated from La Porte High School in 1971 and attended Midwestern Baptist College in Pontiac, Michigan for two years. The then moved to Lynchburg, Virginia where he enrolled in Liberty Bible Institute at Liberty University. Since he earned his Bachelor and Master Degrees in Theology, Chuck has received two honorary Doctorate Degrees.

Read more: Read about Baldwin's views on various issues on his Web site.

Bob Barr: The invasion and occupation of Iraq were two separate mistakes, which collectively have cost thousands of American lives and hundreds of billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars. Every day that the occupation in Iraq continues without a withdrawal plan is a day that more American blood and treasure (some $400 million a day) is needlessly wasted.

Unlike Republicans, who are calling for essentially permanent bases in Iraq, and Democrats, who have done nothing to counter Republican calls for an indefinite occupation, I would put in place plans for withdrawal without undue delay. While I support an exit from Iraq as quickly as possible, I would not publicly announce a timetable to our adversaries. However, as President, I would begin to immediately and significantly begin to reduce both the military and the economic security blanket we are providing the government.

The Iraqi government has come to rely too heavily on American forces to maintain control of its country, and our U.S. taxpayer dollars to artificially support its economy. A continued U.S. presence in Iraq emboldens both insurgents and terrorists, and discourages the Iraqi government from taking control of promoting peace and prosperity in Iraq.

The U.S. already has spent more than a half trillion dollars on the Iraq war and occupation, and costs continue to escalate $10 billion a month. It’s time to turn off the money spigot. The high price being paid by American taxpayers alone is good reason to conduct a speedy and complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

It certainly is time to expect Iraq to pay for its own reconstruction, including for training and equipping its military and security forces.

Iraq is one of the principal beneficiaries of the rapid increase in oil prices. It could earn as much as $80 billion this year, twice its revenues last year. Iraq may end up with a $50 billion surplus by year end—while the U.S. is running a half trillion dollar deficit. Something is very wrong with this picture.

Yet even as Iraq is raising more money, government support for oil production as well as such essential services as electricity and water has been falling. So far American taxpayers have spent $42 billion to help reconstruct Iraq. Yet Iraq has devoted just one percent of its revenue to maintaining facilities constructed with U.S. money.

Hopefully soon, and certainly in a Barr administration, Iraq’s destiny will be fully in Iraq’s hands. But there’s no reason to wait to turn over responsibility for Iraqi reconstruction. Baghdad already has the ability to spend as much as it wishes to rebuild Iraqi society. We should cut off American reconstruction aid tomorrow.

The U.S. is the most generous nation on earth, but the first responsibility of the American government is to the American people. We must stop mortgaging the future of our children and grandchildren. A good place to start is to stop subsidizing friends who have a better fiscal bottom line than we do.

Bob Barr: Access to affordable, quality health care is an important objective. For this reason, some politicians have pushed for government programs to extend health care benefits to those who cannot afford or who otherwise do not maintain private medical insurance. These efforts come on top of taxpayer-subsidized benefits in the form of Medicare and Medicaid.

There are many causes of today’s high healthcare cost “crisis”. Medical care costs more than it should; access to insurance is more limited by government than it should be; the practice of medicine is more regulated than it should be. The American health care system desperately needs to be treated for ill health.

Our health care policy should be reformed based on the principle of consumer-oriented health care. Regulations which mandate insurance coverage and inflate premiums should be eliminated. Controls which unduly restrict competition within the health care industry, and that limit access to insurance across state lines, should be ended. Moreover, current tax policy, which is biased towards employer-provided, comprehensive health insurance, should be reformed, encouraging individual purchase of less costly catastrophic policies.

Federal health care programs, most notably Medicare and Medicaid, have become financially unsustainable. These programs need to be transformed to emphasize patient choice, focus on the truly needy, and add cost-saving incentives. Here, too, market principles should be applied to bring better quality health care at less cost.

Today’s health care problems are complex, but the solution is not socialized medicine in any form. Countries that have nationalized their medical systems inevitably ration care through the political system; costs are driven down only by denying needed care.

Bob Barr: Americans pay far too much in taxes. In 2008, Tax Freedom Day was April 23, which means the average taxpayer worked nearly four months to pay all levels of government taxes. It is impossible for any one person to fully comprehend the U.S. Tax Code; each year billions of hours are spent by taxpayers trying to comply with the tax laws.

Tax reform is desperately needed in the United States; but before we can reform the tax code, we must sharply reduce the tax burden on Americans. Meaningful tax reform begins with reining in government spending. Second, we need a tax code that makes taxation fairer and simpler for all citizens.

There are several alternative tax reform strategies. One would be to create a flat income tax, while cutting or eliminating many other levies, such as the estate tax (or “death tax”) and capital gains tax. Another option would be to replace the income tax and payroll taxes with a consumption tax, such as the Fair Tax; but prior to which it would be essential to repeal the Sixteenth Amendment, which allows government to tax the earnings of all hard-working Americans. Initiating a consumption tax while leaving the power to tax income in place inevitably would result in having an income tax on top of a consumption tax.

There may even be good alternatives for tax reform that have not yet been proposed. All of these ideas are better than the present system, and must be debated to determine which would best protect liberty and promote prosperity.

However, tax reform should not end at just reforming the tax code. America’s corporate income tax is among the highest in the world, putting the U.S. at an international disadvantage. The estate tax takes advantage of a person’s death. The capital gains tax discourages investment and capital formation. All of these must be reduced and eventually eliminated.

Bob Barr: America is a nation of immigrants, but the process of assimilation has broken down. Although immigration provides economic benefits, it also affects America’s cultural and national identity. Immigration reform must begin with securing the border. Our primary obligation is to protect American citizens.

The United States has been enriched by immigrants from around the world. Free immigration remains an attractive ideal, but is impossible with the expensive and expansive nanny state that we’ve created.

What long made immigration work so well was America’s famed melting pot—and the absence of any welfare state. People who came to America wanted to become Americans. They came for economic opportunities, not government benefits. The result was a stronger America.

Today, however, the U.S. government has lost control of its borders. While too many people come illegally, we accept too few legal immigrants. Rather than consciously decide who should be welcomed as new citizens, citizenship is bestowed on anyone who happens to be born in the U.S. Current policy is a mess.

The federal government first must regain control over the nation’s border. Only then will the U.S. be able to deal with threats of terrorism and infectious diseases, as well as implement a consistent immigration policy. Effective enforcement is more important than a physical fence.

Next, we must eliminate government benefits for immigrants. As economist Milton Friedman observed, “It’s just obvious that you can’t have free immigration and a welfare state.” Early immigrants to America expected no government support. Although Congress has restricted eligibility for illegal immigrants, it’s difficult to control access to expansive public programs.

Moreover, a mistaken 1982 Supreme Court case, Plyer v. Doe, held that states and localities must pay to school the children of illegal residents. Those who drafted the 14th Amendment would have been astonished by this conclusion.

No one wants to punish children for the sins of their parents, but Plyer unfairly burdens American citizens and creates a powerful draw for illegal immigrants. The policy should be challenged again in court, and a constitutional amendment proposed if necessary.

Federal law requires hospitals to provide care irrespective of ability to pay, so emergency rooms across the American southwest are filled with Mexican citizens. Pregnant women come to have their children born in American hospitals. Both California and Texas spend substantially more than $1 billion a year to treat illegal aliens. Obviously, it is hard for a compassionate people to say no, but those who come illegally should not be allowed to abuse America’s hospitality. If they still come, they should be forced to rely on charity care. The message would soon go forth that the free ride was over.

We must reconsider birthright citizenship. The result of another poor interpretation of the 14th Amendment, citizenship is conferred upon anyone born in the U.S., even if here illegally. This peculiar policy demands no connection or commitment to America in exchange for citizenship. Congress should address the issue, though a constitutional change might be necessary. Americans should choose upon whom they want to confer citizenship, rather than have the choice determined by an accident of birth.

Another imperative is to strengthen the forces of assimilation. For instance, English should be America’s official language. It is not the government’s business what people speak at home. But government business should be transacted in English.

While sharply reducing the number of people who enter the U.S. illegally, we should expand legal immigration, especially of those who would contribute the most to America. The unskilled workers and their families coming from Mexico illegally assimilate more slowly, and remain poorer and more dependent on government assistance than past immigrants. Even legal immigrants and their children from the same circumstances use more welfare than native born Americans.

In contrast, there is a perpetual shortage of H(1)b visas for high-tech workers and other skilled professionals. These people create new businesses, generate patents and strengthen leading firms. We should expand the number of such visas issued, and reverse the preference now granted to relatives of U.S. citizens.

Finally, there should be no amnesty. While there should be no intrusive round-up of illegal immigrants, anyone hoping to get a green card or citizenship should have to register and get in line with everyone else. To provide for citizenship without consequence for past law-breaking would encourage continued illegal immigration, in the hopes of winning a similar, future amnesty.

Immigration policy helps determine what it means to be an American. We must control the nation’s borders. Only then can we effectively address the question of immigration, and its impact on our society.

Bob Barr: Regardless of whether one supports or opposes same sex marriage, the decision to recognize such unions or not ought to be a power each state exercises on its own, rather than imposition of a one-size-fits-all mandate by the federal government (as would be required by a Federal Marriage Amendment which has been previously proposed and considered by the Congress). The recent decision by the Supreme Court of California properly reflects this fundamental principle of federalism on which our nation was founded.

Indeed, the primary reason for which I authored the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996 was to ensure that each state remained free to determine for its citizens the basis on which marriage would be recognized within its borders, and not be forced to adopt a definition of marriage contrary to its views by another state. The decision in California is an illustration of how this principle of states' powers should work.

Bob Barr: Every American who drives an automobile knows that something needs to be done about the cost of energy in the United States. While Republicans are calling for more subsidies to oil companies and Democrats are seeking to micro-manage energy companies with more regulations and laws -- or to punish them by raising taxes on them -- Americans are left to watch helplessly as fuel prices go through the roof.

Government intervention, whether through more regulations or more subsidies (or both), hurts consumers in the end. The free market, driven by consumer choice and reflecting the real cost of resources, should be the foundation of America’s energy policy. The federal government should eliminate restrictions that inhibit energy production, as well as all special privileges for the production of politically-favored fuels, such as ethanol.

In particular, Congress should allow the exploration and production of America’s abundant domestic resources, including oil in the Outer Continental Shelf and Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and alternative sources such as shale oil. We should develop our nation’s natural assets, which would lower costs to the consumer and assure more adequate and consistent supplies.

Bob Barr: The campaign did not respond to requests for this information.

Bob Barr: Over the past decade, total government spending (state, local and federal) has increased from $2.9 trillion to an astonishing $5.1 trillion in 2008. The $3.1 trillion federal budget submitted by President Bush for 2009 is greater than the combined 1998 spending of the federal government, all 50 states and over 87,000 local governments.

The government cannot continue spending at this rate if America is to remain competitive in the global marketplace. The new administration’s number one job will be to drastically reduce spending by limiting federal outlays to only the government’s legitimate functions, as provided in the United States Constitution.

Every area of federal spending can and should be cut. Entitlements must be reformed and welfare should be cut, including subsidies for business sometimes called corporate welfare. Military outlays should be reduced and pork barrel spending eliminated. Needless, duplicative, and wasteful programs, most of which have no constitutional basis, should be terminated.

Controlling government spending is a necessary step to enact true tax reform, which will reduce the burden on all Americans and allow them to keep more of their hard-earned money.

We should seek to establish a wall of separation between government and the economy. The legitimate economic functions of government are to protect property rights, adjudicate disputes, and provide a legal framework in which voluntary trade is protected. The government should stop attempting to “manage” the free market.

Capitalism is the only economic system that rewards risk, protects individual liberty, and furthers economic freedom. America will be most prosperous and free when the government stops interfering with private economic decision-making.

Bob Barr: Parents have a duty to raise and educate their children, but without choice for alternatives to government schooling, the ability of parents to fulfill that role is severely limited. Education involves not just practical learning, but the transmission of moral values, making it even more important to return authority to parents for deciding their children’s schooling without interference from government.

The free market naturally provides both choice and competition, providing goods and services of higher quality for less expense. These principles should be applied to education. Unfortunately, the government’s near monopoly on education in the United States has seized control of our children’s education from parents, and has trapped children in failing schools across the country.

The more we increase government control over education, the bigger the problem becomes. Turning education over to the federal government, as through such legislation as the No Child Left Behind Act has not worked. Trying to fix failing schools with more money and regulations also has failed to do anything other than waste taxpayer money without results.

School reform starts by shifting control over education from government to parents. We must abolish the Department of Education, eliminate federal grants and regulations, and begin moving power back to the states and local communities. States should consider tax credits or deductions for parents who home school or send their children to private schools. Public schools should be managed locally, increasing accountability and parental involvement. Parents should have control of and responsibility for the funds expended for their children’s education. Ultimately, education will best serve the children of America if it occurs within a competitive private system rather than a government system.

Bob Barr: America’s Founders viewed the Second Amendment as necessary to protect the citizen, states and the nation from tyranny both domestic and foreign. Blackstone’s Commentaries termed this right as “the true palladium of liberty.”

The Second Amendment is no less important today. As the Supreme Court recently has held, the right to keep and bear arms is an individual right. The Second Amendment guarantees all Americans the means to hunt, protect themselves and their families from crime, and ultimately defeat any effort to impose tyranny in America.

I oppose any law requiring registration of, or restricting the ownership, manufacture, or transfer or sale of firearms or ammunition to law-abiding citizens. The Court majority behind the landmark Heller ruling was narrow, and should be supported by the Justice Department, not undercut by the federal government, as happened during the Bush and predecessor Clinton administration.

Bob Barr: America should not be the world’s policeman. The American purpose is to provide a strong national defense, not to engage in nation building or to launch foreign crusades, no matter how seemingly well-intentioned.

It is time to reemphasize the word “defense” in national defense. By maintaining a military presence in more than 130 nations around the world in more than 700 installations, with hundreds of thousands of troops deployed overseas, the U.S. spends more to protect the soil of other nations than our own. Bringing these soldiers home would better protect America while saving lives and money. The U.S. requires a military strong enough to defend this nation, not to support and defend much of the rest of the world.

Moreover, foreign aid has proved to be a drain on the U.S. economy while doing little good for the recipients. Aid is routinely used by corrupt foreign governments to oppress their people and enrich powerful elites. Foreign aid almost always discourages economic and political reform, while subsidizing nations which often work against U.S. interests.

American foreign policy should emphasize swift, decisive and winning action against those who vowed would harm us. This means defense, not foreign intervention. We should encourage private involvement around the world, particularly through free trade. The most effective way to preserve peace is through an expanding free market, backed by a full range of cultural and other private relationships, not by maintaining permanent military presences around the globe.

Bob Barr: The Senate was debating the Lieberman-Warner bill to restrict energy use. This legislation would sacrifice our economic future, and particularly that of poorer Americans, for virtually no environmental gain.

Despite the many predictions of doom, the science of climate change remains highly complex. There has been no warming over the last decade and scientists disagree over how much warming is likely in the future.

To respond to purely speculative problems, Lieberman-Warner would mandate an emission cut of 70 percent by 2050, a virtual impossibility. It would be hard enough to hold energy use constant with a growing population; every additional person needs food, transportation, and housing.

Energy prices would soar. Hundreds of thousands or millions of jobs would be lost. A study by the Congressional Budget Office warns that the Senate bill would hike energy costs $1300 per household, effectively a $1 trillion tax hike over the next decade. Estimates of the potential GDP loss run into the trillions of dollars.

The legislation also would create a monster bureaucracy to run the system. Sen. Lieberman estimates that the new Climate Change Credit Corporation would have as much as $7 trillion in grants to give away, which would set up an unprecedented special interest gold rush.

Yet climatologists like Dr. Patrick Michaels figure that Lieberman-Warner would cut potential future warming by only .013 degrees (Celsius), an amount hard to even measure. It makes far more sense to adapt to challenges as they develop than to commit economic suicide to prevent problems that are unlikely to occur.

Bob Barr: The campaign did not respond to requests for this information.

Bob Barr: The Declaration of Independence states that all men are created equal. Government should make no law that discriminates based on race, religion, sexuality or any other personal characteristic. Government laws should respect each person as an individual and treat them equally as such.

Bob Barr: The U.S. is facing a financial tsunami as the Baby Boomers retire. The total unfunded liability for Social Security and Medicare is more than $100 trillion—that is ten times the official national debt! The longer we wait to act, the harder it will be to reform the system.

Social Security was sold to the American people as a system of social insurance, but that was merely a polite fraud to win their votes. It is a pay-as-you-go system. If it was run by a private company rather than the government, the managers would be jailed for running a Ponzi scheme, one of the classic investment swindles. The so-called trust fund doesn’t exist: in reality, it is a file cabinet full of IOUs rather than a vault full of cash.

The system is headed towards financial collapse. It starts running a deficit in 2017 and the red ink piles up fast. In essence, to keep the system afloat we will either have to double taxes or halve benefits. Neither is an appealing option.

Moreover, the rate of return for beneficiaries keeps falling. Many Americans are now losing money. Over the long term the most the majority of people can hope for is to make a percent or so—compared to 5.5 percent a year on average for a private investment in a mixture of bonds and stocks. The U.S. government is literally stealing people’s retirement from them.

I am proposing a system of private retirement accounts. Younger workers will be able to put increasing amounts of their tax payments into individual accounts. New workers entering the system will be able to exit Social Security entirely. The transition will be paid for in part through savings from adjusting benefits to account for the erroneous use of a wage rather than price index for setting payments and the fact that beneficiaries are living longer. Other savings will be achieved by cutting nonessential programs throughout the government, including corporate welfare.

We cannot afford to wait any longer. One of the most important tests for the next president is a willingness to lead. The American people deserve to have a retirement system which they can count on.

Bob Barr: The campaign did not respond to requests for this information.

Party: Libertarian Party

Web site: www.BobBarr2008.com

Published e-mail address: info@BobBarr2008.com

Previous political experience (elective and appointed): United States Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia (1986-90); U. S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003;

Education: JD ('77, Georgetown University Law Center); MA in International Affairs ('72, George Washington University); BA ('70, University of Southern California)

Read more: Read about Barr's views on various issues on his Web site.

Cynthia McKinney: As a member of Congress, opposed the war before it began, as a matter of principle, recognizing it was illegal under international law, a war of aggression that had nothing to do with defense of the nation. She has also consistently opposed the occupation and consistently opposed every appropriation meant to fund the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Calls for an orderly but immediate and complete withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Iraq, Afghanistan and other foreign nations.

Cynthia McKinney: Recognizing that private, for-profit health insurance is a central cause of our failing health-care system, McKinney uncompromisingly calls for a universal, single-payer "Medicare for all" health-care system in the United States. Notes that even though we spend more than twice as much per capita on health care as most industrialized nations, we rank 37th in the world in health care, 18,000 Americans die every year from lack of access to health care and about half of all bankruptcies are partly due to medical costs. Countries with single-payer systems have better life expectancy, lower infant mortality, and more doctors, nurses, hospital beds and doctor visits per capita. She says it’s time to stand up to the insurance lobby and bring single-payer health care to America.

Cynthia McKinney: Believes that tax relief must flow to those who need it the most, the working class and people with limited incomes. Received 100 percent approval rating from Citizens for Tax Justice, as a champion of progressive and fair taxation. Authored legislation to take tax breaks from companies that move their plants overseas. Relentlessly fought Pentagon waste, fraud and abuse. By dismantling the military-industrial complex, the prison-industrial complex and corporate welfare, she will bring about a real "peace and justice dividend" that would allow us to put our resources into meeting social needs, and still lower the tax burden on the vast majority of Americans.

Cynthia McKinney: Recognizes that the root cause of the flow of undocumented immigration is our nation’s domineering corporatist economic policies that destroy domestic agriculture in Latin America, then seek to blame the impoverished victims and stir up racism and repression when they come to the United States. Recognizes that the way to address the problem is to address the cause; repeal NAFTA and CAFTA; in the interim make it easier for immigrants to obtain legal work permits. Rejects the border fence as a wasteful militarized approach to the question. It’s not the immigrants who are "illegal"; what is illegal is the way U.S. economic policies treat workers in this country and throughout the world. Supports immigration policies that promote fairness, non-discrimination, family reunification, not preferential quotas based on race, class and ideology.

Cynthia McKinney: Supports the right of all individuals to freely choose their partners regardless of sex or sexual orientation and to the equal rights of all to the rights and responsibilities of civil marriage. Every religion is free to define "marriage" as it sees fit, but "marriage" under the law must not discriminate. As Rev. Al Sharpton once observed, we should be less concerned with who people go to bed with at night, and more concerned with whether either partner has a job to go to in the morning.The only kind of 'marriage' that needs a constitutional ban is the marriage between corporations and government."

Cynthia McKinney: Calls for a "New Deal"-scale program for sustainable energy, energy efficiency and sustainable transportation, to eliminate our dependency on fossil fuels and combat global warming. Supports a policy of "leave the oil in the soil"; goal is to go carbon-free and nuclear-free. This is not only necessary for life on the planet; it is also essential for economic recovery and health. The promotion of solar, wind, biomass and geothermal energy will create hundreds of thousands of new manufacturing, construction and service jobs, sited in under-served communities. In Congress, supported Kyoto Protocol, raising CAFE standards, more funds for rail; consistently opposed oil exploration in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge.

Cynthia McKinney: Supports fair trade, not corporate globalization.. Has consistently opposed so-called "free trade" agreements – NAFTA, CAFTA, Fast Track, the Caribbean FTA, the US-Peru FTA, etc. – that undermine labor and environmental rights and cause the loss of living-wage jobs. She supported the No Tax Breaks for Runaway Plants bill in Congress; authored the TRUTH Act, requiring disclosure of the whereabouts of subsidiaries of US corporations operating overseas, and the Corporate Responsibility Act, to force US corporations operating overseas to abide by US environmental and labor standards. Opposed Most Favored Nation status for China; and to condition trade with China on an improved human rights record; supported U.S. withdrawal from the World Trade Organization. As President, she would continue the fight against corporate globalization and require corporations to be held publicly accountable and socially responsible.

Cynthia McKinney: Has been a consistent supporter of full reproductive rights for women, including funding contraception and UN family planning. Option of safe, legal abortion must remain available, while we promote policies that will minimize unwanted pregnancies. Supports making "morning after" pill affordable and accessible without prescription.

Cynthia McKinney: By dismantling the military-industrial complex, the prison-industrial complex and corporate welfare, she will bring about a real "peace and justice dividend" that will allow us to create the foundation of a truly healthy economy: single-payer health care, Green energy and transportation projects, rebuilding our infrastructure and affordable housing, quality K-12 and subsidized higher education eliminating student indebtedness and investments in Main Street’s small businesses, not Wall Street’s predatory corporations and banks. This will create a rebuilt manufacturing base and strong local economies. She supports monetary reform: the power to create money must be taken from private hands and restored to Congress. She supports – and has authored – legislation to create a national living wage.

Cynthia McKinney: Education should be free, motivating, relevant and high quality. Opposes "reforms" like No Child Left Behind that are basically aimed at dismantling public education. Says we need to instill pride and a desire to learn. Supports free higher education for all; no student should be saddled with tens of thousands of dollars of debt. By eliminating tax cuts for the wealthy and obscene spending on militarism, war and prisons, we can afford to invest in quality education for all. In Congress, she consistently supported improved education funding, opposed voucher schemes aimed at undermining our public schools.

Cynthia McKinney: She believes that the right to bear arms must be tempered by common-sense measures to keep firearms out of the hands of those most inclined to threaten others with violence. (In light of its history, this would have to include the U.S. government and many police officers, but those issues are dealt with elsewhere.) She has favored waiting periods for gun purchases and opposed measures to restrict or bar lawsuits against gun manufacturers resulting from the misuse of their products by others. She would support a properly drafted assault weapons ban. But she recognizes that the primary causes of violence are rooted in economic and social conditions that go beyond America's gun-infused culture. A healthy economy and a government devoted to peace and life-affirming policies that reject violence will go a long way toward eliminating violence in society.

Cynthia McKinney: She has been a consistent and strong advocate for a peaceful foreign policy based on human rights. Supports complete withdrawal of U.S. forces and bases worldwide; opposes U.S. military intervention and U.S. military sales, on basis of Green values and principles. Supported closing of the School of the Americas. Introduced, championed, and passed in the House the Arms Trade Code of Conduct, prohibiting the sale of arms to know n hum an rights abusers; authored legislation to end th e use of depleted uranium weapons. Co-sponsored the Hunger to Harvest bill to reduce hunger in sub-Saharan Africa. Supports debt relief for developing nations and genuine aid policies, not phony "aid" policies that actually subsidize corporate agribusiness and exploitation.

Cynthia McKinney: Has been a strong and consistent advocate for a restored, protected, healthy environment. Says we want our forests protected and restored; sustainable resource use and reuse, and less waste to dispose. Supports renewable energy and opposes policies that pit food production against energy production. Calls for an entirely new paradigm that encourages us to produce green, local, and fairly; most importantly we need true, representative government that serves the needs of the people over that of corporations so that these policies can become law. Supports organic farming and local food production for local use; opposes GMO foods. Opposes commercial logging on public land. Supports the precautionary principle, and cradle-to-grave, closed-loop industrial practices to eliminate toxic emissions from our environment; supports right-to-know laws for communities. Recognizes global climate change as critical issue; see also her stance on Energy issues.

Cynthia McKinney: Supports comprehensive campaign finance reform. Has long been a supporter of publicly financed elections. Supports the principle that the public airwaves belong to the people. Calls for the reinstatement and enforcement of the Equal Time Provision of the Federal Communication Act, requiring broadcasters to carry debates including all ballot-qualified candidates and provide free time for all such candidates as a license requirement to use our public airwaves. Believes that ethics reform must also include protecting and restoring the integrity of the voting process itself: She has been a champion of voting integrity, declaring that we need to eliminate privately owned and/or party-controlled electronic voting machines and every machine that does not provide a paper ballot. Supports Instant Runoff Voting; opposes voter caging, requiring voters to produce photo ID and other tactics of voter disenfranchisement.

Cynthia McKinney: Has been a strong advocate for social justice and combating discrimination in all of its forms. She has supported Federal funding and contracting preferences for women and minority owned businesses; advocated for reparations for the descendants of enslaved Africans; opposed efforts to end Affirmative Action in college admissions; opposed racial profiling. She exposed the racial discrimination that occurred in the disenfranchisement of voters in the 2000 and 2004 elections. Has authored legislation demanding the release all currently sealed files concerning the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Served on the international tribunal on Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and has been an advocate for those kept from their homes on grounds of race and class.

Cynthia McKinney: Opposes efforts to privatize Social Security. Claims about the insolvency of the system have been deliberately concocted and the facts distorted in order to push privatization schemes. Social Security was a gain of the progressive movements of the past that must be guarded from encroachment. If there are any future solvency issues, they should be dealt with by improving the funding stream as needed, not sacrificing the integrity of the program. She supported the Social Security Lockbox bill to require that any budget surplus cannot be spent until the solvency of Social Security and Medicare is guaranteed.

Cynthia McKinney: She believes that, like food and health-care, housing must be recognized as a right. As part of her plan to rebuild America’s infrastructure, she would greatly expand the construction of affordable, quality housing. As part of her energy policy, she supports providing rapid, substantial assistance for the energy-efficient retrofitting of homes, with priority going to low-income housing, which typically imposes the highest heating and cooling costs on those least able to afford it. In Congress, she supported increased funding for the Section 8 housing program. To stop the wave of foreclosures, the goal must be to promote home ownership, not bail out irresponsible banks with taxpayer money. She supports legislation requiring renegotiation of unconscionable mortgage agreements to fall within new regulatory standards and repeal of the relaxed laws on speculation and predatory lending that led to the current mortgage crisis.

Cynthia McKinney: McKinney has long been a strong supporter of the nation’s veterans. She passed legislation to extend health benefits for Vietnam War veterans still suffering the health effects from exposure to the defoliant Agent Orange. She supports measures to acknowledge Gulf War Syndrome and provide full health benefits and disability pay for veterans who suffer from both physical and mental effects of war, including PTSD. She supports a new GI Bill, including tuition grants and low-interest loans for housing and business start-ups.

Cynthia McKinney: A longtime peace activist, she opposes all research, testing, production and deployment of nuclear weapons and calls for rapid, mutual nuclear disarmament. She supports immediate ratification and signing of a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, and complete honoring of the Non-Proliferation Treaty and any other treaties banning or limiting research, development, testing, or deployment of any nuclear weapons. She would reverse the Bush administration’s sabotage of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. She would ban the manufacture and use of depleted uranium, as well as biological, chemical and anti-personnel weapons such as cluster bombs and mines. She opposes the "Nukes in Space" and "Star Wars" programs.

Cynthia McKinney: The question of accepting money from federally registered lobbyists has not been an issue for the McKinney campaign, as corporate lobbyists, knowing where to find a receptive audience, don’t exactly beat a path to the door of Green Party candidates. However, if they did, they would find the door locked shut. McKinney does recognize a distinction between public interest lobbyists, like those representing NETWORK, American Friends, etc., and the corporate variety. The door would be open to public interest lobbyists – for their ideas, not their money.

Cynthia McKinney: As is reflected in her energy policies, she recognizes global climate change as a major threat to our survival: "The United States can no longer hide its truculence under the mask of weather fluctuations or unclear science. Islands are disappearing; indigenous ways of life are threatened; indeed the world as we know it is at risk if the US continues to do nothing. Therefore, a drastic cut in emissions is necessary. This can be accomplished by using the tax code to incentivize behavior. From retrofitting buildings, demanding new standards for all new construction, utilizing existing technologies and developing new ones, to subsidizing infrastructure rehabilitation, not only can the US reverse its deadly inaction, but it can become a world-class leader."

Party: Green Party

Web site: www.runcynthiarun.org/

Published e-mail address: talkback@runcynthiarun.org

Previous political experience (elective and appointed): 1988 -1992 - Served as an elected member of the Georgia House 1993 - 2005 - Served six terms as the first African-American woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Georgia June, 2008 - Nominated as presidential candidate for the Green Party

Education: Cynthia McKinney earned a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California in 1978 and a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Cynthia was accepted into Berkeley's Ph.D. program and hopes to graduate from that institution one day. In 1984, Cynthia worked as a Diplomatic Fellow at Spelman College in Atlanta. She also taught Political Science at Clark Atlanta University and later at Agnes Scott College, a women's college in Decatur, Georgia.

Read more: Read about McKinney's views on various issues on her Web site.

Ralph Nader: Nader/Gonzalez would reverse the current policy in the Middle East. The current political strategy of pre-emptive war in the Middle East is a disaster for both the American people and the people of the Middle East. It has bloated the already wasteful military budget and has cost at present over 4,000 American lives, nearly 100,000 American injuries, and over a million Iraqi civilian lives, plus the destruction of their country. Nader/Gonzalez propose a rapid withdrawal of troops from Iraq. A target of withdrawing troops in six months will be set. Fifty-eight percent of Americans want troops withdrawn from Iraq and a January 2006 poll shows that 72 percent of American soldiers in the field in Iraq wanted the U.S. out of Iraq within six to twelve months. The war is costing taxpayers nearly $4,600 every second -- and that doesn't include the long-term reconstruction costs. Nader/Gonzalez proposes that a rapid negotiated withdrawal from Iraq, with UN sponsored elections, is the first step toward delivering peace to Middle East. Furthermore, a full corporate and mercenary withdrawal must be effected in order to re-stabilize the nation and the region.

Ralph Nader: Nader/Gonzalez favors a Canadian-style, private delivery, free choice of hospital and doctor, public health insurance system. Right now, the United States spends $7,129 per capita on health care—more than twice as much per capita as the rest of the industrialized world. And yet, the United States performs poorly in comparison on major health indicators such as life expectancy and infant mortality While other industrialized nations like Canada and Sweden provide comprehensive coverage to their entire populations, the United States leaves 47 million completely uninsured and tens of millions more inadequately covered. According to an Institute of Medicine report, 18,000 Americans die each year because they cannot afford health care. And inability to pay for medical bills is the leading cause of bankruptcies – they currently contribute to about half the bankruptcies in the United States. In our current system, there are thousands of different payers of health care fees. This system is a bureaucratic nightmare, wasting $350 billion—close to a third of all health care spending on things that have nothing to do with health care—overhead, underwriting, billing, sales and marketing departments, huge profits and exorbitant executive pay. In addition, there is over $200 billion in computerized billing fraud and abuse. Nader/Gonzalez support a single payer system that would save the $350 billion and apply those savings to comprehensively cover everyone without paying more than we already do. All Americans would be covered for all medically necessary services. Patients would have free choice of doctor and hospital. Costs would also be controlled in part by the single payer negotiating fees and making bulk purchases.

Ralph Nader: The complexity and distortions of the tax code produces tax burdens that are skewed in favor of the wealthy and corporations protected by tax shelters, insufficient enforcement, and other avoidances.things and conditions we favor least, and basic necessities least. Tax addictive industries, pollution, speculation, gambling, extreme luxuries, instead of taxing work or instead of the sales tax on food, furniture, clothing, books.

Tiny taxes on stock, bond, and derivative transactions can produce tens of billions of dollars a year and displace some of the taxes on work and consumer essentials. The estate tax should be retained. "Unearned income" (dividends, interest, capital gains) should not be taxed lower than earned income, or work, as one involves passive income, while the latter involves active effort with a higher proportion of middle and lower income workers relying on each day, some under unsafe conditions.

Ralph Nader: Illegal immigration is not caused by attraction of higher wages alone- otherwise much of India and China would have emptied into the United States. It is primarily caused by the inability of people to continue to live decently in their home countries. Were there a living wage, then many of the 15 million unemployed, underemployed, and those who have given up looking for employment would be willing to take the jobs that are now often only taken by immigrants. There are two ways to deal with these issues. First, raise the minimum wage to $10 per hour. Second, enforce existing laws against employers. It is hard to blame desperately poor people who want to feed their families and are willing to work hard to do so. Enforcement is nearly non-existent – it has become a conscious policy to ignore both the labor and immigration laws by successive Republican and Democratic Administrations, including not enforcing laws against cruel sweatshops in the United States. Such is the power of employers. Immigrant workers, even if undocumented, should be given the fair-labor standards, rights, and protections of American workers. Amnesty, however, is a very difficult issue because it gives encouragement to cross the border illegally. How do we then prevent the next wave and the next? We should, however, give workers and children equal rights – they are working, having their taxes withheld, and performing a valuable service for their employers and customers - although here illegally. No humane alternatives exist, only exploitation, poverty, and disease.

Ralph Nader: The Nader campaign supports full equal rights for gays and lesbians. While civil unions are a step in the right direction under current federal and state law, they do not afford full and equal rights. There are 1,049 federal rights that are only conferred with marriage. Additionally, at the state level, a civil union is only recognized in the state where it occurs, while a legal marriage, and all the rights that go with it, is recognized in all the states. Thus, the only way to ensure full equal rights is to recognize same-sex marriage.

The Constitution should extend rights and liberties to the American people, not restrict them. For example, our Constitution was amended to end our nation's tragic history of slavery. It was also amended to guarantee people of color, young people and women the right to vote.

The Federal Marriage Amendment would single out one class of Americans for discrimination by ensuring that same-sex couples would not be granted the equal protections that marriage brings to American families.

Ralph Nader: We urge a new clean energy policy that no longer subsidizes entrenched oil, nuclear, electric and coal mining interests -- an energy policy that is efficient, sustainable and environmentally friendly. We need to invest in a diversified energy policy including renewable energy like wind and other forms of solar power, more efficient automobiles, homes and businesses one that breaks our addiction to oil, coal and atomic power. A new clean energy paradigm means more jobs, more efficiency, greater security, environmental protection and increased health.

Ralph Nader: NAFTA and the WTO make commercial trade supreme over environmental, labor, and consumer standards and need to be replaced with open agreements that pull up rather than pull down these standards. These forms of secret autocratic governance and their detailed rules are corporate-managed trade that puts short-term corporate profits as the priority. While global trade is a fact of life, trade policies must be open, democratic, and not strip-mine environmental, social and labor standards. These latter standards should have their own international pull up treaties

Ralph Nader: Reproductive rights are issues of life and death for women, not mere matters of choice. Nader/Gonzalez supports access to safe and legal abortion, to effective birth control, to reproductive health and education. We oppose attempts to restrict these rights through legislation, regulation (like the gag rule) or Constitutional amendment. We support the right of women to have children, including appropriate pre-natal care and quality child care. We oppose government efforts to limit or discourage childbearing, such as family caps and involuntary sterilization.

Ralph Nader: The United States needs a redirected federal budget that adequately funds crucial priorities like infrastructure, transit and other public works, schools, clinics, libraries, forests, parks, sustainable energy and pollution controls. The budget should move away from the deeply documented and criticized (by the US General Accounting Office, retired Admirals and Generals and others) wasteful, redundant "military industrial complex" as President Eisenhower called it, as well as corporate welfare and tax cuts for the wealthy that expand the divide between the luxuries of the rich and the necessities of the poor and middle class. Help homeowners and citizens, don't bailout huge corporations fueled by greed.

Ralph Nader: The government has an important role to play in keeping undermining influences out of the public schools -- among them, commercialism and private school voucher programs. The federal government must not impose an overemphasis on high-stakes standardized tests. Such testing has a negative impact on student learning, curriculum, and teaching, by resulting in excessive time devoted to narrow test participation, de-enrichment of the curriculum, false accountability, equity and cultural bias, and excessive use of financial resources for testing, among other problems. Federal law should be transformed to one that supports teachers and students -- from one that relies primarily on standardized tests and punishment. The government should encourage schools to infuse their curriculum with civic experiences that teaches students both how to connect classroom learning to the outside world and how to practice democracy. Help people to grow up civic instead of corporate.

Ralph Nader: We support the ‘Brady Bill’ and thoughtful, carefully considered gun control. Specifically, we support trigger locks for safety, licensing, and proper training. If you do all that, both interests will be protected. We need strong law enforcement so that guns are not falling into the hands of criminals. Certain assault weapons which have no purpose other than to enable wholesale slaughter should be banned.

Ralph Nader: The United States should be the world's humanitarian superpower. Our foreign policy must redefine the elements of global security, peace, arms control, an end to nuclear weapons and expand the many assets of our country to launch, with other nations, major initiatives against global infections diseases.Isn’t it about time that the US government stop supporting dictatorships and avaricious oligarchies with our tax monies, munitions and diplomacy? Isn’t it time that our government takes a cue from numerous studies and model projects, and advances foreign policies that support the peasants and the workers for a change.

Ralph Nader: The epidemic of silent environmental violence continues. Whether it is the 65,000 Americans who die every year from air pollution, or the 80,000 estimated annual fatalities from hospital malpractice, or the 100,000 Americans whose demise comes from occupational toxic exposures, or the cruel environmental racism where the poor and their often asthmatic children live in pollution sinks located near toxic hot spots (that are never situated in shrubbered suburbs), preventable, harmful, situations abound.

Now, as the evidence of global warming mounts, it is evident that we threaten the global environment with tremendous economic threats facing humanity, including bankrupting the reinsurance industry, the spread of infectious tropical diseases, massive ecological disruption and increased severe and unpredictable weather, all of which will significantly impact commerce, agriculture, and communities across America. Toxic standards need to be strengthened. Currently toxic standards are designed for adults, not for more vulnerable children. This should be reversed. We need to make environmental protection a priority for our energy, trade, industrial, agricultural, transportation, development, and land use policies. Indeed, protecting the environment must be weaved throughout our governance.

Ralph Nader: Ralph Nader has been named by many opinion polls as one of the most trusted men in America.

For over four decades he has exposed problems and organized millions of citizens into more than 100 public interest groups to advocate for solutions.

His efforts have helped to create a framework of laws, regulatory agencies, and federal standards that have improved the quality of life for two generations of Americans.

His groups were instrumental in enacting the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and the Safe Drinking Water Act. Because of Ralph Nader we drive safer cars, eat healthier food, breathe better air, drink cleaner water, and work in safer environments.

Ralph Nader: After more than 300 years of de facto affirmative action to benefit white males, we need affirmative action for people of color and women to offset enduring historic wrongs as well as present day inequalities. Affirmative action programs should not be based on quotas. Race and gender should not be the predominant factor in choosing qualified applicants. A good affirmative action program uses a variety of methods to achieve the goal of increasing diversity, including using race and gender as one of many factors in evaluating the suitability of an applicant.

More structural solutions are required to promote economic and educational equality, including a long overdue and practical Marshall Plan to eliminate poverty in the United States, and an education-focused restitution trust fund.

However, affirmative action remains an important opportunity-enhancing tool, as Americans for a Fair Chance, a coalition of civil rights organizations, has demonstrated. At the federal level, authentic minority set-asides and affirmative-action arrangements are a modest way to support the growth of businesses owned and controlled by people of color. Affirmative action is a modest means for businesses to redress historic discrimination. Affirmative action at universities is an important tool to promote campus diversity and educational equality.

Ralph Nader: Every discussion of Social Security should begin by recognizing that Social Security is a system of social insurance. It places government in one of its noblest roles: Provision of a bedrock guarantee to all members of society that you do not need to fear the financial consequences of growing old or disabled. It is government as it should work -- a coming together of society to ensure that we, as a community, take care of each other as we age or suffer from disabilities. From the consumer or citizen perspective, one of the great benefits of social security is its very certainty. As one of its great assets, it offers systemic tranquility -- no matter what, people know that in old age or disability, they can count on the social security guarantee. As soon as the system is privatized in individual accounts, in whole or significant measure, the commonwealth would be perverted into a subsidy bonanza for brokers, who would take their 2-to-5% cut. Systemic tranquility would be replaced by an enforced anxiety.

By their very nature, market investments introduce risk into the equation. There is nothing inherently wrong with risk, of course. Risk and the returns on risky investments are an important motor in our economy. If people believe there is an upside to risk and are eager to invest in the stock market, in bonds, in hedge funds or otherwise, they are free to do so, directly or through IRAs, 401Ks and other tax-subsidized private retirement devices.

Ralph Nader: High on the agenda of the advocates for the homeless-whose organization is formally known as Health Care for the Homeless (HCH) - is the closing of the enormous gap in the supply of affordable housing. The nation is five to six million units short of the demand for the barest affordable housing. This fact places heavy pressure on the effort to find decent shelter for low and moderate income families. Fourteen million families spend more than half of their entire income on housing much of it crowded and substandard, leaving little for other necessities such as food, clothing and medical care. Any payout for housing beyond that often leads to serious economic problems which push families into bankruptcy and homelessness - not to mention the fact that many forgo proper nutrition and medical care in an attempt to keep their homes.Lack of a stable place to live is traumatic for adults, but for children the experience is particularly cruel. More than 1.35 million children are homeless at some point each year. They exist in shelters, cars, parks or pushed into already badly overcrowded quarters. The homeless life disrupts their education, exposes them to communicable diseases, malnutrition, depression and drug addictions.

Ralph Nader: We ask our troops to make many sacrifices for their country. Although we state that we value our troops, the way that we treat our veterans often shows otherwise. We often fail to adequately support them during their term of service, and the lack of services for veterans is shameful. No veteran who has served their country should ever find themselves homeless or lacking for services in the country they fought to protect. Some of the ways we have failed our veterans include: FAILURE TO PROVIDE ADEQUATE BODY ARMOR AND TRUCK ARMOR IN A TIMELY FASHION, FAILURE TO ACCURATELY REPORT CASUALTIES, FAILURE TO PROVIDE SUFFICIENT TROOP STRENGTH IN IRAQ, FAILING TO CARE FOR RETURNING TROOPS, FAILURE TO HELP VETERANS WITH POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER (PTSD), FAILURE TO PROTECT SOLDIERS AND VETERANS FROM OFF-BASE SCAMS, FAILURE TO ADEQUATELY PAY TROOPS WHEN ABROAD AND WHEN INJURED.

Ralph Nader: Nader/Gonzalez would no longer subsidize entrenched oil, nuclear, electric, coal mining, and biofuel interests.

Instead, Nader/Gonzalez would invest in an energy policy that is efficient, sustainable and environmentally friendly.

Nader/Gonzalez would invest in a diversified and proven energy policy including renewable energies like wind and other solar power.

The American people have been held hostage for too long by the oil, coal and atomic power industries.

Over seventy percent of our petroleum is now imported at a cost of $600 billion a year – the highest rate of dependency ever.

The nuclear power industry is demanding 100 percent federal government loan guarantees because Wall Street won't loan the money for new nuclear plants without those taxpayer guarantees.

We are long overdue for the changes that need to be made.

Ralph Nader: Power has shifted from the many to the few. The rights, liberties, and economic well-being of 300 million Americans have been eroded by the demands of 1500 mega-corporations. The number of Washington lobbyists working for mega-corporations has skyrocketed from 3,470 in 1976 to 35,000 today - a population adjusted increase of 741%. This puts the interests of the average person on the back burner, while pursuing the interests that increase stockholder profit.

Ralph Nader: It is not too late to slow global warming and avoid the climate catastrophe that scientists predict. The solutions already exist. Renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar, offer abundant clean energy that is safe for the environment and good for the economy.

Other green technologies, such as the refrigeration technology Greenfreeze, offer viable alternatives to climate-changing chemicals.

Corporations, governments and individuals must begin now to phase in clean, sustainable energy solutions and phase out fossil fuels. Major investments must be made in renewable energy, particularly in developing economies, replacing current large scale fossil fuel developments.

At the same time, immediate international action must be taken to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases (the gases that cause global warming), or the world may soon face irreversible global climate damage.

Ratifying the Kyoto Protocol is a crucial first step in this process. However, the greenhouse gas reduction targets are only a fraction of what is needed to stop dangerous climate change and the Kyoto Protocol is under fierce attack.

Party: Independent

Web site: www.votenader.org/

Published e-mail address: ng@votenader.org

Previous political experience (elective and appointed): Nader's research on auto safety and his lobbying in Washington helped push Congress to pass the 1966 National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act. He also lobbied for the 1967 Wholesome Meat Act, which called for federal inspections of beef and poultry and imposed standards on slaughterhouses, the 1967 Freedom of Information Act and the 1970 Clean Air Act. In 1969, he helped found the Center for Study of Responsive Law (CSRL), a non-profit organization staffed mostly by college, graduate and law students. Those students became known as “Nader's Raiders” and studied and issued reports on a variety of consumer issues. In his career as consumer advocate he founded many organizations including the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), the Center for Auto Safety, Public Citizen, Clean Water Action Project, the Disability Rights Center, the Pension Rights Center, the Project for Corporate Responsibility and The Multinational Monitor (a unique monthly magazine that keeps tabs on corporate behavior internationally).

Education: Nader graduated from Princeton University and received an LL.B from Harvard Law School.

Read more: Read about Nader's views on various issues on his Web site.

John Joseph Polachek: The campaign did not respond to requests for this information.

Party: New Party

President

John McCain (R)

Senator

Barack Obama (D)

Senator

Charles O. Baldwin (Con)

Pastor

Bob Barr (Lib)

Attorney

Cynthia McKinney (Grn)

Former Member of Congress

Ralph Nader (I)

Consumer Advocate

John Joseph Polachek (O)

President

John McCain (R)

Senator

Barack Obama (D)

Senator

Charles O. Baldwin (Con)

Pastor

Bob Barr (Lib)

Attorney

Cynthia McKinney (Grn)

Former Member of Congress

Ralph Nader (I)

Consumer Advocate

John Joseph Polachek (O)

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