Council on Foreign Relations: on Principles & Values


Jeanne Shaheen: Women's experiences different not better or worse than men's

As women, we have different life experiences. They're not any better or worse than men's, but they're different. When we're at the table, we bring that perspective. It's really important to have that perspective at the table. If we don't have that perspective, then we're missing half of the population in the world. So it's really important to make sure that women are represented.
Source: Council on Foreign Relations: 2020 New Hampshire Senate race May 18, 2020

Susan Rice: Learned if you're knocked down, how to get back up

I'm the descendent of slaves from South Carolina on the one hand, and of immigrants from Jamaica who moved to Portland, Maine on the other hand. Both sides of my family prioritized education, and prioritized service, and worked to bring each subsequent generation a little bit higher. I learned a fair bit from my experiences being part of that family. If they've been knocked down, as I have on a couple of occasions, then to know how to get back up.
Source: Council on Foreign Relations on 2020 Veepstakes Nov 14, 2019

Susan Rice: Give your honest and best advice to whom you're serving

You shouldn't be serving if you're not willing to give your honest and best advice. You probably shouldn't be serving if he or she doesn't want your honest and best advice. I've been privileged to serve secretaries of state in the younger part of my career and presidents who I think genuinely wanted and expected the best unvarnished advice from their advisors. At the end of the day they'd take their own counsel, make their own decision, and in my experience own their decisions.
Source: Council on Foreign Relations on 2020 Veepstakes Nov 14, 2019

Joe Walsh: 2010: opposed by namesake rock star Joe Walsh

Walsh lost by ten percentage points to Tammy Duckworth, who is now Illinois's junior senator. Walsh lost in part because redistricting made his district friendlier to a Democratic candidate. But he was also hurt by his own behavior, which included failing to make his child support payments and shouting at his constituents. Democrats persuaded the rock guitarist Joe Walsh, who recorded the classic Rocky Mountain Way before joining the Eagles, to criticize his political namesake.
Source: Council on Foreign Relations on 2020 presidential hopefuls Oct 3, 2019

Joe Walsh: 2013: supported birtherism; 2019: apologized for it

Walsh began a new career as a conservative radio talk show host in 2013. The show became syndicated in 2017. Walsh championed the "birther" conspiracy theory on his show and pushed the equally false claim that President Obama is secretly a Muslim.

Once Walsh announced his presidential candidacy, Walsh apologized for supporting Trump's candidacy and for pushing the myth that Obama is secretly a Muslim. He admitted that he never believed the story he pushed so hard on his radio show.

Source: Council on Foreign Relations on 2020 presidential hopefuls Oct 3, 2019

Stacey Abrams: Prefers organizing systems for change to legislating

The Senate was not the right place for me. My bent for most of my adult life has been systems--figuring out how do you organize systems to create change, to structure and promote the ideals that I hold to be true. I've created organizations such as the New Georgia Project, and most recently Fair Fight Action and Fair Count, to tackle the issues that I see. And those tend to be more executive-level jobs. I've run organizations. I have been a part of managing teams.

Our responsibility is to always have a forward vision that assumes that we will be better than we were. That's been the experiment of the United States. Our national experiment has always been about recognizing that we make deeply, deeply flawed decisions, that we have been inhumane in ways that are a shame to our national history, but why we are who we are is that we confront those challenges and we try to improve.

Source: Council on Foreign Relations on 2022 Georgia Governor race May 10, 2019

Joe Biden: Never, never bet against the American people

I remember debating someone in the late '80s about how Japan was going to eat our lunch. How the EU, we could not compete with 384 million people. Come on, man! We used to believe we could do anything. What the hell's happened? Give me empirical evidence that we're not better-positioned than any nation in the world. What I tell every world leader, it's never, never, never, never, never been a good bet to bet against the American people, ordinary people who can do extraordinary things.
Source: Council on Foreign Relations on 2020 candidates Sep 21, 2016

  • The above quotations are from Council on Foreign Relations.
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2020 Presidential contenders on Principles & Values:
  Democrats running for President:
Sen.Michael Bennet (D-CO)
V.P.Joe Biden (D-DE)
Mayor Mike Bloomberg (I-NYC)
Gov.Steve Bullock (D-MT)
Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D-IN)
Sen.Cory Booker (D-NJ)
Secy.Julian Castro (D-TX)
Gov.Lincoln Chafee (L-RI)
Rep.John Delaney (D-MD)
Rep.Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI)
Sen.Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
Gov.Deval Patrick (D-MA)
Sen.Bernie Sanders (I-VT)
CEO Tom Steyer (D-CA)
Sen.Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)
Marianne Williamson (D-CA)
CEO Andrew Yang (D-NY)

2020 Third Party Candidates:
Rep.Justin Amash (L-MI)
CEO Don Blankenship (C-WV)
Gov.Lincoln Chafee (L-RI)
Howie Hawkins (G-NY)
Gov.Gary Johnson(L-NM)
Howard Schultz(I-WA)
Gov.Jesse Ventura (I-MN)
Republicans running for President:
Sen.Ted Cruz(R-TX)
Gov.Larry Hogan (R-MD)
Gov.John Kasich(R-OH)
V.P.Mike Pence(R-IN)
Gov.Mark Sanford (R-SC)
Pres.Donald Trump(R-NY)
Rep.Joe Walsh (R-IL)
Gov.Bill Weld(R-MA & L-NY)

2020 Withdrawn Democratic Candidates:
Sen.Stacey Abrams (D-GA)
Mayor Bill de Blasio (D-NYC)
Sen.Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
Sen.Mike Gravel (D-AK)
Sen.Kamala Harris (D-CA)
Gov.John Hickenlooper (D-CO)
Gov.Jay Inslee (D-WA)
Mayor Wayne Messam (D-FL)
Rep.Seth Moulton (D-MA)
Rep.Beto O`Rourke (D-TX)
Rep.Tim Ryan (D-CA)
Adm.Joe Sestak (D-PA)
Rep.Eric Swalwell (D-CA)
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Page last updated: Mar 16, 2022