AP:
KUWAIT CITY - Iran is far from acquiring a nuclear weapon, and despite U.S. fears about its atomic intentions, an American military strike against the Islamic Republic is unlikely, former Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday.
Tehran rejects claims by the United States and some European Union countries that its nuclear program is aimed at secretly producing weapons, insisting it is for peaceful purposes only.
"I think Iran is a long way from having anything that could be anything like a nuclear weapon," said Powell, who was invited by the National Bank of Kuwait to speak on economic opportunity and crisis in the Middle East.
The Why:
Both Giuliani and Robertson share an apocalyptic worldview about the clash with [radical] Islam; for Robertson, it is religious and based in biblical prophecy. For Giuliani, it is secular -- but given his 9/11 experiences, just as personal.
Evangelical Christians cite the war on terror as their chief policy concern, and it is not that surprising that Giuliani, who is more identified with an aggressive prosecution of that war than any other candidate, is doing well among evangelicals. It's not that they ignore his views on social issues; it's that they see the war on terror like he does: black-and-white, good-versus-evil, a struggle for the soul of civilization.
Robertson's legacy is greater than his influence these days, but remember: in 2000, it was John McCain's attacks against Robertson (and Jerry Falwell) that arguably doomed his campaign after South Carolina. Social conservatives may be warier of Robertson than they once were, but he is a pillar of their movement and is greatly responsible for legitimating their political activism.
Bill Clinton thinks the idea of illegal aliens being granted driver's licenses is a "trivial matter," and Barack Obama finds it stunning:
The former president had encouraged an audience in Nevada Monday not to let "trivial matters" take away the election from the Democrats as they have in the past. He cited the television ads during the 2004 presidential campaign that questioned Kerry's patriotism and campaign commercials in 2002 suggesting that Sen. Max Cleland, D-Ga. was soft on terrorism.
Both Kerry and Cleland won medals for their service in Vietnam, during which Kerry commanded a Navy "swift boat" and Cleland lost three limbs. Both were defeated after the ads aired.
"I was pretty stunned by that statement," Obama said with a chuckle when asked about the former president's comment in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.
He said that when debating last week whether illegal immigrants should be given driver's licenses, Hillary Rodham Clinton "seemed to contradict what she said previously."
Both Obama and John Edwards have criticized her repeatedly on that score, but Obama said in the interview: "How you would then draw an analogy to distorting somebody's military record is a reach."
Sen. Chris Dodd, another candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, called the Clintons' response to the debate "outrageous."
"To have the former president come out and suggest this is a form of swiftboating ... is way over the top in my view," Dodd said in a telephone interview.
"If elected to the presidency, there will be a lot of tough questions and if you can't handle it in a debate without accusing everybody who has an issue with you of piling on or a sexist attack, somehow, first of all that's unwise and, secondly, it's false," Dodd said.
