Foreign Policy is the Name of the Game at the First Presidential Debate of 2008

The Agenda of Both Candidates Will Be Revealed on How They Are Going to Approach Foreign Policy Should They Be Elected

Tonight's presidential debate at the University of Mississippi is set to focus on the topics foreign policy and national security, giving the American public the first chance to see the two top candidates go head-to-head. Earlier today, Senator John McCain, who is the Republican nominee for President, announced that he would indeed be attending the debate. This announcement comes after a lot of speculation that he would not attend if the financial crisis facing America was not solved, and more specifically if the bailout plan did not get final approval. The debate itself seems to be on topics far from budgeting of America's finances, but it will finally give voters a chance to see where McCain and Democratic presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama stand on the issues of foreign policy and national security.

There are several main items that I hope to learn about in the debate tonight, and which I really want to hear what the two top candidates plan on doing about them if they are elected to the office of President.

The first issue is that of Iraq, and I want to hear concrete solutions on what McCain and Obama plan to do about our occupation there, and how they plan to vet the area of our soldiers. I don't want to hear about mistakes that have been made, but rather solutions that can move us forward, and hopefully out of Iraq in a timely fashion.

The second issue that I want to hear about in the debate is how the nominees plan on fixing relations with Russia. Currently they are really strained because of the vents taking place in Georgia, and something really needs to be done to bridge the gap that has formed between Russia and the United States. We don't need to go into another "cold war" with a country as powerful as them, and it is going to start from the top, with the new President taking office and immediately fixing the problems associated with both communication and actions that involve the Russian government.