Chris Dodd for President

In the 1980s I travelled many times to Nicaragua, where I met President Daniel Ortega. At the height of the cold war, I was subject to criticism in some quarters for meeting a leader with ties to the Soviets. But my goal wasn’t to become friends with the Sandinista president, it was to press him to renounce violence as a political tool and allow the people of Nicaragua to choose their next leader. Despite opposition from the Reagan administration, Congress voted to restrict US funding of the Contra rebel forces and Mr Ortega later agreed to elections. In 1990 Violeta Cha morro won and Mr Ortega respected the results by stepping down. As a result, Nicaragua today has an imperfect demo cracy but a democracy nonetheless. At the recent CNN/YouTube Democratic presidential debate, we were all asked whether, as president, we would meet leaders of Syria, Cuba, Venezuela, Iran and North Korea without preconditions. With American security at stake and our reputation in the world in tatters, it was a chance for us to demonstrate how we might use diplomacy to help America lead on the global stage in the 21st century. But rather than using this opportunity to showcase to the country their diplomatic bona fides, two candidates – senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton – have chosen to squabble and make irresponsible statements. To be sure, there was little disagreement on the stage about the Bush administration’s diplomatic failures. In six years, Mr Bush and Dick Cheney have weakened America by refusing to meet representatives of certain nations, irrespective of their importance to US interests and security.