“Who has more leverage, China or the U.S.?” the NPR moderator asked Democrats.

“America continues to have serious economic leverage with the Chinese and diplomatic leverage,” Edwards replied.

“Who has more leverage?” the moderator followed up.

“Well, what we know is they’re growing; they’re strong. I think America’s stronger today and if we deal with these issues and we deal with them in a serious way across the board and we engage on these issues, which we have not been doing. We’ve seen the consequences right with these dangerous lead – filled toys coming into the US, with it’s extraordinary trade deficit that we have, the growing of their military. We see them propping up genocide in western Sudan and Darfur with their economic development there. America must engage the Chinese on all these issues.”

Obama said in dealing with China, we must get our fiscal house in order, engage other nations (beyond the war on terror), and we have to negotiate better in terms of imports with China.

The moderator pressed Obama, “Who has more leverage at this point?”

“Well, right now the US is still the dominant super power in the world, but the next president can’t be thinking about today. He or she also has to be thinking about 10 years from now, 20 years from now, 50 years from now. And if we continue on current trends without dealing with the problems that we have economically and unless we’re engaging in the world more effectively, then our influence is going to slip,” he answered.