The Bad News Is Good News for Democrats
By CHRISTOPHER MARQUIS
Published: October 30, 2003
WASHINGTON, Oct. 29 -- Iraq is a mess, the world resents America and its debt-burdened economy is an international embarrassment. That was the Democratic perspective voiced at a conference that ended here on Wednesday, that things could hardly be more grim.
"The bad news is, we're headed in the wrong direction" said Sandy Berger, President Clinton's last national security adviser. "The worse news is we can't afford it."
So why, then, was there a smile on Mr. Berger's jowly face? Why was John Podesta, the former Clinton chief of staff, standing in the wings and shouting "Tremendous!" into a cellphone? And wasn't that the commanding Richard Holbrooke, the former United Nations ambassador, who boldly took the podium? "I'm a liberal," he thundered, "and I'm proud of it."
In the capital, the party out of power is always frustrated. But there is no better salve for being on the outs than watching on the sidelines as the party in power is struggling.
That was the tone of a two-day conference of diplomatic veterans who gathered in a hotel ballroom here in a fledgling attempt to define the Democratic view of "New American Strategies for Security and Peace." The conference, sponsored by the left-leaning American Prospect magazine, the Center for American Progress and the Century Foundation, drew some Democratic heavyweights who emerged from their exile in think tanks, high finance and academia, to criticize the Bush administration for steering the nation greviously off course.
The conference underscored how Democrats are finding a voice to challenge the administration on national security. They are reappropriating national symbols and insisting that their criticism is patriotic and in the best American traditions.
We had a conversation Friday night about "framing" and part of this conference was about that very thing. Someone in Comments a couple of threads down posted posted an excerpt from the closing speach by Zbigniew Brzezinski, which was terrific.
There are some possible dangers in the NYTimes article above. Sandy Berger smiling while he talks about how terrible the news is might be okay when you are in the company of true believers, but doing it in front of the press is another matter. The tone Dems adopt for the campaign is important, too. Genuine grief and a little anger over the increasing troop casualities, worried concern for the unemployed, mixed with a little righteous indignation seems about right.
UPDATE: This conference was sponsored by The American Prospect magazine and the new Center for American Progress, a new liberal think-tank headed by John Podesta. They have a number of enewsletters and things for daily talking points to counter the Mighty Wurlitzer.