Scripting America's Priorities

The following are highlights of the event, while an MP3 audio recording of the full 90-minute event can be downloaded below and video can be viewed at right.

Karen Kornbluh

“The Platform Committee itself was almost evenly divided between supports of Senator Clinton and Senator Obama…so what I was warned about is you really don’t want to have a minority report… but this process despite about all that went so smoothly and there was so much unity there was actually in Pittsburgh there was never a vote that was contested, we worked everything out…No matter what you read in the press this was incredible -- this was a testament to how unified the Democratic party is.”

“[The Platform] talks about reforming no child left behind- Barack Obama and the Democrats endorse a lot of the goals of No Child Left Behind but would like to see real changes including putting some money there and not labeling schools as failing then not supporting them. It also talks about teachers and paying teachers more, asking them to do more, giving them more support, accountability… And I don’t want to neglect the preschool, the early education, so many of our kids are left behind before they even get into kindergarten so there’s a real emphasis on the zero to five years.”

Susan Rice

“[Senator Obama] has laid out in very specific detail across a wide range of foreign policy and national security challenges his specific approaches to these problems and if you were to do as I had to do recently and compile all his speeches and fact sheets and articles in detail it's over 150 pages of rich detail…so this seven part strategy or seven goals consists of the following, first ending the war in Iraq responsibly. Second, defeating Al Qaeda and combating violent extremism. Thirdly securing nuclear weapons and materials from terrorists. Fourth revitalizing and supporting our military and indeed our veterans. Fifth, renewing our partnerships to promote common security. Sixth, to advance democracy and development, and seventh to protect our planet by achieving energy security and combating climate change.”

“You will see in this document as well as in a number of Senator Obama’s policy statements a theme that can be put in shorthand as common security and common humanity. The underlying premise is that our security in the 21st century given the nature of transnational challenges is now inextricably linked to the security and well being of people in various parts of the world.”

“It commits to a verifiable ban of creation of fissile material, doubling the budget for IAEA, supporting the ratification of the comprehensive test ban treaty and strengthening the non-proliferation regime.”

“There is a section here on Iran which is very forceful, it says that the world must prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and it posits that this starts with tougher sanctions and aggressive, principled and direct high level diplomacy without preconditions… by gong the extra diplomatic mile while keeping all options on the table we make it more likely that the rest of the world will stand with us to increase pressure on Iran if diplomacy is failing.”

Steve Coll

“What’s happening in a number of areas of this platform is that the ideas and the framework of a prospective Obama president is already shaping the conduct of the permanent American National security by which I mean uniformed military and the intelligence agencies and other sections of the National security bureaucracy.”

“You see this snow in the way Iraq policy is moving. It's already so far ahead of where it was three of four months ago specifically because of the stimulus the campaign has provided it.”

“There is detailed planning that wouldn’t already be occurring about the pace of brigade draw downs and the preparation for flowing into Afghanistan.”

Maya MacGuineas

“When they talk about healthcare, when they talk about savings, when the talk about work, much of this is thinking about how this needs to work for the twenty-first century recognizing all of the changes that have taken place in the way families work, in the way work mobility works and the new challenges of the economy.”

“Likewise the investment section…I think that it’s a remarkable opportunity in the country right now for a renewed investment agenda and what’s very exciting about this platform is that it's not the kind of ‘we’ll build more bridges’ and not looking beyond that again it’s a modern investment strategy so it focuses on energy independence and basic research and development, high speed rails, broadband then need for new technology…”

“I think there are a lot of pitfalls and that happens if we don’t do this smart, targeted and strategic… To talk about what I think is missing, it's hard not to read through this and go, good idea, good idea, good idea… there’s less emphasis than I think what we’ll see in the Republican platform which I think is worth emphasizing which is the economic growth side of this… but there’s a lot to learn from each other and if you compartmentalize less, you could have a pretty terrific vision.” See map: Google Maps

Participants

Featured Speakers

• Karen Kornbluh
  Principal Author, Democratic Party Platform
  Policy Director (on leave), Office of Sen. Barack Obama
• The Hon. Susan Rice
  Senior Foreign Policy Advisor to Barack Obama
  Senior Fellow (on leave), Brookings Institution
  Former Asst. Secretary of State
  

Comments

• Steve Coll
  President & CEO
  New America Foundation

• Maya MacGuineas
  President, Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget
  Director, Fiscal Policy Program, New America Foundation

Moderator

• Steve Clemons
  Director, American Strategy Program, New America Foundation
  Publisher, www.TheWashingtonNote.com