KENNEDY LIBRARY FORUM THE PROGRESSIVE/CONSERVATIVE DEBATE 10.30.06 PAGE 1 JOHN SHATTUCK: Good evening and welcome to the John F. Kennedy Library. I’m John Shattuck, the CEO of the Kennedy Library Foundation. And on behalf of myself and our Board of Directors, some of whom are here tonight, as well as Tom Putnam, the Acting Director of the Library, we’re pleased to present a forum that will unscramble our national politics, no doubt, and set the stage for next Tuesday’s elections and maybe even look beyond to what’s at stake beyond the wildly-contested politics of 2006. Before introducing our distinguished panelists and moderator, let me thank the institutions that make these forums possible, starting with our lead sponsor, the Bank of America. We’re also grateful to Boston Capital, The Lowell Institute, the Corcoran Jennison Companies, and our media sponsors, The Boston Globe, NECN, and WBUR, which broadcasts all of our forums on Sunday evenings at eight. Now in preparing for tonight’s debate, I thought I’d do a little basic research, so I checked my Webster’s Dictionary for the definitions of “progressive” and “conservative.” That was useful up to a point. “Progressive” is defined as “moving forward or onward,” but also somewhat unhelpfully, I thought, as a “condition tending toward the extreme in extent or severity as in a disease.” [laughter] KENNEDY LIBRARY FORUM THE PROGRESSIVE/CONSERVATIVE DEBATE 10.30.06 PAGE 2 A “conservative,” on the other hand, is defined as one who is, and I quote, “disposed to maintain existing conditions or institutions.” But also, somewhat surprisingly, in light of today’s crazy political environment, as someone who is “moderate or cautious in their views and presentations.” So, like me, you may find these definitions pretty unsatisfying. I think it’s fair to say that most progressives today don’t see themselves as tending toward the extreme as in a disease, even though that’s the way they are caricatured by conservatives. And many conservatives today probably do see themselves as moderates, although that’s certainly not the way they come across to progressives. So we’re here tonight to sort this out. We’ve invited two outstanding speakers who represent the leading edge of progressive and conservative thinking in America today, and a seasoned moderator who comments regularly for national audiences on the progressive/conservative divide in our country. Our first speaker is John Podesta, the President of the Center for American Progress. The Center, which John founded in 2002, is a Washington-based organization created as an active source of progressive political ideas at a time when conservative thinking is dominating what comes out of Washington. In its own words, the Center is, and I quote, “a non-partisan research and educational institute dedicated to promoting a strong, just and free America that ensures opportunity for all.” Not much in the self- KENNEDY LIBRARY FORUM THE PROGRESSIVE/CONSERVATIVE DEBATE 10.30.06 PAGE 3 description that seems to be tending toward the extreme; in fact, I would say, it sounds downright moderate, but I will leave it to John to tell you more about his vision of the Center. From October, 1998 to January, 2001, John served as Chief of Staff to President Clinton. For those of you who don’t know what a White House Chief of Staff does, let me summarize in a word by saying, everything. Under President Clinton, John directed, managed and oversaw all the daily operations-- policy development, press and Congressional relations at the White House. And he also coordinated all the Cabinet Departments and the National Security Council staff, a tall order indeed. Earlier, he had served as Deputy White House Chief of Staff, and before that as Assistant to the President. And on a personal note, I can say that during my eight years in the Clinton Administration, along with, no doubt, hundreds of others throughout the Government, my principal point of contact with the White House was John Podesta, and he did a terrific job. Before joining the Clinton White House, John held a number of positions on Capitol Hill, including Counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Chief Minority Counsel for the Senate Sub-Committee on Security and Terrorism, and Chief Counsel for the Senate Agriculture Committee, somewhat of a range of responsibilities on the Hill. KENNEDY LIBRARY FORUM THE PROGRESSIVE/CONSERVATIVE DEBATE 10.30.06 PAGE 4 During the Carter Administration, he served as Special Assistant to the Director of Action, the Federal Volunteer Public Service Agency, and as a trial attorney to the Justice Department Honors Program. Today, in addition to heading up the Center for American Progress, John is a visiting Professor of Law at Georgetown University, where he specializes in technology and telecommunications policy. And he is, as we all know, a frequent commentator in the media on the future of progressive politics. Our second speaker is William Kristol, co-founder of two of the major institutions in modern conservative politics, The Weekly Standard Magazine and the Project for the New American Century. Just as I did for the Center for American Progress, I decided to check the website for the Project for the New American Century, and here’s what I found. In the opening sentence of its statement of principles, it says, and I quote, “American foreign and defense policy is adrift.” Of course, this sentence was written in 1997 and was aimed at what it called, and I quote, “the incoherent policies of the Clinton Administration.” But perhaps we’ll hear tonight whether Bill Kristol and other leading conservatives think it might just apply to our foreign and defense policy today. Bill is one of our country’s most prominent political thinkers and strategists. Before starting The Weekly Standard in 1995, he directed the Project for the KENNEDY LIBRARY FORUM THE PROGRESSIVE/CONSERVATIVE DEBATE 10.30.06 PAGE 5 Republican Future, which helped shape the strategy that produced the 1994 Congressional landslide, Republican landslide. During the administration of the first President Bush, he served as Chief of Staff to Vice President Dan Quayle. And during the Reagan Administration, he was Chief of Staff and Counselor to Secretary of Education William Bennett. Before coming to Washington, Bill taught at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, which continues to exist, despite his departure. But earlier, he was at the University of Pennsylvania. He’s the author or co-author of many books, including a best-seller, The War Over Iraq , and he appears regularly on the Fox News Channel and other media outlets. Six years ago, The Washington Post described Bill Kristol as, and I quote, “a central part of Washington’s circulatory system, the full-throated advocate with a nice-guy image who is wired to nearly all the Republican Presidential candidates.” Today, his standing in Washington is probably even higher. He’s close to the White House and the Republican leadership but, I might add, not afraid to criticize them when they fail to live up to his standards of conservatism. Tonight’s moderator, Evan Thomas, is one of Washington’s leading political reporters and commentators. He’s been Assistant Managing Editor of KENNEDY LIBRARY FORUM THE PROGRESSIVE/CONSERVATIVE DEBATE 10.30.06 PAGE 6 Newsweek since 1991 and a lead writer of many of its major news stories. Evan spearheaded Newsweek’s award-winning coverage of terrorism in the Iraq War, and he’s won numerous journalism prizes for his work, including a National Magazine Award. He’s a regular weekly panelist on the syndicated public affairs talk show Inside Washington , and he appears frequently as a commentator on the major network and public television news shows. He’s the author of five books, including an acclaimed biography of Robert F. Kennedy, which was published in 2000. And Evan’s grandfather, I found very interesting, Norman Thomas, was the six-time Socialist Party candidate for President, so politics apparently runs deep in his family. So please join me in welcoming to the stage of the Kennedy Library John Podesta, Bill Kristol, and Evan Thomas. [applause] EVAN THOMAS: Thank you. Thank you John. It’s an honor to be here, I think, for all of us. We’re going to get to the high-falutin’ stuff. But before we do, I want to ask what’s on everybody’s mind which is, what’s going to happen on Election Day? Is it going to change control of Congress? And so what? John, why don’t you take that please. KENNEDY LIBRARY FORUM THE PROGRESSIVE/CONSERVATIVE DEBATE 10.30.06 PAGE 7 JOHN PODESTA: Well, I think that the change of control in the House is almost certain at this point. I think that, if you look at what’s going on underlying all that, you see a public that’s really lost faith in the direction that the President’s taken the country. A lot of it stems from, I think, the ongoing failure of the President to be able to show a path forward in Iraq. But it’s not just, I think, the sour mood which people feel about Iraq. Now a majority feels that it was a mistake to go in in the first place. I think they see no way out. But I think, as I reflect on it, I think that the President has gotten most of the big stuff wrong. If you look at the number of uninsured, which has gone up by five million people under his watch; if you look at real wages, which haven’t grown; you look at a security policy in which, I think, the country’s actually lost ground, where we’re less safe today than we were in 2001 when he took over.