{"id":7000,"date":"2006-03-29T15:49:03","date_gmt":"2006-03-29T20:49:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=7000"},"modified":"2006-03-29T15:49:03","modified_gmt":"2006-03-29T20:49:03","slug":"reestablishing-dems-on-national-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/reestablishing-dems-on-national-security\/","title":{"rendered":"Reestablishing Dems on national security"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Atrios noted<\/a>, Bush’s rehashed rhetoric got blanket coverage for nearly two hours this afternoon, while the Dems unveiling a new national security strategy<\/a> was barely a blip, but on the whole, I think today was a positive development for the party.<\/p>\n

[tag]Democrats[\/tag] on Wednesday proposed a wide-ranging strategy for protecting Americans at home and abroad, an election-year effort aimed at changing public perception that Republicans are stronger on national security. Republicans, for their part, criticized the [tag]national security policy[\/tag] statement as a stunt.<\/p>\n

“We are uniting behind a [tag]national security[\/tag] [tag]agenda[\/tag] that is tough and smart, an agenda that will provide the real security President Bush has promised, but failed to deliver,” Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said.<\/p>\n

His counterpart in the House, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Democrats were providing a fresh strategy — “one that is strong and smart, which understands the challenges America faces in a post [tag]9\/11[\/tag] world, and one that demonstrates that Democrats are the party of real national security.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I was struck by that “strong and smart” line from Pelosi. After 9\/11, Bill Clinton famously said, “When people feel uncertain, they’d rather have somebody who’s strong and wrong than somebody who’s weak and right.” I think Pelosi’s comment may have been unrelated, but it seems that Dems are trying to drive the point home that our way is to have the best of both worlds.<\/p>\n

The agenda, which is called “[tag]Real Security[\/tag]: Protecting America & Restoring Our Leadership in the World” and is certainly worth reading<\/a> (.pdf), is more than just soundbites and poll-tested phrases. It’s a detailed and serious plan that encapsulates what Dems have been talking about for several years now, but which now is offered in a single, comprehensive strategy.
\n
\nHere’s what I like about it:<\/p>\n

* It’s a reminder that Dems won’t cede national security as an issue;<\/p>\n

* No one can credibly say Dems are without a credible, coherent strategy on national security;<\/p>\n

* It’s already producing some compelling headlines: “Democrats pledge to ‘eliminate’ bin Laden<\/a>“;<\/p>\n

* The policy hammers all of the key points: bin Laden, ports, Iraq, torture, torture, 9\/11 Commission recommendations, securing nuclear and chemical plants, etc.<\/p>\n

Here’s what I don’t like about it:<\/p>\n

* In an effort to make it detailed and comprehensive, the party wrote a 123-page document. Maybe a one-page fact sheet that summarizes the key items would be helpful?<\/p>\n

* It’s still too vague about Iraq. There are a few holdouts who won’t commit to a redeployment plan, which makes the larger document incomplete.<\/p>\n

What’s your reaction?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Atrios noted, Bush’s rehashed rhetoric got blanket coverage for nearly two hours this afternoon, while the Dems unveiling a new national security strategy was barely a blip, but on the whole, I think today was a positive development for the party. [tag]Democrats[\/tag] on Wednesday proposed a wide-ranging strategy for protecting Americans at home and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7000\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}