DENVER — The air of excitement among progressive activists really is palpable here at the Democratic National Convention. Their supreme confidence that they will win the White House has been shaken a little, but they still believe Barack Obama will prevail and they are certain they will strengthen their majorities in the House and Senate. But as much as everyone here truly despises President Bush, they also refuse to credit him for all of their party’s recent electoral success. Such an argument would undermine one of their core beliefs. As …
DENVER — Monday’s best attended panel by far was “The Contest: Progressives vs. Conservatives,” featuring Paul Krugman, Arianna Huffington, John Podesta and David Sirota. Each spoke for seven minutes. Highlights include: Podesta announced he is working with Mark Green and tapping the resources at the Center for American Progress to write a progressive version of The Heritage Foundation’s 1981 “Mandate for Leadership.” Just as the Mandate was intended to be a blueprint for Ronald Reagan’s first administration, Podesta’s book is also intended to be a guide for Barack Obama to …
DENVER — The Big Tent is sponsoring no less than 10 panels about global warming this week, and Robert Kennedy Jr. was the star of one titled “Climate Problems and Solutions: Local to Global.” The panelists all agreed that cap and trade was the only possible legislation that had a chance of passing, since it was the only way to get the business community on board. But even then, the panel also agreed that the carbon caps set in this summer’s Lieberman-Warner bill were far too low to produce the …
DENVER — “Guru of the environmental movement” Lester Brown is hosting a panel on climate change with Randy Hayes of the World Future Council, Chuck Kutscher pf the Renewable Energy Laboratory, David Orr, and Betsy Taylor of the Center for a New American Dream. Brown started talking at noon. It’s now 12:30. No other panelist has had a chance to utter a single word yet.
DENVER — One of the reasons Heritage came to Denver was to find out what the left expects out of its political leaders if it manages to gain full control of Washington after November’s elections. We are just a couple panels into a week’s worth of policy discussions, but a very simple answer is emerging: massive government and central planning. On stage now in the Big Tent, Scott Meyers-Lipton of the Gulf Coast Civil Works Project is pushing for passage of H.R. 4048. This Gulf Coast Civic Works Act would …
DENVER — Time magazine national political editor Amy Sullivan is currently hosting a panel, “The Shifting Faith Vote: What It Means For This Election.” Among the panelists, Revolution in Jesusland blogger Zack Exley shared his story of marrying into a “white born again evangelical culture.” The first time he attended a megachurch in suburban North Carolina, Exley was surprised to see how much that day’s sermon (“Two fists in the face of Empire,” a sermon on Colossians) meshed with his “anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, anti-materialist secular world view.” As Exley continued attending …
DENVER — This week, The Foundry is reporting on all the sights, sounds and flavors of the Democratic National Convention. And one of the first “sights” for those arriving by airplane is a video on the catastrophic dangers of global warming. You don’t really have much of a choice of whether to watch: The video blares as you wait for the tram to take you to the main terminal. At the main terminal, you’re greeted by the face of Gov. Bill Ritter (D) on a banner extolling the virtues of …
