National Security Advisory Group - Signs of Life

[CarolNYC]

Signs of Life

The Note reports:

Spotted on Capitol Hill yesterday: Wes Clark, speaking, according to a
source who was there, to a standing-room-only gathering of Democratic Senate
staffers with a national security bent. Clark gave an upbeat account of the
Party's fight to forge policy alternatives to President Bush's plans. He urged
Democrats to stop talking about exit strategies and timelines and focus on how
to win in Iraq.

He also joined Leaders Reid and Pelosi for a closed-door meeting of their
newly announced National Security Advisory Group, including bold-faced names
Perry and Albright.



They frame this as an early, early, early look at the '08 field which is very
Note of them. The important thing here, though, is less that Wesley Clark was
on the Hill than that his appearance attracted a standing-room-only gathering
of Democratic Senate staffers eager to here what he had to say. This seems to
indicate to me that the National Security Advisory Group concept will actually
go somewhere, with its members actually doing stuff, and staffers and
legislators actually paying some attention. Ezra Klein is right to say that the
politics of security are largely about image (the politics of everything are),
but the important thing to note is that you can't just whip up some issues and
an "image" cooked to order when it comes time to run a presidential campaign.
You need to have some idea of what it is you're trying to market, and some
experience with various people actually trying to market it. And perhaps most
important of all, one key element of "image" is not looking uncomfortable
discussing these topics, and one easy way to do that is to actually be
comfortable and confident that you know what you're talking about and
understand where you want to take the country.

http://yglesias.typepad.com/matthew/2005/03/signs_of_life.html

[ZootSuitGringo]

1. Yeah,

Bout time!

Ezra Klein is right to say that the politics of security are largely about image....

....you can't just whip up some issues and an "image" cooked to order when it comes time to run a presidential campaign.

.....one key element of "image" is not looking uncomfortable
discussing these topics, and one easy way to do that is to actually be comfortable and confident that you know what you're talking about

Bullseyed!