Andrew Zajac
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Hoping to steal a march on Republicans on national security, a group of centrist Democrats has launched the Progressive Security Project, aimed at helping their party frame the defense-foreign policy debate.
The project is the brainchild of the Progressive Policy Institute, which hopes to capitalize on what it perceives as a narrowing of the credibility gap on national defense with Republicans during the Bush years.
Since at least the late 1960s, Democrats have tended to lag well behind Republicans when it comes to which party the public thinks does a better job of keeping them safe from foreign threats.
But with no end in sight in the Iraq war, unrest in Pakistand and indications that the lid is coming off the Taliban in Afghanistan, the PPI sees an opening.
It prescribes not new medicine, but a renewed embrace of “tough-minded liberalism of presidents Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy and Clinton.”
The PPI may have a tough time selling the notion that Clinton belongs with the other three Democratic presidents it cites. But it was a Clinton wonk shop for years and many advisors to the former president have roosted there.
It will be interesting to see if and how the Obama supporters in the organization assert themselves.
Here’s what the security project is trying to accomplish, in its own words:Download file