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Home Front
Donks open new unthink-tank
2003-10-29
EFL.
A new left-wing think tank — the Center for American Progress — unveiled itself Tuesday as the Democratic vaccine to what center supporters say is a plague of conservatism now dominating America. "We think the debate has been unbalanced in the country," center president John Podesta, a former chief of staff to President Clinton, told Fox News.
just before his lips fell off
"The conservative movement has really built up an infrastructure of not just ideas, but the ability to kind of get out there and do the kind of hard communications work to sell to the American public," he added. The center made its debut sponsoring a conference along with the Century Foundation, which has been around since 1919. Among the headliners was Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark. Clark, who is almost as new to the presidential trail as the center is to Washington, explained why both decided they had to get into the act. "Going forward, we will need new labels and new ideas. Many of them will be created right here at the Center for American Progress," Clark said from New Hampshire in a speech beamed into the conference via satellite.
Then he changed his mind and said he was against it. But then he changed it back again...
But conservatives say labels won’t stick when they have nothing on which to back themselves up. Think tanks earn their credibility by being able "to deliver accurate timely information" to policy and lawmakers that will help them "understand where they may be going wrong and hopefully allow them to go in the right directions on a whole range of very important policies," said Michael Franc of the Heritage Foundation.
Accurate? The Donks aren’t willing to be honest if it’ll hurt them.
"[Credibility] is something that this think tank can’t just assume is going to come its way by some kind of virtue of entitlement. You have to earn that," Franc said. Podesta said his group is in the business of "thinking through those new ideas, doing the long-term policy analysis," but it also plans to focus its attention on explaining to the public through direct communications "where we think conservative policies are taking the country off in the wrong direction." Podesta insists that conservative institutions like the Heritage Foundation don’t have better ideas, but are merely better at marketing. He said he is confident his center can take over the marketplace of ideas with notable innovations such as a big media staff that will push the center’s thoughts onto the Internet, television and radio.

The conservative (and libertarian) think tanks were a counterweight to the liberal think tanks, if I remember correctly. The liberal think tanks thereupon tanked, because the conservatives (neo- and otherwise) and the libertarians were outperforming them. One of the prerequisites for running a think tank is that there has to be a certain amount of actual thought going on, rather than a mere continuous adjustment of poltical tactics. To gain a reputation, the think tank's output should ideally be predictive — if this, this, and this are the conditions that apply, then this should be the outcome. Nobody's perfect, but the libs aren't noted for being particularly accurate. Their conclusions do avoid hitting the PC buzz buttons, though. That might be because the confuse "predictive" with "predictable."
Posted by:Atrus

#9  Liberal Think Tank: they've lost the battle already. Half their membership will have visions of a huge brain-shaped metal vehicle moving down a highway, while the other half will lie on the floor screaming, trying to rationalize thinking with the Democratic mainstay, feeling.

Let's face it - the Donks haven't had an original idea since FDR. Their one and ONLY idea is to make Government the be-all and end-all of EVERYTHING in America. They don't understand personal freedom, they don't understand the willingness to take risks in hopes of becoming fabulously wealthy (or at least well-off), they don't understand people's aversion to having half or more of their income robbed from them with nothing to say about how that money is spent, and they don't understand that most adults not only don't NEED the government holding their hand, the resent like hell the government TRYING.

This 'think tank' nonsense, the new NPR look-alike, the "liberal talk show network", and all the rest of the BS the donkeys are coming out with are just conclusive proof they have no clue about the current state of affairs among the people of this nation. They somehow cannot understand that they haven't failed to get their message out, but that the American people heard it, thought about it, laughed, and flushed it where it belongs. The Democratic Party in the United States is dead. Someone should tell them - after the next election.
Posted by: Old Patriot   2003-10-29 11:28:22 PM  

#8  I thought the conservative think tanks were a result of the continuing liberal bent in the university system.
Posted by: Yank   2003-10-29 8:27:57 PM  

#7  Podesta insists that conservative institutions like the Heritage Foundation don’t have better ideas, but are merely better at marketing.

He's obviously influenced by Hollywood, the masters at marketing mediocrity...
Posted by: Pappy   2003-10-29 7:34:30 PM  

#6  I for one am willing to embrace those liberal ideas that this new center will.....Sorry can't stop laughing! I have a picture of Bill Clinton in a Playboy type setting (Ascot/smoking jacket) telling all present how taxing people will create jobs. Look over there: Monica is serving cocktails in a LARGE Playboy bunny suit. And in struts General Clark in his Camo Smoking jacket and cigarette holder (Picture FDR). Look for SNL to do a skit on this soon. Heck I have done most of their work for them! COPYRIGHT!
Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter)   2003-10-29 6:00:52 PM  

#5  They've lost confidence in themselves, or they wouldn't be trying to copy the right's successes. Does anyone really think that a liberal talk radio network will succeed? "More Michael Moore on the Al Franken show."

This reminds me of Bill Gates' version of innovation.
Posted by: AST   2003-10-29 4:56:46 PM  

#4  "The conservative movement has really built up an infrastructure of not just ideas, but the ability to kind of get out there and do the kind of hard communications work to sell to the American public," he added.

Maybe if liberals would cut the B/S and stop resorting to emotions to try selling their plans they might have better luck. (the assumption here being that their plans could actually be sold without an emotional hook)
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama   2003-10-29 4:50:16 PM  

#3  Well, yes... anyone who saw the Democratic debate would agree that it was unbalanced.
Posted by: BH   2003-10-29 4:43:45 PM  

#2  as long as they continue it wasn't the quality of their ideas that put off voters there'll be no resurgence in Dem fortunes..and that's fine ith me. A liberal thinktank? Doesn't that describe almost every Academic Institution (College) in America
Posted by: Frank G   2003-10-29 4:37:45 PM  

#1  Podesta insists that conservative institutions like the Heritage Foundation don’t have better ideas, but are merely better at marketing.

Then why are you creating a new think tank instead of changing marketing firms / personnel?

He said he is confident his center can take over the marketplace of ideas with notable innovations such as a big media staff that will push the center’s thoughts onto the Internet, television and radio.

So it's about ideas after all. I like it: a self-fisking concluding paragraph!
Posted by: Raj   2003-10-29 4:36:45 PM  

00:00