With the ever-sharp Ron Brownstein (now of National Journal and Atlantic Media, formerly of the Los Angeles Times, where the formers increasingly outnumber the currents) moderating, Atlantic Media convened a forum of disparate Democrats this morning to look at their party and its nominee. SEIU’s Andy Stern, MoveOn.org’s Eli Pariser, Ellen Malcolm of EMILY’s List and Will Marshall of the Progressive Policy Institute -- the think tank of the Democratic Leadership Council -- debated such hardy Democratic perennials as trade and populism, merits and problems thereof.
Marshall expressed his long-held view that corporate-bashing populism doesn’t work, though he also said he favored Obama’s proposal for a windfall-profits tax on oil companies to help Americans pay for their heating oil this winter. Judging by my recent research into the ads of Democratic House and Senate candidates across the country, though, Marshall is at odds with his party on downplaying corporate-bashing: In all parts of the nation just now, Democratic candidates are running against “Big Oil” and “Wall Street speculators.”
Stern, for his part, pushed what might be called populism-lite, calling the backlash on trade an understandable reaction to “America’s failure to reward work” but declining to offer a critique of free trade per se. He also offered a surprising answer to Brownstein’s question as to what Obama had to do in the first six months of his presidency, mentioning health care, alternative-energy projects, and getting U.S. forces out of Iraq, but not bringing up the Employee Free Choice Act, which labor needs simply in order to survive. SEIU is very committed to EFCA, but Stern is a labor leader who shuns what some might consider parochial concerns even when, in this case, they’re not parochial at all.
Marshall also stressed how important it was for Obama to move in a “post-partisan” direction, but Pariser cautioned that MoveOn members could warm to a post-partisan campaign for universal health care but would be none too enamored of a post-partisan compromise that undercut that goal. Malcolm talked about other races in which EMILY's List is investing its energy -- Jeanne Shaheen’s Senate campaign in New Hampshire and Kay Hagan’s in North Carolina. She viewed the two states as up for grabs in the presidential race as well -- an assessment of North Carolina, in particular, that looks highly optimistic just now.
When Brownstein asked the participants what their groups were doing for the election, Stern said the SEIU would be spending $85 million and having more than 1,400 members working full time on the campaign. Malcolm highlighted the states in which EMILY's List would be active. Pariser said that MoveOn would turn out 150,00 volunteers to pound the pavement in battleground states -- 50,000 more than they did four years ago. (He also expressed concern that independent groups that focus on registering and turning out young voters were underfunded this year, having received commitments of roughly $15 million compared to $40 million four years ago. Presumably, however, the Obama campaign is making a huge investment itself in youth registration and turnout.)
Marshall answered Brownstein's question about what his group was doing in the only way the head of a think-tank can: The Progressive Policy Institute, he said, would be turning out papers.
--Harold Meyerson
