Hart runs strong on National Security
(but can we forget Donna?)

TalkLeft reprints Gary Hart's Tuesday speech on National Security at the Council of Foreign Relations in NY. Lots of good sound bites:

National security in the 21st century will require economic and political tools, not simply military ones. Trade and aid programs must become more grassroots and human scale than top-down and bureaucratic. For example, micro-loan programs directed at home, land, and small business ownership have proved enormously promising in several countries in Asia and Latin America. And in the political arena, our diplomacy must once again be based on the principles underlying our Constitution and nation—principles of honor, of humanity, of respect for difference--and our diplomacy must be aimed at people not just governments. We can explain our principles and ideals much better than we have been; but we must then also be prepared to live up to them.

But this is the best line of the whole speech, and another line that should be hammered home by all Democrats leading into 2004:

The ideals of democracy are not marketed; they are lived.

That said, I can't see how Hart can be viable. His best chance at the White House was derailed by his dalliance with Donna Rice, and the parallels to Clinton are too close for anyone to overlook.

Perhaps Hart could make a good Sec of State, but the notion that he's electorally viable makes little sense to me.

Posted January 22, 2003 07:53 AM | Comments (50)