There's been a lot of buzz leading up to tonight's State of the Union, and we here at NDN are proud to be a part of this ongoing national discourse.
Just today, NDN's Rob Shapiro was quoted in Ezra Klein's Washington Post column on competitiveness. In this piece, Shapiro helps contextualize America's competition with China:
"China competes on price," says Robert Shapiro, director of Sonecon, an economic consulting firm. "There isn't any doubt about that. The United States competes on quality and innovation. That's how our companies outdo other companies."
Yesterday, Simon was quoted in The Financial Times, regarding President Obama's approach to the State of the Union:
“You will see a resurgent president,” said Simon Rosenberg, of NDN, a Democratic-aligned think-tank. “What America needs to do now is to create for itself a new strategy in a fundamentally changed world.”
And, in The Washington Times:
“The Republicans have an enormous burden to prove that cutting spending can actually create growth and prosperity,” said Simon Rosenberg, president and founder of NDN, a Democratic think tank. “I think the president is going to argue that the challenges are big and we need big solutions.”
NDN Fellows Mike Hais and Morley Winograd were also cited in USA Today, in a different story, about Baby Boomers hitting the big 6-5:
Both the millennials and the World War II generation are what New Democratic Network scholars and authors Michael Hais and Morley Winograd consider "civic generations," community-minded people seared by crisis and brought together by challenge.
For the World War II generation, it was the Depression and Pearl Harbor. For millennials, it was 9/11 and its aftermath.
Their Boomer parents, according to Hais, belong to a classic "ideological generation," one driven by "internal beliefs, which they try to enact on the rest of the world."
Boomers "tend to think that their experiences are unique," notes Hais, who is joining Winograd for a second book on millennials that is due out in September.
Predictably, there has been much discussion of "triangulation" - a term the press loves and Team Obama loathes. Simon weighed in on the topic with The Nation:
"The concept of the third way or triangulation is that reasonable people from both sides can come together and strike a deal," says Simon Rosenberg, president of the New Democratic Network and a veteran of Clinton's war room in 1992. "And I think what we've learned in the last few years is that formula requires both sides to be reasonable. And we've discovered the Republicans are not."
Simon also spoke with Roll Call about the role of outside influencers on Congress:
“The ecosystem of each ideological movement within the political parties is much bigger than just the elected officials,” said Simon Rosenberg, a veteran of Bill Clinton’s White House who now leads the progressive group New Democrat Network.
Rosenberg identified religious groups, community organizations, labor unions and activist outlets such as MoveOn.org as holding more influence over the agenda. On the left, he sees MSNBC, progressive blogs and Stewart’s Comedy Central as dramatically changing the conversation in Washington, and he said their influence has increased in recent years.
Looking ahead on policy, Nelson Cunningham has co-authored an op-ed with Thomas "Mack" McLarty III in The Wall Street Journal regarding the forthcoming free trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama. According to the authors:"A full-throated campaign for the Korea, Colombia and Panama trade agreements, along with WTO accession for Russia, can help reset the presidency."
It's already been a busy week here at NDN and we're all excited to see what tonight brings.
Wed AM Update - Simon has the following quote this morning in a front page Susan Page story in USA Today:
"We're looking at a different phase of the Obama presidency," says Democratic analyst Simon Rosenberg, president of the think tank NDN. "It's a new strategy, a new team and a very different environment than he faced before. It is the second chapter of the administration."