Afghanistan is a Metaphor for Afghanistan
If President Obama hopes to win the battle on the ground in Afghanistan he first needs to win the metaphor war over here. A recent essay in Foreign Policy, Afghanistan is Neither Vietnam nor Iraq makes the case the most appropriate metaphor for America’s involvement in Afghanistan in 2009 is British involvement in Afghanistan nearly 100 years ago – and that the application of the appropriate metaphor, Afghanistan as Afghanistan and not Afghanistan as Vietnam or Iraq, matters. (Thanks to Chuck Blanchard for bringing this piece to my attention on his Facebook page). Metap

Go Hard or Go Home
This morning’s USA Today ( “Democrats Switch from Offense to Defense”) offers an important lesson for Democrats: go hard or go home. Democrats who vote against a string of Democratic initiatives like health care reform are making a strategic error. They will not pick up Republican votes and risk losing their Democratic base. If a Democrat votes with the Republ

Health Care Persuasion has an Audience of One
The U.S. Senate is scheduled to take its first vote on health care reform in about 12 hours. The debate leading up to the vote seems to be directed everywhere at everyone – but the actual audience for persuasion is very small, as of this morning it appears to consist solely of Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA). The audience for a persuasive appeal is, as Aristotle noted, the judge. Persuasion is successful if the judge, the person with control over the outcome, is persuaded. The most important person in any persuasive effort is whoever has control over the goal (recognizing that of course advocates have to speak to their own activists, donors, and others – but one needs those au

Insider's View on Care2
At the request of a friend, I wrote this "insider's view" of the House health care debate for Care2.

"Yes" is the Only Rational Democratic Vote on Health Care
As one might expect given my recent hiatus to work on health care reform in the House, many of my future posts will be devoted to the politics of health care reform. Rather than try to write the comprehensive 500-word essay on the subject, I will offer a series of observations based on six months buried in the subject and 15+ years of working in and around Congress on a range of issues. The only smart Democratic vote is ‘yes.’ A lot of Democrats voted against the House health care bill (as did all but one Republican – answering the question, what does $90,000 in a freezer buy? Answer: a bi-partisan health care bill). Some voted against the bill for philosophic