Along the great divide
CURT BROWN and RICHARD MERYHEW, Star Tribune staff writers
LONSDALE, MINN.
It was just a six-player card game at the Whistle Stop Tavern and Grill. But even the longtime friends playing a boisterous game of euchre over morning coffee were split.
Dairy farm worker Julie Schmaltz voted for Mark Dayton for governor. Nancy Walker, a nurse sitting across the table, picked Republican Tom Emmer, while Angie Skluzacek, a retired bartender, opted for Independence Party candidate Tom Horner.
It was the simplest of splits, but one of countless divides across the state that created another nail biter on election night and left Minnesota bracing for the unimaginable: a second statewide recount in two years. But what seems like a giant divide is really a narrow crack, experts say, where a big chunk of voters easily "slosh" one way or another from election to election, creating the ideal environment for recounts.
"We have a tremendous amount of voters in the middle," said Matt Lindstrom, a political science professor in Collegeville, Minn. "And these voters are less loyal to party identification than they are to ideas and candidates. And that's why we see an ease with which voters can flip flop back and forth."
To wit: Minnesota voters sent four DFLers and four Republicans to Congress. They handed control of both the state House and Senate to Republicans, while picking a DFL slate of constitutional officers -- if Dayton's playing-card thin lead over Emmer, hovering just under 9,000 votes, withstands a likely recount.
"If you take a look at the big middle, and I regard myself as part of it, we're kind of sloshing back and forth," said former Gov. Arne Carlson -- who years ago was a Democrat, was elected governor as a Republican, voted for Barack Obama for president and endorsed Horner for governor this year. "And it doesn't take that much to push us in one direction or the other," he added.
Wide or narrow gap?
Political scientists scrutinizing results in the aftermath of Tuesday's election insist that the idea of a big divide is deceiving.
The state's voters, Lindstrom says, are rather "closely divided," meaning that they are a mix of moderate Republicans, Democrats, Independents and casual political participants. Yet the state's two largest political parties keep sending them more and more extreme and polarizing candidates. So elections tend to distort the state's political divisions like a circus funhouse mirror.
"We have a conservative Republican in Tom Emmer and a liberal Democrat in Mark Dayton, so it causes this divide. But that doesn't necessarily mean Minnesotans are quite as divided as the choices they are presented with," said Kathryn Pearson, a political science professor at the University of Minnesota.
Party insiders have a louder voice in deciding who ends up on the ballot than voters who skip caucuses and primaries and only turn out in November.
"It's the activists on the left and the right that are most involved in the selection of candidates," said Lindstrom, director of the Eugene McCarthy Center for Public Policy and Civic Engagement at the College of St. Benedict and St. John's University.
Social issues such as gay marriage and abortion also act as wedges, even though they took a back seat to economic concerns during the 2010 campaign.
"Wedges are designed to split the log and galvanize support on one side," Carlson said. "But they also draw some very sharp lines that I think further narrows and create a lot of breaches."
The combination of the polarized candidates and volatile social issues can also spark third-party candidates, whose presence can pull votes from one candidate or the other or both, tightening vote margins between the frontrunners.
Four years ago, Republican incumbent Gov. Tim Pawlenty beat DFL Attorney General Mike Hatch by 1 percent of the vote. Some analysts believe that Independence Party candidate Peter Hutchinson's 6 percent support helped Pawlenty get reelected.
This go-around, Horner garnered 12 percent of the vote in the race with Emmer and Dayton.
Dan Hofrenning, a political science professor at St. Olaf College in Northfield, is among those who think that Horner, a lifelong Republican, hurt Emmer more than Dayton.
Horner hoped his message would resonate with the 60 percent of Minnesota voters he thinks fall in the political middle, prompting a late surge. Instead, some voters shied away, afraid that they might waste their vote.
"They get caught into the fear factor that only a Republican or Democrat can win," Horner said.
Splitsville, Minn.
The taut battle for the governor's office played out on a smaller scale, too.
In sparsely populated Grant County on the state's western prairie, Emmer beat Dayton by 18 votes. That's no surprise. Two years ago, in the last statewide recount, Republican incumbent Norm Coleman edged Democratic challenger Al Franken by 14 votes in Grant County. In recent gubernatorial races, Grant County voters flipped from Republican Tim Pawlenty in 2002 to DFLer Mike Hatch in 2006.
Grant County auditor Chad Van Santen said many of the 6,000 residents vote Democrat because that's the way their farming families have voted for generations.
"But now we see more people retiring from the metro area in lake homes, so the line is split into two scenarios," he said. "There are those who have voted the same way forever and the other group with a different philosophy."
At Ruby's City Restaurant in Ashby, politics is debated daily at the round table by the kitchen.
"There's just a few Republicans and most are Democrats," said owner Gail Johnson. "They're Democrats because their parents were Democrats. It doesn't matter if a trained chimpanzee [was] running. If he was a Democrat, that's who they'd vote for."
In Rice County, about an hour's drive south of the Twin Cities, Dayton won by 2.8 percent of the vote, almost a complete flip from eight years ago, when Pawlenty won by a 3.8 percent margin.
"A lot of it starts at the national level," said Fran Windschitl, Rice County auditor and treasurer, who supervises county elections. "Two years ago it seemed like the economy was starting to go down the tubes and they blamed the party in power. There was a mass shift to the DFL. This year, it seems like things aren't improving, so they started to shift the other way."
Just how tight the vote got around Rice County was evident in one local legislative race, where incumbent Rep. David Bly, DFL-Northfield, lost by 31 votes, triggering an automatic recount. Bly, a schoolteacher, lost by 46 votes when he first ran for the House seat in 2002. Four years later, he won by 60 votes in another recount.
"I think we're in a point of our history where people are really divided," Bly said. "I suppose Rice County is a good microcosm of that."
A mix of small towns and rolling farmland, Rice County once was seen as a largely conservative territory. Only the area around Northfield, home to Carleton and St. Olaf colleges, leaned to the left.
But as suburban sprawl pushed south, the county -- and small towns such as Lonsdale, which was once predominantly Catholic and Czech -- has become more diverse and, come election time, unpredictable.
"It's like putting Wyoming and Massachusetts in one state," said Hofrenning, from his office at nearby St. Olaf.
Sharon Kaisershot, a lifelong Rice County resident and 23-year election judge for rural Erin Township just south of Lonsdale, offered up a variety of theories for the split, ranging from the nation's obsession with style over substance to the county's changing demographics.
"Years ago it was easier. You kind of knew what your neighbors thought," said Kaisershot, who watched 369 people file into the 122-year-old township hall to vote Tuesday. "Now you don't know who your neighbors are because so much has changed."
Her colleague, township treasurer Elgin Trcka summed it up simply:
"I'll tell you what happened," he said. "Half the people think this way. Half the people think that way. And it just comes together like that."Staff writer Glenn Howatt contributed to this report. curt.brown@startribune.com • 612-673-4767 richm@startribune.com • 612-673-4425
November 12, 2010
Dr. Matt Lindstrom, Director of the Eugene J. McCarthy Center at Saint John's University quoted in Star Tribune
October 26, 2010
To a higher degree: Respect in politics central to SJU
St. John’s was founded by five Benedictine monks
who had traveled to Central Minnesota when it was
still a territory in 1857. Though more than 150
years have passed since its founding, we continue
to be guided by the principles and values that have
been part of the Benedictine tradition for more than
1,500 years.
“Listen … with the ear of your heart.” These are the
first words in the Prologue of The Rule of St.
Benedict. The Rule teaches about the basic monastic
virtues of humility, silence and obedience, and
provides directives for daily living. Those seven
words are not just significant for ancient monks and
Catholics, but for all of us who live in today’s world
of extreme political views, vitriolic discourse and
blistering sound bites meant to pass as persuasive
information.
We have all heard enough political ads in recent
months to know that politicians and pundits are too
often not listening to each other at all, much less
with an open mind and heart.
As a Benedictine, liberal arts college, we have a deep
commitment to remaining open to the voices and
ideas of others. We are committed to providing
students with a broad-based education that teaches
students how to think, but not what to think. Our
mission is to send students into the world prepared
to lead and serve.
To do this we must be an intentionally welcoming
place for people of a variety of beliefs to engage in
respectful, open and challenging conversations
about current issues and problems. Like other
educational institutions, we can perform a valuable
service if we model the way and lead by positive
example.
The Eugene J. McCarthy Center for Public Policy and
Civic Engagement at St. John’s University is one
venue through which our students are provided
opportunities to learn about and engage in politics,
public policy development and service to the
common good.
The center was named for McCarthy, Minnesota’s
former Democratic senator and 19-year-old
graduate in St. John’s class of 1935. The center’s
website states, “In this day and age of ‘Crossfire’
political reasoning and us/them political rhetoric,
many young people are unfortunately steering away
from political engagement. As a result, the faculty
and core group of students from the Center work
diligently to create venues for constructive,
responsible and interesting civic debate and
engagement in community affairs.”
The center hosts a variety of seminars, study
programs, internships and public lectures. The
Mark Kennedy Frontiers of Freedom Lecture Series is
one such event. (The series is named for former
Republican U.S. Congressmen Mark Kennedy, SJU
class of 1979.) The goal of this lecture series is to
intentionally add “intellectual diversity” to the center
so that multiple political perspectives are presented
and critically evaluated.
The Eugene J. McCarthy Lecture is also hosted by
the Center and seeks to inspire a new generation of
young people to pursue fresh ideas, to challenge
the status quo, to effect positive change in their
communities and, like McCarthy himself, to lead with
honesty, integrity and courage.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., presented the fourth
annual lecture this year and was introduced by
former Sen. Dave Durenberger, R-Minn., SJU class of
1955.
In closing her lecture, Klobuchar quoted a 1967
speech by Eugene McCarthy in which he declared
that the American spirit has a grand purpose and a
clear prerogative, “to offer in place of doubt, trust;
in place of expediency, good judgment; in place of
incredibility, integrity; in place of murmuring, let us
have clear speech; let us again hear America
singing.”
In this season of heated political debate, I urge you
to study the issues by listening with the ear of your
heart, and then respectfully express your opinion
through your vote at the polls.
This is the opinion of the Rev. Bob Koopmann, OSB,
president of St. John’s University. To A Higher
Degree is published the fourth Sunday of the month
and rotates among the presidents of the four largest
Central Minnesota higher education institutions.
President Obama Announces Denis McDonough as Deputy National Security Advisor
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release October 22, 2010
President Obama Announces Denis McDonough as Deputy National Security Advisor
WASHINGTON – Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to appoint Denis McDonough as Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor.
President Obama said, “For years, I have counted on Denis McDonough’s expertise and counsel on national security issues. He possesses a remarkable intellect, irrepressible work ethic, and a sense of collegiality that has earned him the respect of his colleagues. I know that Denis will be indispensable to our entire national security team as we continue to protect the American people, and advance American interests and values around the world.”
Tom Donilon said, “Under the leadership of General Jones, Denis has been an essential member of our national security team, leading our staff and tackling the full range of tough national security challenges that we have faced. I could not ask for a better colleague, and I look forward to continuing to work with Denis and our talented and hard-working National Security Staff as we carry forward our effort to advance a safer, stronger, and more prosperous America.”
President Obama appointed the following individual to a key administration post:
Denis McDonough, Deputy National Security Advisor
McDonough served from September 2009 as Chief of Staff of the National Security Staff. Prior to that job, McDonough served as Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications. McDonough served as a senior advisor on foreign policy issues on the Presidential Transition Team and on President Obama’s 2008 campaign. Prior to that, he was a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress. He also worked in Congress, including as Foreign Policy Advisor for Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle. McDonough graduated from St. John's University in Collegeville, Minn., and has a master's from Georgetown University. A native of Stillwater, Minnesota, McDonough currently lives in Maryland with his wife Kari and three children, Addie, Liam and Teddy.
September 15, 2010
Jim Read wins Best Paper Award from American Political Science Association
Jim Read, professor of political science and the Joseph P. Farry professor of public policy at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University, recently received the 2010 Wilson Carey McWilliams Best Paper Award by the Politics, Literature, and Film section of the American Political Science Association (APSA).
Read’s paper was titled, “The Limits of Self-Reliance: Emerson, Slavery, and Abolition” and examined Ralph Waldo Emerson’s ideal of individual self-reliance as it confronted the seemingly intractable problem of slavery. Read, who presented his paper at the 2009 APSA annual meeting, has been on the faculty at CSB and SJU since 1988.
Read is the second CSB/SJU faculty member to receive an award from APSA. Matt Lindstrom, Ed Henry professor of political science at CSB and SJU and director of the Eugene J. McCarthy Center for Public Policy & Civic Engagement at Saint John’s University, won a Best Paper Presentation Award in the Undergraduate Education section at the 2002 ASPA annual meeting. The title of Lindstrom’s paper was “What's a Bus Ticket Got to Do with My American Politics Class? Experimenting with a Political Treasure Hunt.”
September 2, 2010
Klobuchar recalls McCarthy during talk at SJU
COLLEGEVILLE — Sen. Amy Klobuchar paid tribute to a political icon of Minnesota's past by referencing a current political figure from Alaska.
Klobuchar, DFL-Minn., spoke Monday night at the Eugene J. McCarthy Lecture at St. John's University.
McCarthy, a St. John's alum and U.S. senator from Minnesota, rose to national prominence in 1968 as an anti-war challenger to then-President and fellow Democrat Lyndon Johnson.
McCarthy's independence and willingness to buck his party sets him apart from most of today's politicians, Klobuchar told an audience of students, faculty and university boosters.
"He went rogue before Sarah Palin had even shot her first moose," Klobuchar said of McCarthy.
Klobuchar likened today's economic uncertainty and political acrimony to the Vietnam War-era turmoil of 1968, the moment in history with which Klobuchar said McCarthy is most commonly associated.
She suggested now is an ideal time for the U.S. to revisit two causes McCarthy championed: boosting educational standards and increasing U.S. engagement in the international community.
Those causes offer a prescription for the U.S. to retain its world stature in the face of increasing competition from rival countries, such as China and India, Klobuchar said.
The U.S. must boost manufacturing exports, better educate its work force and allow more international students to stay in the U.S. after they graduate, Klobuchar said.
Klobuchar also offered suggestions to reduce partisan gridlock in the U.S. Senate. She called for new limits on use of the Senate filibuster, and for ending a practice where Klobuchar said senators can secretly delay votes on bills.
McCarthy served in a time of ideological diversity within America's two major political parties, Klobuchar said.
Throughout the years bipartisan coalitions in Congress have passed sweeping legislation to create Medicare and reform welfare programs, Klobuchar said.
Klobuchar said such two-party coalitions are far tougher to assemble today, in a political climate dominated by a 24-hour cable-news cycle.
"Today a politician who bucks the party line is risking his political life," Klobuchar said.
The lecture was sponsored by the Eugene J. McCarthy Center for Public Policy and Civic Engagement, which serves students at St. John's and the College of St. Benedict. Past speakers at the McCarthy Lecture were former U.S. Sen. Chuck Hagel, former NAACP Chairman Julian Bond and Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne.
August 31, 2010
DC Program Intern is quoted in Time Magazine
Tania Dumas / El Nuevo Dia
At least that was the case until last month, when Figueroa-Agosto, 46, was captured while driving through a Puerto Rican neighborhood wearing a wig as a disguise. Living up to his brash reputation, Figueroa-Agosto, when asked by the arresting officers for his identity, said, "You all know who I am," before attempting to run off. His arrest has only served to heighten his status in the Dominican Republic, where a tell-all book was released last week — written by no less than the press secretary of the country's President, Leonel Fernández. The Power of Narco by Rafael Nuñez is an in-depth tale of the hunt for Figueroa-Agosto.
The book and the sex footage — which came into circulation after it was allegedly confiscated during a raid on his Santo Domingo apartment last year — have become something of a comic sideshow to what officials and analysts say is a major step in combating a deadly scourge. "The significance of this arrest can't be overstated. He was the head of a major drug-trafficking organization," says Ivelaw Lloyd Griffith, provost of York College at the City University of New York and an adviser for Caribbean governments on how to combat drug trafficking. "This arrest shows that the bad guys can be brought to justice." (See the origins of the Caribbean's drug-trafficking crisis.)
Authorities say Figueroa-Agosto, a Puerto Rican, worked as a drug-boat driver until 1993, when he carried out a hit on a truck driver who allegedly stole a shipment of Colombian cocaine. Puerto Rican courts convicted him of the murder and sentenced him to 209 years in prison. But in 1999, he walked out of the prison's front gates after presenting the guards with a falsified release order. He was on the run for the next 11 years, leading his criminal organization while living what U.S. Marshals described as a luxury lifestyle in both the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. He allegedly bought homes and cars under false identities. At one point, Figueroa-Agosto — or a man claiming to be him — called a popular Dominican morning radio show and offered an $800,000 reward for the murder of either of the country's two top police officials. (See "Baseball Dreams: Striking Out in the Dominican Republic.")
Puerto Rican and Dominican anti-narcotics units tell TIME that his organization controlled as much as 90% of the drugs that were run from the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico. The FBI says Puerto Rico is the Caribbean's most sought-after drug territory because much of the cargo from there does not have to clear customs before entering the eastern U.S. seaboard. Considering his alleged criminal network's size and influence, Figueroa-Agosto faces shockingly thin charges: the feds have filed a single passport fraud charge that dates to 1999 (he has pleaded not guilty to the charge). But he has already been convicted in Puerto Rico of charges for which he will have to serve 205 years in prison. Agencies are mounting a drug-trafficking case against him and declined to answer questions about the reach of Figueroa-Agosto's organization.
Puerto Rico's Attorney General, Guillermo Somoza-Colombiani, and other sources tell TIME that two of Figueroa-Agosto's partners have been arrested and charged. One is his alleged right-hand man, Elvin Torres Estrada — better known as "El Muñecón" — who was arrested in Puerto Rico in June. According to court documents, Torres supplied a Puerto Rican drug gang called "the Combo of the 70s," which operated out of a fortress-like base in public-housing complexes in Bayamon, just south of the Puerto Rican capital of San Juan. From there, the gang supplied "narcotics to drug traffickers throughout Puerto Rico, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Florida," an April federal indictment against Torres and 64 other alleged members of the organization states. The organization made millions off the distribution. According to the indictment, they threw a free annual Christmas concert with performances by some of the biggest names in Puerto Rican reggaeton for residents. They reportedly built recording studios and gyms. And they traveled to the U.S. to buy cars to compete in drag-racing events, according to the indictment.
Allegedly feeding it all was Figueroa-Agosto's trafficking ring, receiving shipments from at least three South American routes. According to federal charges filed against the second of Figueroa-Agosto's alleged accomplices, Ramon Antonio Del Rosario-Puente, better known as "Toño Leña," the organization transported South American cocaine and heroin from three routes. A small airplane would drop bundles in the Dominican Republic, where they'd be collected, repackaged and moved to Puerto Rico or the U.S. (Torres, who is in jail awaiting trial, has not entered a plea. Neither has Del Rosario-Puente, who in custody in the Dominican Republic. The U.S. Attorney's office in Puerto Rico has asked for his extradition.) (See a brief history of extraditions.)
The racket apparently made Figueroa-Agosto a millionaire. When Dominican authorities raided his Santo Domingo apartment and other residences last year, they confiscated the equivalent of $4.6 million hidden in an armored Mercedes-Benz, eight other vehicles — including two Ferraris — and the animals of a small petting zoo he'd set up in a countryside home. Figueroa-Agosto, however, escaped. A man claiming to be him later told a popular morning radio show that he paid police $1 million to evade the arrest. President Fernández has said there would be no "sacred cows" in routing out the corrupt officials with ties to the case. Last week, 13 police and military officers were removed for their alleged involvement.
Yet similar corruption throughout the region has some questioning the focus of the Obama Administration's major regional anti-drug effort, the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative. Launched last year with $37 million divided among 15 countries, the initiative was needed to mop up the "spillover" from the Colombian and Mexican drug wars, officials say. This year, the Administration has requested $72.6 million, distributed to areas such as military and narcotics control. "The initiative needs to go further in strengthening the local institutions," says Colin Frederick, a Trinidad and Tobago–born research associate with the Washington-based Council on Hemispheric Affairs. Frederick says the Caribbean has long been a way station for drug shipments to the U.S. and Europe, but lately drug traffickers are seeking out more routes in the region. "These are small countries that lack border and maritime security ... And these days, traffickers are looking for alternatives to Central America and Mexico." Many Caribbean countries, including Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, have linked increasing murder rates to the drug trade. Analysts expect a new wave of violence to follow Figueroa-Agosto's arrest as rival cartels battle for control of the lucrative route. "He'll be replaced by someone else. They'll fight for control," Frederick says.
Figueroa-Agosto's career as a drug trafficker may have come to an end, but back on the streets of Santo Domingo, it seems his cinematic life is just getting started. Police arrested dozens of DVD vendors, but that did little to cut demand. A week after the video first hit the streets, Ortiz says he tripled his asking price for it. "They're selling like hot bread," he says.
July 20, 2010
Denis McDonough '92 -The Adviser at the Heart of National Security
The Adviser at the Heart of National Security
By HELENE COOPER
Published: July 9, 2010
Denis McDonough '92, the National Security Council's chief of staff, is so close to the president that colleagues often do not make a major move without checking with him.
Nadav Kandar for The New York Times
Denis McDonough, the National Security Council's chief of staff, is so close to the president that colleagues often do not make a major move without checking with him.
They should have checked first with Denis McDonough, the National Security Council’s chief of staff. “I don’t think that’s where the president is on that,” Mr. McDonough informed his higher-ups, according to two administration officials.
A couple of months later, when state officials in Florida tried to halt medical evacuation flights from Haiti, Mr. McDonough, on the ground in earthquake-stunned Port-au-Prince, got on his BlackBerry, which is never far from his side. Within a few hours, as other officials tell it, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano acted to keep the airspace open.
Forget Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton or Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates. When it comes to national security, Mr. Obama’s inner circle is so tight it largely consists of Mr. McDonough, a 40-year-old from Minnesota who is unknown to most Americans but who is so close to the president that his colleagues — including his superiors — often will not make a move on big issues without checking with him first.
“He is the keeper of the president’s flame,” said Cheryl Mills, Mrs. Clinton’s chief of staff. Brian Katulis, a foreign policy expert who is a good friend of Mr. McDonough, said, “When the president needs to pick up the phone and call someone on national security, that someone is Denis.”
When Mr. Obama got word of the Rolling Stone article that would lead to his firing of Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal as the top commander in Afghanistan, Mr. McDonough was one of about a half-dozen people he immediately summoned to the Oval Office.
Mr. McDonough is intensively protective of the president, and is well known for picking up the phone — or his BlackBerry — to take people to task, from reporters to Washington talking heads to other Obama officials who go off message. He spent the entirety of his bike ride home to Takoma Park, Md., from the White House late one recent night arguing on the cellphone with a reporter who he believed had mischaracterized an internal administration debate over Iraq policy.
He has berated some of the Democratic Party’s most distinguished foreign policy dignitaries when they have dared to critique Mr. Obama publicly, leaving a miffed Washington establishment in his wake muttering — off the record, of course — about just who this guy thinks he is.
His e-mail messages are legendary across Washington, and usually appear right after a critique hits the Web. When David Rothkopf, a national security expert and Commerce Department official in the Clinton administration, wrote a column for The Washington Post last August that praised Mrs. Clinton — and notably, not Mr. Obama — as overseeing “profound changes” to American foreign policy, the first e-mail message Mr. Rothkopf received came from you-know-who.
“Interesting choice for a profile,” Mr. McDonough wrote.
“Political figures like to have people who are watching their back,” Mr. Rothkopf said in an interview. “I understand why people are bugged by McDonough; they’re jealous of his access to the president. But the president deserves to have someone like him.”
Mr. McDonough declined to be interviewed for this article.
Mr. Obama arrived in Washington six years ago as a political outsider, a Chicago novice with no historical ties to the Democratic foreign policy establishment. Early on in the presidential campaign, Mr. McDonough signed up with Mr. Obama.
A foreign policy adviser to Senator Tom Daschle before Mr. Daschle’s 2004 election defeat, Mr. McDonough was then at the Center for American Progress, a liberal research organization.
HE was all over the country for Mr. Obama during the campaign. Mr. McDonough shoveled the driveway and sidewalk of a Davenport, Iowa, couple as part of an unsuccessful effort to woo them into caucusing for Mr. Obama instead of Mrs. Clinton. He spent so much time canvassing his assigned precinct that by the night of the Iowa caucuses he was greeting most of the caucusgoers by name, prompting his colleagues to start calling him the town mayor. (Mr. Obama won five of the seven delegates in the precinct.)
Mr. McDonough looks more like a Town & Country cover model than a Washington foreign policy wonk. At 6-foot-3, he weighs himself regularly in the White House doctor’s office to make sure he does not go above 200 pounds.
But early on during the campaign, Mr. McDonough took on the role of Mr. Obama’s foreign policy guru. “Foreign policy was always the high wire for us on the campaign,” one administration official said. President Obama, he said, “trusted Denis to get the job done but not sand down his views.”
After the Democratic debate in South Carolina in 2007, when Mr. Obama called “ridiculous” the notion of not talking to America’s enemies, Mr. McDonough and Mr. Obama mulled the ensuing furor in the candidate’s bare Massachusetts Avenue campaign office. Mr. McDonough, according to a former campaign official, “told the president, ‘You have nothing to walk back on your position. You don’t need lectures on foreign policy from the Democratic foreign policy establishment.’ ”
The bond they forged during the campaign sealed Mr. McDonough’s role as Mr. Obama’s most trusted foreign policy aide in the White House. Today, many of the old Democratic rivals are in the Obama cabinet, deciding Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran policy. And Mr. McDonough is far closer to the president than they are.
AT both the Pentagon and the State Department, officials report being chewed out by Mr. McDonough when he believes they have leaked something before the White House is ready. In recent months, Mr. McDonough has mellowed, his colleagues say. In fact, he began 2010 telling reporters that he was going to make an effort to be nice, and now routinely mentions that he will not blow up during his almost nightly phone calls to dispute articles.
At the White House, Mr. McDonough presses the East Wing to make sure that junior members of the National Security Council staff are invited to receptions and parties.
In an interview, General Jones said he could not recall when Mr. McDonough told him and other officials that their evolving consensus on Afghanistan policy was not where Mr. Obama wanted to go. But “as a generic anecdote, I’m not bothered by that; it’s what I expect him to do,” he said.
“It’s a big asset for all of us to have Denis, who has known the president for so long,” General Jones said. “He knows how he thinks about issues.”
A version of this article appeared in print on July 10, 2010, on page A6 of the New York edition.
April 20, 2010
James Read, Professor of Political Science delivered the Alpheus T. Mason Address at Princeton University...
James Read, Professor of Political Science and Joseph P. Farry Professor of Public Policy, delivered the Alpheus T. Mason Address to the James Madison Program at Princeton University on March 23. The title of the talk was "The Only True Sovereign of a Free People? The Problem of Majority Rule in Madison, Calhoun, and Lincoln." It described how in Lincoln's view, the Civil War was a test of the moral legitimacy of majority rule, in contrast to Calhoun who rejected majority rule in favor of state nullification of federal law. Both Calhoun and Lincoln claimed to be followers of Madison. A video recording of the address is posted at http://web.princeton.edu/sites/jmadison/calendar/flash/Read.html
March 30, 2010
It takes more than politicians to make good policy
By Eric Schubert
Updated: 03/27/2010 04:00:18 PM CDT
Most Minnesotans don't leave to live elsewhere. For the most part we stay because we like it here. So how do we make Minnesota even better as our relatively small world grows smaller and more competitive? How do we keep our most talented people at home, attract others with valuable skills, and move Minnesota forward? The answer lies in using our most abundant and valuable resource - human capital - differently.
The more we draw from the deep reserves of what Minnesotans know and aspire to, the better off we'll be, on everything from public policy to business climate to civil society. As we consider how to apply our strengths to the challenging times ahead, here are a few things that I think would help.
Credible Data: Since Minnesota's Planning Department was eliminated, we've had no shared, go-to research source measuring threats and opportunities. Game planning without a scouting report is difficult. Minnesota Compass, funded by nine foundations and run by Wilder Research Center, could change that. But unless leaders of our civic spokes - foundations, for-profit and non-profit businesses, chambers of commerce, unions, faith communities, media, think tanks - coalesce as hubs to engage Minnesotans to act - a Compass just points.
Safe Harbors for Ideas: The Legislature wasn't designed to be a research and development center. But too often we expect it to be that and more, relinquishing our own civic responsibility. Minnesota has smart people and a multitude of public policy groups, including the Citizens League, Humphrey Institute, Chambers of Commerce, foundations, Growth and Justice, Center of the American Experiment, and others. But too often quality gets lost in quantity.
For example, it feels as though hundreds of groups work on "improving" education. Yet noise seems to overpower shared momentum. Imagine if we had really robust safe harbors for ideas, where people check their preconceptions at the door, share knowledge, focus and collaborate on solving specific problems and seizing new opportunities. The Citizens League is convening such a group to work on long-term-care financing, but we need safe harbors working daily. Technology could increase their citizen participation and move ideas from paper to advocacy to implementation. We implore government to work smarter and better together, but what about us?
A Shared Voice: Many commissions have studied taxes, making us the Land of 10,000 White Papers. But where is statewide discussion and understanding of those ideas? Why should only so-called "experts" discuss and examine taxing options? After all, we all pay taxes. It would take discomfort for some, untraditional collaborations, and leadership for our foundations, businesses, non-profits, think-tanks, and others to reach common ground on taxes and then rally Minnesotans to it. The "tax-the-rich!" vs. "no-new-taxes!" fight is too shallow for good governance and a barrier to a smarter system. A broader discussion - one not framed by partisans inside the Capitol - could empower us to make sound statewide decisions.
Venture Fund: A void of CEOs as civic catalysts is often lamented. But Minnesota has 19 Fortune 500 companies (33 in the Fortune 1,000), plus many foundations and philanthropists. Collaboration outlined above could be supported in part by a Minnesota Innovation Venture Fund seeded by those desiring better for our state, which I assume includes many companies, foundations, philanthropists and others. It would challenge citizens, foundations, universities, think tanks, special interests and others to submit proposals on how they'll engage a wide range of people - not just special-interest partners - in creating new approaches to public challenges. Funding could be awarded in phases. Each milestone triggers dollars supporting the next phase. Everyone works smarter. The winner: us.
Civility: Minnesotans are known for friendliness. But let's not rest on precedent. Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) and Minnesota Public Television are skilled at keeping discussions on combustible issues civil. Interestingly, MPR was founded by Benedictines at Saint John's University, whose tenets include civility and the common good. Recipients of public dollars, MPR and Minnesota Public Television could convene statewide discussions on approaches grown from the Minnesota Innovation Venture Fund. Discourse also would benefit from media outlets following MinnPost.com's requirement that message board commentators use their real name. At public water coolers, transparency is a much-needed moderator.
In 1858, people began working together to build Minnesota. We can build much higher if we turn to each other.
Eric Schubert, Inver Grove Heights, a former Humphrey Policy Fellow at the University of Minnesota, helped found the Eugene J. McCarthy Lectureship at St. John's University, which this year featured former U.S. Sen. Chuck Hagel.
February 15, 2010
Visitors from Minnesota get surprise visit from Obama
February 4, 2010, 9:54 am by Albert Eisele
Proving once again the adage that it’s not what you know but who you know in Washington, the presidents of two Minnesota private colleges got an unexpected surprise Wednesday when they were ushered into the Oval Office to meet President Obama.
The Rev. Robert Koopmann of Saint John’s University and MaryAnn Baenninger of the College of Saint Benedict were having lunch in the White House Mess with Denis McDonough, the Saint John’s alumnus and chief of staff of the National Security Council, and Jim Dwyer of the Saint John’s University development office, when McDonough informed them they were going to meet Obama.
“He said we better hurry because we have an appointment with the president,” Baenninger said after she and Fr. Koopmann spent about five minutes with the president, who posed for photographs with them while Vice President Biden cooled his heels outside the Oval Office.
“He was very personable and friendly, and talked about the importance of higher education,” said Baenninger, who has headed the Catholic women’s college since 2004. “And he was taller than I expected.”
Fr. Koopmann, the Benedictine priest who became Saint John’s 12th president last July after the death of his predecessor, Br. Dietrich Reinhart, said Obama praised McDonough as “one of the good choices I made.” And he noted that Obama put his arm around him as they posed for photographs.
Koopmann and Baenninger, who were in Washington for the annual meeting of private Catholic college presidents, were accompanied at the White House meeting by Dwyer.
McDonough, a 1992 Saint John’s graduate from Stillwater, was scheduled to join Fr. Koopmann and Baenninger at an evening reception on Capitol Hill for alumnae of the two colleges, but had to cancel because of a last-minute meeting of the National Security Council.
Matt Lindstrom, who heads the Eugene J. McCarthy Center for Public Policy and Civic Engagement at Saint John’s, announced the creation of a Washington Fellows program for students of the two colleges, which is named after former Republican Sen. David Durenberger, an alumnus of Saint John’s University.
February 10, 2010
Panel Discussion: "1968, Stars and Stripes Forever or Never?"
View the video of this panel discussion!