by Heather Hurlburt, Democracy Arsenal, August 23, 2008
1. National security is now best understood as a litmus test or threshold issue for many voters; they may not decide based on it alone, but if you don't give off a sufficient aura of seriousness, you can't close the deal, especially if you are a progressive.
2. Taking the time to strategize about the links between national security and domestic policy/politics is, as Madeleine Albright used to say, not just the right thing to do but the smart thing. Joe Biden built an entire primary campaign around being the national security guy -- and being the guy with the loudest, most heartfelt critique of Bush policies. The attack-dog strategy, and a willingness to go a little farther than the next guy, wasn't necessarily what you'd expect from a card-carrying member of the national security establishment. But it worked. In my experience in
3. Nice guys don't finish last, especially when, as Moira notes, they put good teams together to help them. The two parts of the Biden legend I'll personally vouch for are the quality of the staff, since I know many and hired one; and the riding Amtrak home to the family ever night. For a hard year in the 1980s my family thanked our lucky stars that Joe was keeping that Amtrak stop open for our dad, too, as he did the same commute.
4. American lives do have second, third and fourth acts. Sorry, F. Scott.
5. The mid-atlantic region is the new epicenter of cool, or at the very least the bellwether of
