Transcript
STROBE TALBOTT: I am Strobe Talbott. It is my pleasure to welcome all of you here to the Brookings Institution this morning for the launch of our Opportunity 08 project.
All Presidential campaigns are, by definition, important. They are a chance for the nation to confront big issues. They are the closest we come in our country to having kind of a strategic planning exercise for the nation as a whole with the entire citizenry involved. But all of us who have been involved in this project, and I will be saying a word or two in a moment about who that is, feel that the 2008 Presidential Election Campaign is uniquely important and offers a very special opportunity.
Among other things, there is the quantity and also the dauntingness of the challenges that the nation faces. Those challenges, of course, include the fiscal situation, including the multiple deficits that we are coping with, the whole issue of health policy and how to ensure the financing and delivery of decent health care to all Americans or, to put the proposition in the negative, how to avoid a train wreck in our health care system. There is the issue of how the United States of America is going to compete successfully in a globalized economy, and there is both the challenge and the opportunity represented by the rise of newly emerging powers in the world particularly, of course, countries like China and India and Brazil. Last but by no means least, there is the extraordinarily difficult situation that we face in Iraq which is not only very tough in its own right but also poses real risks for the stability such as it is in the neighborhood, the greater Middle East, and as a result of that very difficult situation, there has been a lot of collateral damage to America's reputation in the world and therefore America's ability to lead in the next phase of the evolution of the international system.
The 2008 Presidential Election is a rarity in another respect. This is going to be the first time in 80 years, since 1928, when there is no incumbent President or Vice President running in the primaries in either party, and it is the first time in 56 years since 1952 when there is not an incumbent President or Vice President on the ticket on either side. Now, that is not just, I would suggest, a bit of exotica or trivia. That actually could have some substantive meaning, and I think it is positive substantive meaning. As a result of that rare and indeed long-time unique feature of this election, there is reason to think that Campaign 2008 will be something of a clean slate in the sense that there will be more openness than usual to new ideas, and that comes at a time when we especially need new ideas. I think there is reason to be hopeful that this time around, there will be a richer, more substantive, less predictable and more forward leaning and forward looking debate and discussion within the parties, between the parties and involving the citizenry as a whole.
So, all in all, that is why the 2008 election creates a real and rare opportunity for the nation, and therefore for the Brookings Institution as well, hence, the name that we have given to this project, Opportunity 2008.