Ted Widmer: All Publications, Events and Press

Ted Widmer on Minnesota Public Radio | 'War and Diplomacy'

Articles — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 13:10:00 -0400

New America in the News:

The notion that America is an "exceptional" nation has guided our foreign policy from the earliest days of the Republic. But critics say that idea has been used to justify some questionable adventures abroad. This is the latest discussion in Midmorning's election-season series examining the debates that define and inspire our country, using Howard Fineman's "The Thirteen American Arguments" as a guide.

Guests:

Marilyn Young: Professor of history at New York University, and co-editor of "Iraq and the Lessons of Vietnam."

Ted Widmer: Director of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University, and a fellow at the New America Foundation. He was a foreign policy speech writer for President Clinton. His newest book is "Ark of the Liberties."

LINK to audio

When a New President Inherits a Mess

Articles — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 13:48:00 -0400

After a nerve-rattling week in which the U.S. financial system was shaken to the core, here's a simple question: Why on Earth would anyone want to be president right now?

Even in the best of times, it's a grueling job. But the problems of 2008 seem unusually intractable, and despite the fine talk one sometimes hears about reconciliation, the electorate will be divided no matter who wins in November. Even Bush's snarkiest critics would have had trouble predicting all the rough weather of the second term, from Hurricane Katrina to the smoldering wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to the bursting of the housing bubble, the financial meltdown and… more

Grand Old Wit

Articles — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 08:15:00 -0400

Even in an age of overly orchestrated and audience-tested messages from candidates, it's remarkable how much a spontaneous remark can do to change the tenor of the campaign. Last week, Sarah Palin's genuinely amusing and apparently unscripted one-liner about pit bulls and hockey moms brought down the house in St. Paul, Minn. Furthermore, it gave the delegates the green light to laugh harder at her not-very-funny put-down of community organizers. This was not old-fashioned American homespun; it was deep sarcasm. It stung, and that's why the crowd loved it.

Her cutting remarks were a reminder that politics is about much more than education and the economy--it's also… more

Ted Widmer in the Guardian (U.K.) | 'He Could Read a Directory and It Would Sound Good'

Communications — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:00:00 -0400

New America in the News:

To a large degree, the success of Obama's presidential run so far has been built on his skills as a speechmaker. It was his speech to the Democratic convention four years ago, before he had even entered the Senate, that propelled him into the national spotlight.

"He is blessed with a richly resonant voice that we love to hear; he could read the telephone directory and it would sound good," said Ted Widmer, editor of an acclaimed edition of American political speeches and a former Bill Clinton speechwriter. "He is very good at pauses and inflection, and he cuts an impressive figure on stage - all of which adds up to making an Obama speech a special event." LINK

Explicating the Roots of U.S. Foreign Policy

Communications — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 01:15:00 -0400

A New America Event
08/13/2008 - 12:15pm

On August 13, Ted Widmer, director of Brown University’s John Carter Brown Library and former speechwriter for Bill Clinton, discussed his new book, Ark of the Liberties: America and the World, and entertained questions from an audience at the New America Foundation. After a brief introduction by Steve Clemons, director of the American Strategy Program, Dr. Widmer laid out a narrative on the way America’s unique founding circumstances shaped out national outlook and actions for the past two centuries. An MP3 audio recording can be downloaded below, while video is available at right.

America’s founding population, the Puritans, was in many ways a culture of religious extremists. They were propelled to leave Europe and settle in what would become the United States because of their adherence to religious prophecies that saw America as a new world ready to host the founding of a righteous civilization. These millennial views would later become the root of the United States’ view of itself as a unique nation, invested with divine providence to promote freedom and liberty in the world.

Yet these noble goals have often been in opposition to the actions of the United States, creating a tension that has defined much of American foreign policy over the past centuries. American professions of liberty abroad while allowing slavery at home and willingness to engage in hostile acts while claiming peaceful motives are a common theme in the American history.

American belief in the United States’ role to spread freedom continues to this day, with the Obama campaign couching much of its language in a religious tone and appealing toward a Christian imperative to care for the sick and free the oppressed. Even the invasion of Iraq is now defended as a mission to bring freedom to the Iraqi people. As America stands at another crucial juncture in its history, it continues to root its vision of its place in the world in the hopes and views of its puritan founders.

A question and answer session followed with questions on the underpinnings of the militarization of US foreign policy, the continuing importance of providential self perception in American politics, and the continuing failure of civilian oversight on military spending.

-Ian McAllister, Research Intern, American Strategy Program

Redemption Politics

Ron Tang — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 11:35:00 -0400

We all know that politics makes strange bedfellows, but how odd it must have been to have sat in on the recent meeting between Barack Obama and evangelical leaders, including Franklin Graham, the conservative minister who once called Islam “a very evil and wicked religion.” Yet there they were, Obama and the evangelicals in Chicago on June 10, searching for -- and apparently finding -- considerable common ground. In the last few weeks, Obama has announced several outreach projects (including one named after Joshua, who, unlike Moses, was able to lead his people to the promised land). For their part,… more

Ted Widmer's book in the Washington Post | 'Ark of the Liberties' Review - 'Restoring America's Ideals'

Communications — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 08:48:00 -0400

New America in the News:

"The United States stand at this moment at the summit of the world," Winston Churchill said in 1945. "I rejoice that this should be so. Let them act up to the level of their power and their responsibility, not for themselves but for others, for all men in all lands, and then a brighter day may dawn upon human history."

It's been a long time since American foreign policy has elicited that kind of hosanna from abroad, and a long time since Americans could comfortably affirm such an idealistic view of themselves. Ted Widmer wants to restore idealism's good name. In the spirit of an old-fashioned jeremiad, he summons his countrymen to return to their own highest standards and properly play their anointed role in the world.

Widmer takes his place alongside other recent writers who have lit the lantern of history to illuminate an increasingly menacing future. They all share a sense that America's regnant foreign policy doctrines are approaching a moment of highly consequential reckoning... LINK

Ted Widmer's book in Dallas Morning News | 'Ark of The Liberties' Review: 'America's Virtues and Missteps'

Communications — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 08:11:00 -0400

New America in the News:

If you think our country has engaged in shameful wars of choice, drifted from our Constitutional moorings and generally failed to live up to our self-proclaimed role as the world's guarantor of liberty, you may be right. But which century are you talking about?

According to historian Ted Widmer, a former adviser and speechwriter for President Bill Clinton, the America of lofty ideals about freedom and human rights has always had one stubborn enemy: itself.

Throughout this valuable history of the ideas that have shaped American foreign policy, Mr. Widmer reminds us that the errand into Iraq, which opponents consider a nightmarish aberration, is not without precedent in the nation's history. Our country "always had tendencies working against our best ideals," he writes. "It was never accurate to see America as the embodiment of pure virtue. . . LINK

Ted Widmer's book in L.A. Times | 'Ark of the Liberties' Book Review by Art Wilson

Communications — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 08:02:00 -0400

New America in the News:
...a belief in American exceptionalism and its accompanying missionary outlook -- is a recurring theme in Ted Widmer's Ark of the Liberties. "In many ways," he asserts, "we still live in Wilson's world." Whereas Wilson "is often given credit for inventing a new way of thinking about U.S. foreign policy, it is probably more accurate to say that he tapped into old feelings that had never entirely disappeared" ... Ark of the Liberties is in part a search for the roots of those Wilsonian impulses, which Widmer traces to pre-Revolutionary days, and in part a summary of the foreign-policy orientation of administrations from the country's creation to the present, often as evidenced in officials' speechifying. The gamut of American history, from George Washington's farewell address (in which he argued for a foreign policy of neutrality) to nation-building in Iraq, is on display... LINK

Looking For Liberty

Ron Tang — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 10:20:00 -0400

According to the film “National Treasure,” the Declaration of Independence is a document of such far-seeing sagacity that it has secret codes and treasure maps hidden in the parchment. You just have to know how to look for them. But that poses the question: which document, precisely, is the Declaration of Independence?

Most of us would answer that it’s the manuscript written on vellum, dated July 4, 1776, now displayed in a baroque case at the National Archives, where it is protected by bulletproof glass, argon gas and the 55-ton underground vault it is lowered into every night. But like everything… more

Ark of the Liberties

Ron Tang — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 05:18:00 -0400

The United States stands at a historic crossroads; essential to the world yet unappreciated. America’s decline in popularity over the last eight years has been nothing short of astonishing. With wit, brilliance, and deep affection, Ted Widmer, a scholar and a former presidential speechwriter, reminds everyone why this great nation had so far to fall. In a sweeping history of centuries, Ark of the Liberties recounts America’s ambition to be the world’s guarantor of liberty. It is a success story that America, and the world, forgets at its peril.

From the Declaration of Independence to the Gettysburg Address… more

America Isn't Over

Ron Tang — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 08:39:00 -0400

A few weeks ago, I went into a Barnes & Noble and noticed a prominent new display -- the "BRIC" table, piled high with books detailing the irresistible rise of Brazil, Russia, India and China. Nearby, another shelf sagged under the weight of more than half a dozen depressing new books about the failures of American foreign policy, each painting a more lurid picture than the last of the coming era of U.S. impotence.

The implication, it seemed clear, was that America's time has past. We now live in the "post-American world," according to Newsweek columnist Fareed Zakaria. The gloomy clouds… more

The Insiders

Ron Tang — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 12:05:00 -0400

Pennsylvania Avenue started out as a mere spoke on one of L’Enfant’s radial sketches of the new federal city, connecting the would-be Capitol with the would-be White House. Today it is among the country’s most celebrated thoroughfares, right up there with Madison Avenue, Wall Street and Route 66. It is not much of an exaggeration to call it, as this book does, “America’s Main Street.”

But it is also a street that has radically changed over the last generation, not only because of the face-lifts it has received but also because the ancient ways of doing business in the capital were… more

Citizen Kennedy

Ron Tang — Tue, 27 May 2008 10:28:00 -0400

For a people whom Tocqueville described as living eternally in the future, we Americans do quite a lot of remembering. Eight weeks ago, it was Martin Luther King Jr., who has been gone longer than he was alive. Now we enter the season of remembrance for a former New York senator, Robert F. Kennedy, a season made all the more poignant by the depressing news that the Liberal Lion, Ted Kennedy, is suddenly and unexpectedly a lion in winter.

R.F.K.'s busy life ended on June 6, 1968; barely, it seemed, after eulogizing King with one of the most arresting (and spontaneous)… more

Kennedy's Voice

Ron Tang — Sun, 18 May 2008 07:02:00 -0400

There will never be another speechwriter like Ted Sorensen, if only because there will never be a relationship like the one between Sorensen and John F. Kennedy. Staffs have mushroomed along with expectations that presidents will speak more or less incessantly, on all subjects, from Earth Days to birthdays. Burnout sets in earlier, and few writers stay with a politician for anything like the length of time Sorensen worked for Kennedy, from January 1953 to Nov. 22, 1963. Arguably, he has never stopped working for him.

From the beginning they were an unlikely couple. JFK was infinitely urbane, cool before the… more

Wilson and the Founders: The Roots of Liberal Foreign Policy

Ron Tang — Thu, 01 May 2008 06:39:00 -0400

This article is adapted from Widmer’s January 2008 presentation at “The Liberal Foreign Policy Tradition,” a conference cosponsored by CIS, the Woodrow Wilson Center, and the History and Democracy Project.

We can't do much better than reclaiming the Declaration of Independence as a fundamental foreign policy document in American history. We have a tendency to read it in a simplistic way, and to think of it only as a sort of airy declaration of what were then human rights, and a declaration of separation from England. But, in fact, the founders had a fairly well-articulated sense of what they… more

In Rocky's State, a Legislator Can Still Outpunch an Orator

Ron Tang — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 07:52:00 -0400

The razor-thin margin separating the contenders for the Democratic nomination grew even thinner at the weekend. Why is this battle so close? A simple reason is that, despite the occasional invective, Americans genuinely admire both the charismatic Barack Obama and the fiercely resilient Hillary Clinton. When John McCain is thrown into the mix, we have the greatest reality show ever, an epic clash of survivalists. It is a shame Sergio Leone is not here to direct the final scene. But the general election is not until November. For now, it comes down to the Democratic nomination, and that prize will… more

A More Perfect Soundbite

Ron Tang — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 14:10:00 -0400

Barack Obama's speech acquired a title nearly as soon as it was delivered. On both the campaign website and YouTube, where it has been seen more than two million times, it was identified as "A More Perfect Union."

The four words refer, of course, to the preamble to the Constitution, which was appropriate both as a gesture to Obama's hosts (Philadelphia's National Constitution Center, conveniently located in Pennsylvania) and as a reflection on our very imperfect society. It is a strange phrasing -- grammatically impossible, as some high school English teacher is doubtless pointing out somewhere, because nothing perfect can be… more

Champlain Was Here

Ron Tang — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 08:34:00 -0400

New Englanders grow up imbibing certain creation myths, most of which relate to how unbelievably historic we are. It all started here, and entire businesses -- the vending of tricorne hats, for example -- depend on the tight control of information relating to the beginnings of America -- the Revolution, and the Salem witch trials before that, and at the dawn of time, the Pilgrims, hacking their way into the forest primeval. Everything trails in their wake; or so we like to believe.

But is it possible that New England trails in someone else's wake? As in, the dreaded French? These… more

Ted Widmer in The New York Times | 'What Would Obama Say?'

Communications — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 22:26:00 -0500

New America in the News:

What Would Obama Say? (New York Times)

Ted Widmer, a historian at Brown University said that Mr. Obama’s speeches “were perfect for getting to where he was early in the race, but I think now that we’re in a serious campaign, it would be helpful to hear more concrete proposals.”

“There’s more to governing, there’s more to being president, than speechwriting,” he added.