Introducing the Clark Policy Brief
Clark posted the following entry to his blog on September 10, 2005
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I'm really enjoying the opportunity to build a dialogue with people around our great country, through my travels and speeches across America as well as online.
In particular, I really appreciated Josh Marshall's invitation to join TPM Café as a guest blogger during the last week of August. It was a tremendous experience for me, and I hope it was a good one for you as well. While coping together with the aftermath from Hurricane Katrina and figuring out how best we could help, we were also able to discuss issues related to Iraq, American values, energy policy, and the need for leadership as well as my visits in Wisconsin and Iowa.
These were stimulating and thought-provoking discussions that allowed us to talk and debate directly in the finest tradition of American politics -- and in a way that has not been possible in this age of mass media and mass politics. I want to continue and expand that dialogue to include even more people. That's why I am starting Clark's Policy Brief.
So how do we bring the conversation forward? I'll post my latest thoughts to the Policy Brief. Then I want to hear your feedback and comments -- and I hope you'll invite your friends and family members to take part in this conversation. We want them here and involved in our discussions. We want to grow the number of people taking part in the dialogue.
You'll also need to be a little patient with me. I'm traveling five to six days a week for business and to speak at events where I can talk about the issues facing our country. Sometimes when my schedule is completely packed I won't be able to post during the day -- but I will be here as often as I can, on an ongoing basis. I do want to be engaged with you in discussing the issues and policies we are facing. I do want to hear your ideas and feedback. Overall, I do want to engage together in policy discussions about what we need to do to move this country forward again.
I hope you'll join me in this effort. And there's no time like the present to get Clark's Policy Brief kicked off. So let's begin today.
As we're all aware, the country is completely focused on the relief activities associated with Hurricane Katrina. Now, President Bush has just appointed Coast Guard Vice Admiral Thad Allen to take over responsibility for the relief and recovery effort from FEMA Director Mike Brown.
President Bush's decision follows a flurry of meetings at the White House where Republican leaders discussed the need to appoint a "Hurricane Czar."
Well guess what? They had one in the FEMA Director -- or at least that's what they were supposed to have.
I'm glad President Bush finally appointed a competent person to run the Katrina relief effort. But he should have done that a long time ago, before deciding to appoint Mike Brown as FEMA Director.
We can't fall into the trap that everything is fixed by changing the person at the top. Truth is, disaster recovery takes a lot of experience, and that comes from training as well as learning from the "last time.".
You have to have teamwork, information flow. Taskings and suspense dates, follow-up reports and a strong sense of urgency. This takes some training - not just loud talk.
Of course, my friend and partner James Lee Witt has that experience. As a nation, we have to do the training. It'll take a while.
In the meantime, I hope we'll do more for the people who've been displaced. More on that tomorrow.
Wes
