Clinton Urges Young Liberals to Get Trained

Yesterday, Bill Clinton spoke at a meeting designed to cultivate a new generation of liberal activists.

According to The Washington Post , Clinton said:

"You don't have to wait until your party is in power to have an impact on life at home and around the world," Clinton told a hushed crowd, urging them to embrace grass-roots organizing. "This ain't supposed to be easy, and you have to work at it. I promise you our adversaries work at it."

It seems the liberals are still trying to take a page out of the conservative movement's handbook: David Halperin, a former speechwriter in the Clinton White House said:

We've learned some things from what conservatives have done better, particularly in developing and communicating ideas, in promoting news leaders and in trying to bring people together who are interested in different issues but who have the same general political orientation."

In some cases, groups such as Young America's Foundation, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and the Leadership Institute have been doing for years the type of work Halperin wants to emulate -- supporting conservative student publications, sending favored speakers to college campuses, bringing students to Washington for conferences.

Frankly, we ought to be concerned. Political success is determined over time by the number of effective activists on the given sides ... and they are ramping up their training:

Much of the day was filled with panels teaching students how to articulate the party's message. Strategist Paul Begala, Thomas Frank -- author of "What's the Matter with Kansas?" -- and Nation editor Katrina vanden Heuvel hashed over the reasons Bush won a second term. MoveOn.org's Tom Matzzie and American Prospect editor Garance Franke-Ruta spoke on "advocacy writing and blogging." Indie rocker Ted Leo and cartoonist David Rees -- author of "Get Your War On" -- discussed "mobilizing the arts for change."

In a related story, Bill Clinton yesterday defended his presidential legacy saying George W. Bush won because of his "brilliant slogan -- compassionate conservatism." More from the Post:

He said a friend of his, a Pentecostal minister, voted for Clinton twice but then went Republican because "ever since you left, nobody in your party talks to us anymore." But salvation is at hand. The pastor, Clinton said, told him: "I'd vote for Hillary. I love her."

In other news, RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman will say it was wrong to exploit racial conflict for votes:

It was called "the southern strategy," started under Richard M. Nixon in 1968, and described Republican efforts to use race as a wedge issue -- on matters such as desegregation and busing -- to appeal to white southern voters.

Ken Mehlman, the Republican National Committee chairman, this morning will tell the NAACP national convention in Milwaukee that it was "wrong."