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Highlights from the 2007 Aspen Ideas Festival

July 5, 2007

Highlights from the 2007 Aspen Ideas Festival

(Aspen, Colorado) – The Aspen Institute and the Atlantic release the following highlights from Day Four of the 2007 Aspen Ideas Festival. For inquiries, please contact Amy Thompson at 202-285-2997 or [email protected].

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AN AFTERNOON OF CONVERSATION
Gen. Colin Powell today said the Bush Administration didn’t plan in advance politically for becoming “an occupier of Iraq.”  “When we became liberators, we also became occupiers,” Powell told a packed auditorium of festival goers during a special afternoon of conversations with leading thinkers. “There was no governing structure and we had to become that structure,” Powell explained.

In a separate panel discussing Iraq, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) said she had never known a time when “Americans are hated as much as they are today.  And that’s a sobering thing.”  She added that the upcoming presidential election is going to “force some change” in dealing with the Iraq situation.

The Rev. Calvin Butts told the audience that America needs to pay more attention to domestic issues, saying “I don’t care what happens in Iraq.  I care about what is happening in our own country” and “you’re not afraid of Iraq, you’re afraid of the United States of America.”

On the education panel this afternoon, William H. Gates, Sr. said “the biggest single obstacle to better public education are the teacher unions” while Republican presidential candidate Tommy Thompson and Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings said states must take more control over setting – and raising – the standards of their public schools.

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TODAY’S VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS
Please visit http://www.aifestival.org/index2.php?menu=3&sub=4 to watch the following clips:

  • Pollster Douglas Schoen reports on a poll conducted for the 2007 Aspen Ideas Festival, “Americans and Their Foreign Policy.” See the full poll results.
  • What does America stand for today? Politicians and academics from all over the political spectrum address provide answers, from America’s standpoint and the world’s.
  • Andrea Mitchell moderates today’s panel discussion on the Iraq question, with Sen. Feinstein, Gen. Jack Keane and Lee Hamilton. 

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ATLANTIC@ASPEN BLOG – TODAY’S DISCUSSIONS
What does the Atlantic’s Ross Douthat think about today’s Iraq discussions and the population paradox? … the Atlantic’s Clive Crook talks about his Ted Olson Day … James Fallows provides an amusingly keen observation from today’s morning China session … and more.   Join the discussion at  http://aspenideas.theatlantic.com/

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FESTIVAL QUOTES
“We decided upon $200,000 for a two-way ticket. But if you’ve got a mother-in-law, we can arrange one-way tickets.” — Richard Branson on his Virgin Galactic flights into space in conversation with Bob Schieffer

“The Consumer Product Safety Commission says each year two-thirds of products investigated are imported.  Fifty percent of that agenda is from China.”  — Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL) discussing the Chinese economy

“As many as 25 million young Arabs between the ages of 18 and 25 will be without a job in three years from now.”  — Hussain Haqqani, former advisor to three Pakastani prime ministers, on the global demographic crisis

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TOMORROW’S PREVIEW: 

  • Special guest President Bill Clinton will discuss his work around the world with Richard Stengel
  • PBS’ “Washington Week with Gwen Ifill and National Journal” will have a special live taping from the Festival grounds, with panelists Alexis Simendinger, Dan Balz, Martha Raddatz and John Dickerson
  • ESPN’s Jeremy Schapp and HBO Real Sports’ Jon Frankel discuss sports and society, and covering sports
  • Andrea Mitchell moderates a roundtable discussion on women and American politics, with Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA), Education Secretary Spellings, Secretary Madeleine Albright, Sen. Feinstein and Slates John Dickerson
  • Drs. David Agus, Deborah Schrag and Larry Norton discuss collaboration and the cure for cancer
  • Sec. Albright, EU Ambassador John Bruton, Harriet Babbitt, Ian Forbes and Ashraf Ghani discuss multilateral institutions of the future
  • Sam Tanenhaus interviews author Tobias Wolff on his thoughts about memoirs, fiction and what lies between

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