[richlevy]

Well I'm still on the fence, but I did sign up for a discussion with Tony Lake and Cassandra Butts, Obama's foreign and domestic policy advisers. Speeches are fun to watch, but PA doesn't do town hall meetings very well so if you want real answers maybe it's best to talk to advisers rather than the candidates themselves. It's also instructive to meet with the people a candidate picks to advise him/her. If I had been able to meet James Witt and Michael Brown, Clinton's and Bush's FEMA heads, I think I would have been able to formulate a theory on the success of their administrations.

It's at 1pm in Center City.

Since foreign policy and domestic energy policy are going be even more linked going forward than they have been in the past, it's a good pairing.

Anthony Lake (born April 2, 1939) is an American diplomat, political figure, and academic. He has been a foreign policy advisor to many Democratic U.S. presidents and presidential candidates, and served as National Security Advisor under U.S. President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1997. Lake is credited with developing the policy that led to the resolution of the Bosnian War. He is currently a faculty member at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, holding the chair of Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy.

Butts coordinated the formulation of policy on Rep. Gephardt's presidential campaign that included a universal health care plan. In her seven years of work for Rep. Gephardt during his tenure as the House Democratic Leader, Butts was a principal advisor on matters involving the judiciary, financial services, and information technology.