By Lanny Davis

There is enough that is horrible and tragic about the killings of innocent people in Mumbai (the Indian city long known in the West as Bombay) without the careless media reporting and premature accusations by Indian officials suggesting Pakistani government responsibility, making matters worse.

Full disclosure: I represented Pakistan in the 1990s, have visited the country several times, and made many close Pakistani friends during the time I helped Pakistan recover hundreds of millions of dollars the U.S. government owed it.

It is not clear whether the government of India has actually made charges that the government of Pakistan was involved in the attacks or simply remained silent while its officials anonymously suggested such involvement — instead of waiting for the facts to emerge.

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Editor’s Note: FOX Forum asked former White House Special Counsel Lanny Davis to react to reports that Sen. Hillary Clinton might be President-elect Obama’s choice for Secretary of State. Here is his response:

I have not talked to the Senator and am speaking only for myself:

Based on knowing Senator Clinton for almost 40 years, I can say that she is strong and firm in her convictions and a great team player — but she is also a great listener.

AP

Most important, she has the rare ability to walk in other people’s shoes and see the world through their eyes.  That, to me, is an important quality in a secretary of state after eight years of this administration.

As President-elect Barack Obama confronts myriad domestic and foreign issues, one of the most critical will be what to do about the Terrorist Surveillance Program and other highly classified, covert programs that caused substantial civil liberties concerns during much of the Bush administration.

In this regard, his national security transition team will want to assess the effectiveness of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, a five-member, presidentially appointed panel that provides independent supervision of the government’s anti-terrorist activities that could infringe on privacy rights and civil liberties. The board was recommended by the Sept. 11 commission and created by the 2004 Intelligence Reform Act, as subsequently amended in 2007.

I was honored to be selected by President Bush in mid-2005 to fill the Democratic slot on the first board constituted under the 2004 legislation. (Mr. Bush and I are old friends from Yale, and when he appointed me, he knew I am a longtime liberal Democrat concerned about privacy rights and civil liberties.)

Serving with me was Theodore Olson, a leading conservative lawyer and former U.S. solicitor general under Mr. Bush. Mr. Olson and I, from opposite sides of the ideological spectrum, found (at times to our amazement) that we agreed on most of the crucial issues and judgments presented to the board over the course of the next year.

Unfortunately, over time, I found that the congressional compromise that established the board in 2004 — by creating a purportedly independent oversight panel but placing it within the Office of the President in the White House — inevitably undermined its independence.

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By Lanny Davis
Former White House Counsel

Senator Obama won the way, ultimately, all successful presidential candidates do — by holding the center of America — and attracting moderate Republicans and independents to join the FDR liberal base for a new Democratic majority coalition.

For reasons that only John McCain can explain, he chose to abandon the independent moderate John McCain persona of 2000, tilted to the right to get the nomination and then went further right in the general election — when he picked Sarah Palin as his vice presidential candidate and focused his themes on ultra-right attack rhetoric against Senator Obama which had little credibility — such as Senator Obama being a “socialist.”  All this came from the candidate who supported a Republican president who nationalized major financial institutions, investment banks and insurance companies — actions that if a Democratic president had sponsored he/she would have been accused of being Hugo Chavez.

In short, John McCain lost because he walked away from the center and his own authenticity as a moderate. That is why he not only lost tonight but lost big.

Lanny Davis
Former White House Special Counsel

Editor’s Note: This post also appeared on November 3 in The Washington Times.

Whether Barack Obama or John McCain wins the presidency on Tuesday, it should be clear that at no other time since 1864 has the need and the chance for a bipartisan coalition government been greater.

In 1864, with the Civil War entering its fourth year, Abraham Lincoln was politically weakened by three years of war with no end in sight and facing a strong Democratic opponent in George S. McClellan, former General of the Army of the Potomac. With the nation facing the greatest crisis in its history, Lincoln knew he needed something new and different to broaden his political base and create the greatest opportunity for post-Civil War reconstruction and national unity.

To the great displeasure of the Republican anti-slavery radicals in his party, he asked a Democratic senator from Tennessee, Andrew Johnson, to be his vice-presidential running mate. Johnson, while pro-Union, was known to be soft on the Southern-state confederates and had supported Southern-state Democratic candidate John Breckenridge in the 1860 presidential campaign.

Lincoln’s assassination the month after his inauguration ended his plan to create a bipartisan Cabinet that would govern, in the words of his second inaugural speech, “with malice towards none, with charity for all.”

The 2008 election presents another appropriate time when bipartisan unity government is needed more than ever.

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By Lanny Davis
Former White House Special Counsel

Has the Market reached bottom and is it on the way back up?

Anyone who tries to predict what the actual “bottom” — or “top,” for that matter — of the stock market is in any given period is likely to lose money in the long run.

Here is my absolutely fool-proof advice for making money by investing in the market:

1) When I buy, sell.

2) When I sell, buy.

By Lanny Davis
Former White House Special Counsel

This post also appeared in The Washington Times on October 13.

In the past few weeks of the presidential race, we have seen the best and the worst of the two campaigns. While I perceive that the campaign of Sen. John McCain has been more negative, even a strong supporter of Sen. Barack Obama such as myself must concede there have been some bad moments on our side, too.

The common theme seems to be that in both campaigns there is sometimes a disconnect between the candidates’ personal campaigning versus what their campaign organizations are saying in paid ads and hateful outbursts by some overzealous supporters.

Here are some examples on both sides:

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By Lanny Davis
Former White Special Counsel/FOX News Political Contributor

At the end of the vice-presidential debate Thursday night, most objective pundits declared that Sen. Joe Biden did better on substance but Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was more effective on style, approaching her poised performance in her convention speech.

Every objective national poll showed that more people thought Mr. Biden had “won” — whatever that means. I think that means he seemed more vice presidential. Can there be any doubt about that?

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By Lanny Davis
Former White House Special Counsel/FOX News Political Contributor

The consequence of an absence of leadership in both parties — the failure to explain this legislation, what it would accomplish, who wins and who losses and why and most important why it will work — the failure to communicate and inform the American people leads to this result.

It is the Revolt of the Uninformed –and against a blank check (literally) to our government that hasn’t or can’t explain this crisis and the proposed solution honestly and persuasively to the American people.

By Lanny Davis
Former White House Special Counsel/FOX News Political Contributor

Note: This column also appeared on September 29 in The Washington Times.

When all is said and done, it was a draw.

As former senior McCain adviser Mike Murphy told David Gregory of NBC/MSNBC after the debate, “No game-changer: We’re going to have a rematch.”

For Sen. John McCain, however, a tie seemed like a good outcome compared with the previous few days.

Said a McCain team adviser, quoted in Mike Allen’s column in Politico on Saturday:

“The debate was a tie, but it turned the page from our erratic handling of the bailout negotiations. A ‘McCain sunk the economy with a political stunt’ narrative is now ancient history. Now we get an improved bailout deal, calmer markets, and praise from House conservatives. We’re here back even and live to fight another day.”

I expected the John McCain who showed up at Ole Miss to be unprepared, tired, frazzled - and looking and acting like all of the above.

I was wrong.

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