Republican Think Tanks Mourning Their Party

The Republican establishment, many of whom are housed within think tanks across the United States, is feeling a bit uneasy about Donald Trump with less than a week to go before Election Day.

Here is an excerpt from Politico Magazine:

As the country geared up for the third and final presidential debate last week, the fellows of the storied conservative Hoover Institution gathered in Palo Alto to present their research to the think tank's wealthy patrons. Elsewhere in America, in the homestretch of perhaps the weirdest election the nation has ever experienced, things were getting tense, excited, even feverish. But the rooms at the Hoover retreat at Stanford University could have doubled as a funeral parlor, and the lectures as eulogies for a bygone era. Larry Diamond, a prominent political sociologist known to fellow scholars as “Mr. Democracy,” talked about the breakdown of the party system. Kori Schake, a National Security Council official in the George W. Bush administration and adviser to the McCain-Palin campaign, spoke about how the U.S. was endangering the international order it had itself created. Peter Berkowitz, a conservative political scientist and commentator, gave a talk about “the unraveling of civil society” in America.

Of course, not all think tanks and think tankers are sad.  After all, many of the 100-plus people on Donald Trump's transition team come from conservative think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation.

Ed Feulner, former President of the Heritage Foundation (and a policy adviser on Trump's transition team), is reportedly trying to raise $100,000 at New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's request, for the Trump transition to cover costs that aren't covered by federal funding.  This week, Feulner is hosting a $5,000-a-person breakfast with Christie at the swanky Metropolitan Club.

Among the key players on Trump's transition team are Myron Ebell, Director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), Paul Winfree, Director of the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at the Heritage Foundation, and Ed Meese, a Ronald Reagan Distinguished Fellow Emeritus at Heritage.

Think Tanks Trying to Influence Final Presidential Debate

Numerous think tanks have been working closely with presidential candidates offering policy papers, advice, and teams of scholars to quickly pen reports and opinions on the hottest topics of the day.

Think tanks have also been trying to get debate moderators to ask certain questions.  Here is the latest example from Politico:

Several think tanks have posted foreign policy and national security-related questions for the third presidential debate, including the Brookings Institution and the Center for a New American Security. Among the familiar themes: Military force in Syria (a topic the Bipartisan Policy Center also highlighted), Russian aggression in Ukraine and the Baltics and the terrorism fight.

Hundreds of think tankers are directly and indirectly advising both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, and just like past debates, we anticipate a number of think tanks will be doing real-time fact-checking for this debate as well.

Here is a look at what some specific think tanks are doing for tonight's festivities:

• Scholars from the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) are live on Facebook discussing foreign policy and tonight's debate.
• Brookings scholars are on the ground in Las Vegas where the debate is taking place. 
• Cato Institute's list of scholars live-tweeting the debate.
• American Enterprise Institute (AEI) is asking people to follow its Twitter feed for scholar reaction.

This is how think tankers are really preparing for tonight's debate.

Has Heritage Just Released Donald Trump's Bible?

The Heritage Foundations has just released its Blueprint for Reform: A Comprehensive Policy Agenda for a New Administration in 2017, a document meant to guide what they hope is Donald Trump's policy agenda.

The think tank has released such policy agendas in every presidential election year since 1980.  At that time, Heritage released the well-known Mandate for Leadership, a series of books spanning some 3,000 pages.  That blueprint was titled Mandate for Leadership in subsequent years, and was last published under that name in 2005.

Nevertheless, the decades-old document is alive and well, albeit under a different name.  In fact, Heritage chief Ed Feulner penned a piece in The Washington Times saying that the new Blueprint is the "latest" in the think tank's "Mandate for Leadership" series.

Mandate for Leadership was dubbed "the bible" of the Reagan White House by the Washington Post, and "provided a step-by-step guide to how to transform conservative principles into government policy."

Heritage's new report says that the next president and US Congress should pursue a number or proposals, including:

• Pro-growth tax reform
• Balancing the budget
• Reducing regulatory burden
• Repealing "harmful" laws such as Obamacare and Dodd-Frank
• Rebuilding the military capabilities of the US
• Welfare reform

The Blueprint calls for reducing total US spending by $10 trillion over 10 years and balancing the federal budget by 2024.  Among other things, it also calls for closing most of the Department of Energy.

The full Blueprint for Reform report, which spans more than 130 pages, can be found here.

The Washington Times notes that the Blueprint offers "scores" of policy recommendations for the next administration.  A Heritage analysis of the Republican Party's platform notes that the 2016 platform has many of the same ideas as Heritage's Blueprint; others note that the Blueprint has a "competing" anti-poverty plan than House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI).

A number of advisers to Donald Trump are housed within the Heritage Foundation, including Stephen Moore (who is helping write Mr. Trump's tax plan).  Heritage was also tapped to select a list of potential nominees to the Supreme Court should he become president.

Morning Consult says that Heritage hopes their plan will be embraced by the Trump transition team if Mr. Trump wins the presidency.  Heritage has said that it has been in contact with Trump's campaign policy team and that the campaign was "very interested" in Heritage's views.  However, Morning consult notes that there is distance on some issues between the Heritage approach and Trump's campaign rhetoric.

Think Tank Watch should note that Heritage says it does not endorse any political candidate or party.  And James Jay Carafano of Heritage reminds us that anyone can use the Blueprint.

Trump Advisor Lied About Think Tank Experience?

Here is what the Washington Post is reporting:

George Papadopoulous, a 2009 graduate of DePaul University [and an advisor to Donald Trump], has described himself in several lengthy published resumes as an oil and gas consultant and expert in eastern Mediterranean energy policy.

But his claim to have served for several years as a fellow at the Washington-based Hudson Institute was refuted by David Tell, Hudson senior fellow and director of public affairs, who said the institute's "records indicate that Mr. Papadopoulos started here as an unpaid intern in 2011 and subsequently provided some contractual research assistance to one of our senior fellows."

A recent peak at Mr. Papadopoulos's LinkedIn profile says that he was a Research Associate at the Hudson Institute from March 2011 to September 2015 and worked with three senior fellows there.

In related think tank news, Mr. Trump will be speaking on April 27 at an event sponsored by the Center for the National Interest.