The Center for American Political Studies' post-election round-up speakers suggest it could lead to more constructive balance of power

By Brett Milano and Clea Simon @ The Harvard Gazette, Nov. 6

[....] The mixed results may signal a desire by Americans for a more constructive balance of power and cooperation in government, hinted panelists at events on the lessons from the election held by the Center for American Political Studies (CAPS) at Harvard University and the Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics (IOP) on Thursday evening. Drawn from both sides of the aisle, many of the speakers offered hope that the two parties could cooperate better in the future.

Those ideas emerged from some unlikely allies. Speaking at the CAPS round-up were William Kristol, a conservative pundit and former Vice President Dan Quayle’s chief of staff, and William A. Galston, a top aide to former President Bill Clinton. Both agreed that as a personable moderate, Biden represented the Democrats’ best chance to win the presidential race, offering unity to a nation grown weary of winner-take-all politics.

Kristol, editor-at large of The Bulwark, was the first to air this opinion at the event, which was sponsored by the Program on Constitutional Government. But during his opening remarks in the 15th biennial election debate between the two, Galston, who served as a deputy assistant for domestic policy to Clinton and is currently the Ezra K. Zilkha chair and senior fellow of the Brookings Institution, repeated it — and noted that he had made the same pronouncement verbatim on a podcast earlier in the day. 

For much of the 2½-hour event, the longtime sparring partners seemed to agree more than they differed. In fact, the strongest opposing view was taken by the panel’s third speaker, University of Virginia Harry F. Byrd Professor of Politics James W. Ceaser, Ph.D. ’76 [....]