Conference Blogging Pt. 2

I'm almost done with Day 2. Only thing left to see is an American Politics 2008 dinner panel with Arianna Huffington, Bill Frist, Mortimer Zuckerman, Harold Ford, Roger Ailes, and Kenneth Mehlman.

Highlights so far:

• New Orleans business leaders, academics, and politicians talk about improving New Orleans' resiliency and rebuilding the city. I left towards the end, as it was my impression that the whole session was dissolving into self-congratulatory bluster. They do have much to celebrate, but much more to go.
  

• LAPD chief William Bratton, Larry Silverstein, and a few PR industry people talking about crisis management. This segment would probably be most interesting to Mountainrunner, as Bratton talked in depth about how half of his success in driving down the New York crime rate was effective networking and community relations, as well as developing an efficient media message.

• Rupert Murdoch, Gary Becker, Paul Gigot, and the Carlyle Group's David Rubinstein discussed the world economy, but the discussion digressed into politics and military strategy in Iraq. Although Becker provided insight, and Murdoch some much-needed humor, there was a definite lack of perspective. At one point, a columnist asserted that Americans didn't really mind when gas prices rose, which really is news to me.
  

In other news, I've ordered Brave New War, just like everyone else. I'll get to it once I finish reading the Chet Richards monographs. I haven't read either, and figured that I would probably do well to look at Richards' dispassionate examination of the various theoretical frameworks, and then examine Robb's theories in that context.