SPI Conference Live Blogging Posted by Suzanne Nossel

  I'm sitting in a packed room at the Essex House in Manhattan with several hundred former government officials, think tank leaders, policy wonks, academics, activists, money people and journalists gathered for a day of speeches, panels and conversation on a host of key foreign policy topics hosted by the Security and Peace Initiative.  The program is published here.  It's taken a few minutes to get online, so I won't give justice to the speech by Madeleine Albright underway right now.  But the energy in the room is palpable and I'll try to give you a flavor of the Q&A. 

Albright's saying its none to early to plan for how the next Administration will try to clean up the mess - restoring a balance so America is seen as neither timid or arrogant, but competent.  We should be neither isolationist nor imperial, but in the moderate mainstream.   She doesn't care if people think this sounds dull:  she wants militant moderation and moderation with swagger.  Truman is her example.  No permission slip and get garnered world support.

But is this a mantra the American people can get behind?  People can understand the need to return to moderation, but will it inspire them and does it need to?

First question is about religion.  She says we cannot and will not change the relationship between religion and state in Muslim societies and shouldn't try -- but should encourage their trying if they are so inclined.

Second question is whether the climate is ripe for moderation - we're more polarized today than in Truman's era so is this realistic domestically?