JOHN NICHOLS' LIST OF MOST VALUABLE PROGRESSIVES OF 2008

Excellent list compiled by Nation columnist John Nichols, I must say. I have personally met and worked with two of the people on the list: Anuradha Mittal and Mark Ritchie, listed as most valuable thinker and most valuable state official, respectively.

I am disappointed, though, that Nichols neglects to mention that Ritchie headed the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, which he listed as the most valuable policy group.

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat/392577/most_valuable_progressives_of_2008

MOST VALUABLE PROGRESSIVES OF 2008

By John Nichols

Progressives had more to celebrate in 2008 than in any year since the Supreme Court got into the business of stealing elections. The jubilant mood is dampened, of course, by the fact of a country is stuck in two military quagmires, ravaged by the most fearsome economic downturn in at least a half century and suffering from a serious case of Constitutional degeneration. Perhaps we have not yet reached an ideal champagne moment. But there is still good reason to toast the year's MVPs – Most Valuable Progressives.

MOST VALUABLE POLICY GROUP: The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy

The global food crisis that made a bit of news early in 2008 highlighted the economic pathologies that would come into stark relief as the financial meltdown accelerated in the fall. But most journalists and policy analysts don't understand or much care about farm and food issues, so they missed the story. Steve Suppan, Shiney Varghese, Ben Lilliston and the rest of the team at the Minneapolis-based IATP were so far ahead of the curve that they rarely got the credit they deserved for recognizing and confronting the challenges posed not merely by the spread of hunger but by the financial gaming that underpinned the crisis. An institute report released in November, "Commodities Market Speculation: The Risk to Food Security and Agriculture" was a finer piece of financial journalism than anything produced by the Wall Street Journal or CNBC. It detailed how excessive speculation in agriculture commodity markets contributed to the traumatic twists and turns in global food prices, and the hunger that resulted. As Suppan explained, "It is important to recognize that many of the deregulatory measures that brought on the Wall Street collapse also contributed to the food security and agricultural market crises." This report should be top-priority reading for Obama and his aides, as should another by IATP staffers Carin Smaller and Sophia Murphy: "Bridging the Divide: A Human Rights Vision for Global Food Trade."

MOST VALUABLE STATE OFFICIAL: Mark Ritchie

Minnesota's Secretary of State ran for his position in 2006 on a promise to assure that his state would have free and fair elections. Ritchie has been a great advocate for voter registration, verifiable voting and needed election reforms. But he has made headlines as the overseer of the recount fight between Republican Senator Norm Coleman and Democratic challenger Al Franken. In the face of attacks on his politics and character by partisans who seek to game the system, Ritchie has remained steadfast and good-humored, emphasizing transparency, fairness and the principle that democracy is only made real when election officials assure that the intentions of voters are respected and recorded. Ritchie's approach to the Minnesota recount provides an example of how to do elections right, in stark contrast to the abusive approaches of Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris to the 2000 presidential recount in her state and Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell to the 2004 presidential vote in the Buckeye state.

MOST VALUABLE THINKER: Anuradha Mittal

The Oakland Institute's executive director has emerged as an essential commentator on trade, development, human rights and food security issues. When major media outlets – especially The New York Times -- were stumbling around trying to come up with explanations for the global food crisis, Mittal, a former co-director of Food First, calmly explained the deadly role played by free-trade absolutists, international lenders and speculators. Most importantly, she argued that it is time to "stop worshiping the golden calf of the so-called free market and embrace, instead, the principle [that] every country and every people have a right to food that is affordable. When the market deprives them of this, it is the market that has to give." It is this sort of clear-headed assessment of not just the food crisis but a host of international development issues that helps Mittal, who established the Oakland Institute in 2004 with the purpose of increasing public participation in domestic and foreign policy debates, define what an enlightened American discourse about this country's place in the world should sound like.