One of the smartest people -- and most pleasant public intellectuals -- I know is Ted Widmer, who was one of Bill Clinton's speech writers and was a key aide to Clinton in writing his memoir, My Life.

Today, at 12:15 pm EST, I will STREAM LIVE Widmer's talk about the roots and contours of American foreign policy that he discusses in his new book Ark of the Liberties: America and the World.

Widmer will address the early millennial religious ideologies that played heavily in the formation of America's perceptions of itself and place in history. He will talk about the fusion of this millennial fervor with nationalist sentiments that manifested themselves in the American Revolution and then such movements as Manifest Destiny -- and hopefully, he'll discuss the gap that so often has existed between America's professed ideals and its often contradictory behavior.

I'll be chairing the meeting and hope you find Widmer's work as fascinating as I do. Ted Widmer, besides serving as a Senior Research Fellow in the New America Foundation's American Strategy Program, is Director of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University.

-- Steve Clemons