Matt Yglesias has been on a kick lately of accusing the Brookings Institution in general, and Michael O’Hanlon in particular, of being insufficiently dovish. The other day he mocked an Opportunity08 panel featuring policy advisors to Joe Biden, Mitt Romney, and John McCain:

Hawkish Democrat on the left, conservative Republican on the right, and another conservative Republican in the center. Sounds great. Michael O’Hanlon, naturally, will moderate.

I just attended this panel, and afterwards I spoke to O’Hanlon and confirmed a rather salient fact: All of the major candidates were invited to send representatives.

Obviously, the Democratic frontrunners declined the invitation because they have a vested interest in not putting their foreign policy advisors on a public stage — any utterance more moderate than “cut and run yesterday” would invite a political attack from the left. That’s not O’Hanlon’s fault, though.