President Obama, AEI president Arthur Brooks, and Harvard professor Robert Putnam participated in a panel discussion, moderated by E.J. Dionne, on overcoming poverty at a policy conference earlier this week. My latest column, out this morning, offers some thoughts on the discussion.

The president and the panel moderator, The Washington Post’s E.J. Dionne Jr., joked a few times to the effect that House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) wouldn’t be interested in watching this panel on overcoming poverty. Brooks’s response: “We have to be really careful not to impugn their motives.” “Ad hominem,” said Brooks, “is something we should declare war on and defeat.”
Amen.
Not everyone has good motives — especially in politics. And attacking motives has its place in some circumstances. But in our day-to-day politics, it is a barrier standing in the way of real debate and real progress. Both the left and the right are guilty of it. The most powerful in their ranks should not be.

Read the whole column here. I welcome your comments.