Senator Clinton gave Tuesday evening before the Chicago Economic Club what was heralded as a major economic policy speech, and an interesting name cropped up in the course of Mrs. Clinton’s remarks on the loss of American manufacturing jobs. “The critical technology for night vision devices is now largely manufactured offshore. Clyde Prestowitz says the American military used to own the night; now we only rent it,” she said.

Close readers of these columns may recall Mr. Prestowitz’s name from our editorial of December 16, 2003, that ran under the headline “Democrats in Disarray.” That editorial reported that Mr. Prestowitz, a former Reagan aide, had been named as a presidential campaign policy adviser by Howard Dean. Mr. Prestowitz caught our attention then as an adherent to what one might call politely call the Walt-Mearsheimer school of policy analysis even before Professors Walt and Mearsheimer had published their notorious paper on what they call the “Israel Lobby.”

“I have often felt that America’s differences with the world could be largely explained in four words: Israel, Taiwan, religion, and lobby,” Mr. Prestowitz wrote in his 2003 book “Rogue Nation.” “In its policies toward Israel and Taiwan, America continues to do itself enormous damage and create intense, needless enmity toward itself by allowing its view of reality to be distorted by intensely self-interested groups and by willfully averting its eyes from contrary evidence. Our system of government, with its separation of powers, facilitates capture of key positions by dedicated minorities that are sometimes heavily influenced by foreign elements whose interests are at odds with those of the United States.”

Mrs. Clinton herself has taken a pro-Israel line in the Senate and has lately – including in the Chicago speech – been talking tough against Communist China. The senator’s spokesman told us that Mr. Prestowitz is not an adviser to Mrs. Clinton and that the senator hasn’t met with him. Maybe Mrs. Clinton doesn’t know about Mr. Prestowitz’s views on foreign policy. We’ve watched her long enough to know she’s an independent thinker who makes up her own mind. She’s certainly smart enough to realize that Mr. Prestowitz’s protectionist views on trade fit squarely into one of the camps the senator was talking about when she said, “Too much of what you hear coming out of Washington these days is either defeatist or denial or happy talk.”

Mrs. Clinton cited Presidents Reagan and Kennedy in talking about economic policy, and both have optimistic, progrowth legacies from which it is worth borrowing. To judge by Tuesday night’s speech, her economic policy is still a work in progress. It’s more likely to progress in a positive direction if she shuns Mr. Prestowitz. This will be something to watch for New York voters who place a value on small democracies like Taiwan and Israel and Iraq – and big ones like America itself.