David Plouffe discusses the 2008 race and campaign reform David Plouffe was the chief campaign manager for President Obama’s 2008 race. He has consulted the Democratic Party for years and is respected nation-wide as a political strategist. Harvard Political Review: Since the inauguration, the Obama for America campaign has become Organizing for America, but grassroots excitement seems to have ... Read More
On February 20, 2009, California state legislators ended months of negotiations when they closed a vast $41.6 billion budget gap through fiscal year 2010. Even after factoring in the expected federal stimulus funds, the final agreement called for spending cuts, temporary tax increases, and new borrowing. Public education has been one of the budget crisis’s biggest victims, since state funding ... Read More
What 44 can learn from 35 Pundits are fond of drawing comparisons between John F. Kennedy and Barack H. Obama and, indeed, there are many parallels to be found. Like JFK, Obama captured national attention as a junior senator and ran for president without a great deal of governing experience. Like JFK, Obama campaigned as a liberal Democrat committed to ... Read More
How much have Texan oilmen shaped America? Reporter Brian Burrough follows his last corporate epic, Barbarians at the Gate, with a new book, The Big Rich, replacing skyscrapers and three piece suits with oil wells and Stetson hats. It is a sprawling story set across several continents, chronicling gumption, love, betrayal, politics, family squabbles, and Muammar al-Gaddafi. But if the ... Read More
Anticipating a new era of engagement with Cuba When President Obama signed the 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Bill into law on March 11, he took a small step towards what many hope will be a new era in U.S.-Cuban relations. Embedded in the bill were three clauses that loosened sanctions on family travel and remittances, a largely humanitarian adjustment that nonetheless ... Read More
Can six-party stakeholders return the next volley? On Feb. 13, 2007, six-party talks with North Korea reached a breakthrough. In exchange for economic and energy aid, the regime would begin dismantling its nuclear reactor at Yongbyon in a key step towards denuclearization. But a major setback occurred in December 2008, when the D.P.R.K. suddenly halted the process and refused to ... Read More
After Sen. Arlen Specter’s (D – Pa.) switch to the Democratic Party yesterday, I decided to check out a piece he wrote for The New York Review of Books, “The Need to Roll Back Presidential Power Grabs.” In the piece Specter details his plans to reintroduce legislation designed to limit executive power that failed to pass during the Bush administration. ... Read More
I agree with the Zoey’s points about Iran’s incentives to accept American diplomatic outreach. But I would take her conclusion further. It wasn’t just Bush’s failure to be “attuned to geopolitical realities” that prevented this sort of progress; it was his failure, on a deeper level, to respect or conceptualize properly the purpose of diplomacy generally. It’s a fitting occasion ... Read More
It’s hardly surprising to learn that after Congress demonstrated in 2008 that there were no penalties for overstepping the bounds of domestic spying, the NSA continued to overstep the bounds of domestic spying. In the summer of 2008, Congress passed the FISA Act, which immunized telecom carriers for their past violations of privacy, and ex post facto legalized some of ... Read More
When former Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao spoke at Harvard as a visiting fellow, I hoped she would spark debate on everything from white collar overtime regulations to pension assets. I attended her study groups and can attest to the fact that she did this and more. Ms. Chao was engaging, provocative, and thoughtful, the type of speaker who helps ... Read More
Yesterday, The New York Times reported that Obama is considering removing the condition that Iran cease its nuclear enrichment before the U.S. negotiates with Iran on nuclear matters. By any standard, this would be a monumental policy shift from the Bush Administration, which demanded Iran cease enrichment as a precondition to negotiation. It’s also, potentially, a very risky move, but ... Read More
New prospects for stable democracy Four years ago, the Iraqi national elections were riddled with fraudulent voting, sectarian boycotts, and insurgent attacks. Although the accomplishment of largely free and fair elections drew praise from onlookers around the world, the elections still suffered from violence and low turnout; this seemed to indicate how difficult, even impossible, the transition to democracy would ... Read More
Russia’s reemergence in Latin America “This time, we are back [in Latin America] forever,” announced Alexei Sazanov, the deputy director of Russia’s Foreign Ministry. Sazanov, a prominent spokesman for Russian diplomacy, made this declaration just days after three Russian warships performed joint naval exercises with the Venezuelan navy. At that same time, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was in Havana, Cuba ... Read More
