InfoAlert

Posted October 19, 2009

Politics & Government: Presidency | Federal Government/U.S. Politics | Congress | Judicial System | State & Local Government

Government Initiatives: Homeland Security | Social Security & Welfare

Politics & Government:

Presidency

The Obama Presidential Transition: An Early Assessment
Burke, John P.
Presidential Studies Quarterly, September 2009, v39, #3, pp574-605
"Transitions to the presidency bear wide-ranging consequences for the successes-and failures-of the administrations that follow. Barack Obama's effort in 2008 and early 2009 is no exception. In many ways, it was a successful transition to office. Despite severe economic constraints, the transition paved the way for an ambitious post-inaugural agenda and the first steps toward fleshing out Obama's campaign themes of "hope" and "change." But all was not perfect. It was a transition that also offers cautionary lessons about how early mistakes, errors, and omissions potentially can hinder that success."
John P. Burke is a professor of political science at the University of Vermont. He is the author of numerous articles and two books on presidential transitions. Fulltext C1/06-09

The Art of Obama Worship
Lewis, Michael J.
Commentary, September 2009, v128, #2, pp15-21
"Of all the images hurled forth by the last presidential election, none will live longer than Shepard Fairey's poster of a red, white, and blue Barack Obama, gazing significantly into the distance, resting atop the single word Hope. It had already been embossed into the national consciousness as the definitive image of Obama even before it was acquired by the National Portrait Gallery and appeared as the cover of Time's "Person of the Year" issue." This article analyzes the use of visual art in the campaign of U.S. President Barack Obama.
Michael J. Lewis is a frequent contributor to Commentary. He teaches art at Williams College. Fulltext C2/06-09

Obama's Leadership Qualities Stand Out to Americans
Jones, Jeffrey M.
Gallup Poll, September 21, 2009, online edition
"Of seven personal characteristics, Americans rate Barack Obama most highly for those that reflect on his leadership skills. Seventy-two percent say he "is willing to make hard decisions," and 66% describe him as "a strong and decisive leader." Sixty-four percent say he "can get things done." Fulltext C3/06-09

Federal Government/US Politics

If Sarah Palin is the Answer...
Wheatcroft, Geoffrey
The National Interest, September/October 2009, pp68-78
"Conservatism is once again facing an identity crisis. The recent passing of William F. Buckley, Jr., offers a perfect opportunity to look back at the movement, with its antecedents, its birth, its triumphs and now its potential demise. From Lincoln’s preservation of the nation to Reagan’s cold-war victory, the Republicans have long ruled the American political scene, making some nasty compromises along the way. The GOP, now fractious, demoralized and baffled, searches for its soul."
Geoffrey Wheatcroft is an English journalist and author. Fulltext C4/06-09

The Tories and the GOP: Lessons in Losing
Darwall, Rupert
Policy Review, September/October 2009, #156, pp3-15
"As the catharsis of electoral rejection gives way to the long march of opposition, Republicans might reflect on the experience of Britain’s Conservative party, which in 1997 suffered its worst poll defeat since 1832. Two further defeats followed. By the next election, due by June 2010, the Conservatives will have been out of office longer than they have been at any time since the middle of the 19th century."
Rupert Darwall, a London-based strategy consultant, is writing a history of global warming. Fulltext C5/06-09

Getting to NO: The Republican Dilemma in the Obama Age
Boyer, Peter J.
The New Yorker, September 28, 2009, v85, #30, pp32-36
This article discusses "the Republican dilemma in the age of Obama. [...] Opposition can unify and exhilarate an out party, as Democrats proved earlier this decade, and it is a primal conservative impulse. [...] The question remaining for many Republicans is whether the Party can develop a strategy beyond opposition, an argument for governing that will expand its appeal beyond its ideological core. On this, Toomey finds himself in agreement with Arlen Specter. "Having thirty principled Republicans doesn't accomplish anything, and that's not acceptable," he told me. "Our mission, and our focus, has to be to find a way to bring people into our tent."
Peter J. Boyer is a staff writer for The New Yorker. Fulltext C6/06-09

The Politics of Memory
Welch, Matt
Reason, October 2009, v41,#5, pp2-5
"Memory loss, while potentially ruinous to the U.S. economy, does have its momentary political advantages. [...] Living in Washington these days is like experiencing the 1970s all over again, just without the great music and bad clothes. The same Republicans who for years ridiculed every anti-Bush protest (including the mammoth, 100,000-strong anti-war march at the 2004 Republican National Convention) as a festival of America hating lunatics are now complaining bitterly about sparse and negative media coverage of comparatively tiny Tea Party protests from coast to coast."
Matt Welch is editor in chief of Reason. Fulltext C7/06-09

Republicans and Democrats: A Tale of Two Bases
Barone, Michael
The American, September 15, 2009, online edition
"Our representative government is also an electoral democracy, and the actions and decisions of elected representatives usually have some relationship to the districts which have elected them and which, in most cases, they hope will re-elect them. Much of the analysis of the relationship between members of the House of Representatives and their districts focuses on marginal districts and politically vulnerable members, who in some situations cast decisive votes on legislation. But results in the House are more often determined by the leadership of the majority party, which controls the House Rules Committee and thus which measures and amendments come to the floor." The author writes that "[o]n Capitol Hill, Democrats are much more beholden to their base than are Republicans."
Michael Barone is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Fulltext C8/06-09

Something New on the Mall
Tomasky, Michael
New York Review of Books, October 22, 2009, v56, #16, online edition
"In the modern history of the United States, there has never been a right-wing protest movement—until this summer's apoplectic and bordering-on-violent town-hall meetings, and the large "9/12" rally on Washington's National Mall that drew tens of thousands of people to protest America's descent into "socialism" (or "communism," or, occasionally, "Nazism"). How extreme is this movement, and how seriously should we take it?"
Michael Tomasky is editor of Democracy: A Journal of Ideas and American editor-at-large for The Guardian. Fulltext C9/06-09

Opinion Poll: Congressional Favorability at 24-Year Low
Pew Research Center, September 2, 2009, online edition, 36p
"Americans are extremely displeased with Congress, and there are already some signs that this could take a toll on the Democrats in the 2010 midterm elections. Currently, 37% express a favorable opinion of Congress, while 52% hold an unfavorable view. Positive opinions of Congress have declined by 13 points since April and are now at one of their lowest points in more than two decades of Pew Research Center surveys." Fulltext C12/06-09

Judicial System

The Changing Face of the Federal Judiciary
Wheeler, Russell
Governance Studies at Brookings, August 17, 2009, online edition, 17p
"With Justice Sonia Sotomayer confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court and President Obama set to fill a number of lower court vacancies, there is renewed attention on the demographic makeup of the U.S. judiciary. Russell Wheeler examines federal judicial demographic data from the Eisenhower administration to today. He concludes that while the face of the judiciary has markedly changed over the last 30 years, it hardly mirrors the general population."
Russell Wheeler studies the selection of U.S. judges and how courts function with other branches of government and the press, among other judicial topics. Fulltext C13/06-09

The 9 Incredibles
Turley, Jonathan
American History, October 2009, v44, #4, pp30-38
"The most notable trend in recent decades has been for presidents to put forward nominees who have empty files: impressive academic and judicial résumés combined with a sparse history of controversial speeches or writings that might be turned against them during the confirmation process. Such formulaic selections reflect the vagaries of our political system, but also our discomfort with people who are creative thinkers and can't be easily pigeonholed as either judicial activists or strict constructionists. Even though America has the deepest pool of lawyers in the world, if genius is found on the modern Court it is largely accidental. There is no standard profile for the selection of great justices. However, close examination of the records of the 111 justices who have served on the Court reveals that a select few managed to see a legal horizon far beyond the view of their contemporaries, often espousing views that would not reflect majoritarian values for decades. The nine justices featured on the pages that follow all exhibited an ability to rise above conventional thinking and prejudices and epitomize what constitutes the right stuff on the Supreme Court."
Jonathan Turley is a George Washington University law professor. Fulltext C14/06-09

Are Obama’s Judges really Liberals?
Toobin, Jeffrey
The New Yorker, September 21, 2009, online edition, 7p
"The Obama Administration wanted to send a message with the President’s first nomination to a federal court. “There was a real conscious decision to use that first appointment to say, ‘This is a new way of doing things. This is a post-partisan choice,’” one White House official involved in the process told me. “Our strategy was to show that our judges could get Republican support.”"
Jeffrey Toobin, a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1993, writes about legal affairs. Fulltext C15/06-09

State & Local Government

State Budget Crisis: Are permanent changes in spending needed?
Greenblatt, Alan
CQ Researcher, September 11, 2009, v19, #31, pp741-764
"State budgets always fall out of balance during recessions, but in the current downturn states are facing the worst budget crunch since the Great Depression. Over the past two years, states have had to close budget gaps exceeding $300 billion. Many have raised taxes, but they've mainly dealt with the challenge by cutting spending. State workers are facing layoffs and unpaid furloughs. Social services, including health insurance for children, are being cut dramatically. Even normally sacrosanct areas such as K-12 education and public safety are taking hits. The federal stimulus package included fiscal relief for states, but that money will soon run out. And states expect to face continuing problems."
Alan Greenblatt is a staff writer at Governing Magazine. Order article C16/06-09

Government Initiatives

Homeland Security

The Department of Homeland Security: An organization in Transition
King, Charles B. III
JFQ: Joint Force Quarterly, Fall 2009, #55, pp152-159
"On November 25, 2002, the Homeland Security Act of 2002 became law, and 60 days later, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) became the newest Cabinet-level organization in the U.S. Government. Over the following 5 months, DHS merged elements of 22 agencies from 9 departments into its structure. [...] In the nearly 7 years since, the Department has undergone one major internal reorganization (the 2005 Second Stage Review), two externally driven reorganizations (prompted by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 and the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006), and several smaller, agency-specific reorganizations."
Charles B. King III is the Risk Analysis Branch Chief for the Transportation Security Administration of the Department of Homeland Security. Fulltext C17/06-09

Social Security and Welfare

The Health Care Conundrum Big Problem, Small Solution
Heller, Peter; Opper, Barbara
The American Interest, September/October 2009, online edition
"A few years ago, the State of Massachusetts passed legislation that facilitated almost universal health insurance coverage for its citizens. Massachusetts also now enjoys health outcomes comparable to those of other industrial countries and generally superior to the rest of the United States. Despite these achievements, the level of health spending, as well as the rate of health care inflation, remain so stubbornly high (at about the national average) that many citizens of the Bay State regard the experiment as a failure. [...] Health care reform is not simply a technical problem, but also a moral and political one."
Peter Heller and Barbara Opper are, respectively, senior adjunct professor of international economics at the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies and former senior manager of financial policy at the World Bank. Fulltext C18/06-09

How American Health Care Killed my Father
Goldhill, David
The Atlantic Monthly, September 2009, v304, #2, pp38-52
"After the needless death of his father, the author, a business executive, began a personal exploration of a health-care industry that for years has delivered poor service and irregular quality at astonishingly high cost. It is a system, he argues, that is not worth preserving in anything like its current form. And the health-care reform now being contemplated will not fix it. Here’s a radical solution to an agonizing problem."
David Goldhill is a media and technology executive. Fulltext C19/06-09

All the President’s Mandates: Compulsory Health Insurance Is a Government Takeover
Cannon, Michael F.
Cato Institute, Briefing Papers 114, September 28, 2009, online edition, 16p
"The most hazardous health reform measure before Congress is not the so-called “public option,” but proposals to make health insurance compulsory via an individual or employer mandate. Compulsory health insurance could require nearly 100 million Americans to switch to a more expensive health plan and would therefore violate President Barack Obama’s pledge to let people keep their current health insurance. In particular, the legislation before Congress could eliminate many or all health savings account plans. Making health insurance compulsory would also spark an unnecessary fight over abortion and would enable government to ration care to those with private health insurance."
Michael F. Cannon is director of Health Policy Studies at the Cato Institute and coauthor of Healthy Competition: What’s Holding Back Health Care and How to Free It. Fulltext C20/06-09

Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance in America: 2008
U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee, posted September 26, 2009, online edition
"American families are experiencing very difficult economic times – the toughest in terms of stagnant incomes since World War II. Over the 2000-2008 period, the economic policies pursued during the previous administration left most families behind and ill-prepared to weather the severity of the current recession. During the Bush administration, the number of Americans living in poverty increased by nearly 8.2 million; and instead of growing, incomes for families in the bottom 40 percent of the income distribution ladder actually fell. One out of every eight Americans was living below the federal poverty line in 2008. Also, during the eight years of the Bush administration, the ranks of the uninsured grew by 20.6 percent. The cost of health insurance has risen steadily, putting pressure on employers and straining cash-strapped American families." Fulltext C21/06-09