A popular Washington, DC joke: What has Barack Obama accomplished his first year in office?

Answer: He won the Nobel Peace Prize.

It's not really very funny or fair to Obama, or to the Nobel committee who picked him as this year's winner. I think that the Norwegians...

There is almost nothing about the state of the world that doesn't seem a little rosier with good holiday music playing in the house. As I write, Bob Dylan's contribution to yuletide cheer -- his new album, Christmas In The Heart, is on and makes me smile. Next week at...

Fed chairman Ben Bernake, along with other Obama economic team officials, tells us that economic growth is returning, and that it is "very likely" the recession has ended. With ten percent unemployment in many parts of the country, this might seem like less than great news. Certainly, in conventional...

My wife loves President Obama -- at least, that's how she puts it, and she won't have a bad word said about him in the house. I like the guy, but I have a hard time falling in love with any politician. I'm a metrics man. Show me results...

Official Washington seems shocked that torture has been the rule above the law during the Bush administration. Reaction to the release of the Justice Department memos on the subject seems almost naive--and certainly with no sense of history (in this case, very recent history).

I remember...

President Obama has had a difficult time finding a new Secretary of Commerce. He shouldn't worry about it any longer. There is a simple solution--just abolish the post.

The Commerce Department, as presently constituted, is a hodge podge of agencies with no central purpose. It's not...

The Obama administration needs a stronger narrative. If the president is to succeed in the recovery from economic recession, repair the multi-faceted damage of the Bush years, and create sustainable economic growth for the future, he has to have a compelling story line. Most Americans don't easily understand economics--but...

The White House needs a new basketball court and it's not in the stimulus package.

I was in New York City recently and bumped into Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. I congratulated her on the stimulus package, but refrained from lobbying her about a glaring omission in...

It's hard not to be excited by the change from Bush to Obama. The 60s activist in me couldn't help but smile at the sight of Bruce Springsteen backed by an African-American choir opening the Inaugural Concert on the Mall -- and later, Springsteen brought Pete Seeger on to lead...

What do you get a President-elect for the holidays who will soon have the weight of the world on his shoulders? Advice books, energy food, sports gear? It's a predicament.

After January 20, Barack Obama will be in official gift land. He will have to declare almost all...

On election night, when the TV returns made clear that Barack Obama had been elected the 44th President, a great shout of joy erupted from the hundreds of Occidental students gathered in the union. Faculty living near campus said they could hear the roar from the crowd, ecstatic that...

The 2008 campaign is heading to a decisive conclusion. Barack Obama is sailing towards a triumphant finish on the winds of economic distress and financial crisis. Obama has demonstrated a steely coolness under fire, while John McCain has turned into a caricature of himself as an old man, out...

I watched the first presidential debate last week with friends in Sydney where I was on a State Department speaking tour to explain US politics to Australian audiences. One of my co-viewers was Don Russell, a former Aussie Ambassador to the US and chief political advisor to the former...

The guns of August are heard again.

The unexpected, sudden and brutal incursion by Russian troops into the small, former Soviet Republic of Georgia, has provided hawkish voices in both the US and Russia with an opportunity to talk tough. Republican nominee John McCain has had...

In the dog days of summer, I and my dogs take comfort in the wisdom of Yogi Berra. As that great Yankee catcher and philosopher said, "It's deja vu all over again." That's just how I feel seeing the photos and reading the reports of Barack Obama's economic gathering this...

While Senator Obama is on foreign tour this week, it is a good time to consider what factors will be decisive in the fall Presidential race.
The election will not be won on foreign policy -- but it could be lost on it. That's why Senator Obama...

Nothing could be more accurate today than the political chant from Chicago in 1968: "The Whole World is Watching." The level of interest in the upcoming U.S. presidential contest is incredibly high, greater than at any time in post-Cold War history. This is due to the rapid decline of America's...

This year's competitive race for the Democratic nomination for president has sparked renewed interest in politics and public policy on American campuses.

Occidental -- the liberal arts college where I teach and where Barack Obama studied his first two years -- is no exception. Oxy students have turned out for...

In the aftermath of the now famous "bitter" remarks by Presidential candidate Barack Obama, an observer of the Democratic primary season might have hoped for a renewed interest in proposals for making the US economy work better and fairer for working class and middle income Americans. Unfortunately, media interest...

Presidential campaigns are not well-suited for rational or sophisticated discussion of economics -- and this year's race is not any different.

Already we have seen candidates blaming trade with Mexico or exports from China for the nation's economic woes, and for the decline of the middle class. In the Ohio...