In his historic speech to Ghana's parliament today, President Barack Obama put democracy and good governance at the front and center of Africa's future and America's hope for it. That is just where it needs to be. Obama could not have been more eloquent or forthright in identifying bad governance...

One of the biggest and most fateful choices Barack Obama will make as president will be the shape of the nearly $1 trillion economic stimulus package that Congress will likely pass within the next two months. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to steer a new generation of public investment into...

During the 2004 general election campaign, former Secretary of Defense William Perry--one of the great public servants in the post-World War II history of the United States--actively campaigned for a presidential candidate for the first time. Speaking repeatedly and passionately on behalf of John Kerry, the normally understated Perry described...

After the exhausting and dispiriting testimony of General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker to Congress this week, it is now even more starkly apparent that we are stuck in Iraq with no exit strategy. The plan of the Bush administration, and of these military and diplomatic leaders, is still...

Last week was the third time that many hopes and expectations for an early Barack Obama triumph in the Democratic presidential primaries were dashed. It was possible to imagine (and I did) that he would roll on from Iowa to victory in New Hampshire and become unstoppable. Many thought he...

Anyone who is not deeply naïve about American politics had to know it was coming: an intense assault on Barack Obama's character, his past, and his judgment. Now, as the previous fragments of rumor, innuendo, online reporting, and political gamesmanship are intersecting into a broader tale, we are about to...

With the election sweeps last night by Barack Obama and John McCain, the most pro-reform candidates in each party are headed toward the presidential nominations. McCain's victory may partially be a fluke of a weak competitive field. But it is no coincidence that McCain and Obama are careering toward a...