Michael Gerson
12/17/2010

Rather than celebrate a rare moment of bipartisan cooperation over the new tax deal, President Obama has gone on the offensive, skewering both Democrats and Republicans over the difficulty of getting the deal done. His actual governance has generally proven more effective than his politicking, but the president’s wont for saying the wrong thing is quickly exhausting his limited political capital.

Gerson is a nationally syndicated columnist who appears twice weekly in the Washington Post.

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Dan Newman
12/10/2010

Newman says he should be the perfect candidate for an e-reader: he owns thousands of books, lacks space for more, and often schleps several heavy volumes in his bag. So when he begged his family to refrain from getting him a Kindle for Christmas, they were confounded. Newman reflects on his enjoyment of actual books and notes that he remembers passages by where they are in his books–this or that detail is two-thirds of the way through, on the bottom left. Physical memory runs deep. Newman sees e-books as a companion format that will always share space with printed volumes and concludes that it’s best to read a book you can hold in your own hands.

Newman is a writer at work on his first novel.

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Peter Orszag
12/10/2010

Disability insurance provides support for people who can no longer work because of a disability, but the likelihood that someone will re-enter the work force is almost nonexistent. There has been a spike in disability applicants, and Orszag says this is due to a weak labor market driving people who qualify for the program to apply because they cannot find work. He says the current economic downturn could cause a long-term reduction in workers. To counter that we need more stimulus immediately, an extension of unemployment insurance, and reforms of the disability program that encourages recipients to return to work. Orszag offers some program reform ideas.

Orszag, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget from 2009 to July 2010, is a distinguished visiting fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

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Michael Gerson
10/29/2010

The ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will have little impact on this year’s elections. Afghanistan in particular seems to have vanished from the national consciousness, perhaps because of a presumptive confidence in General Petreaus. Moreover, Republicans as a minority party are far less inclined to make the wars a politically divisive issue than were Democrats during President Bush’s tenure. With a selective and professional military that reflects American society less than it did fifty years ago, war and its role in national politics are destined to inhabit a smaller space in our collective awareness.

Gerson writes about politics, global health and development, religion and foreign policy.

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David Brooks
10/29/2010

Brooks offers a roadmap for recovery for President Obama if his party takes a defeat in Tuesday’s election. It includes winning back independents, redefining his identity, responding to the nation’s fear about decline, and building an institutional structure to support a more moderate government policy approach. Brooks looks at each in turn and says if Obama can implement this plan, his election in 2012 will be much rosier than this year’s election.

Brooks is a New York Times columnist.

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David B. Rivkin Jr. and Andrew M. Grossman
10/29/2010

The authors write that the sight of a federal judge dabbling in politics is odd. They refer to former Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who has been pitching a Nov. 2 Arizona state initiative that would replace judicial elections with “merit selection.” In addition to the robocalls, Justice O’Connor has appeared in a series of videos urging voters to approve the initiative as part of a year-long media blitz on “merit” selection. The authors question when a judge, sworn to “faithfully and impartially” apply law, may politick to change it. They believe Justice O’Connor’s activism creates a conflict of interest, which is why the federal ethics rules bar federal judges from direct fund-raising and speech-making for political organizations.

Rivkin and Grossman are Washington-based lawyers. Rivkin served in the Justice Department under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

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