Stephen Hess
Stephen Hess
Stephen H. Hessis a senior fellow emeritus in the Governance Studies program at the Brookings Institution. He studies media, the U.S. presidency, political dynasties and the U.S. government. He first joined Brookings in 1972 and was distinguished research professor of media and public affairs at the George Washington University. He served on Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard Nixon's White House staff and as an adviser to Presidents Gerald R. Ford and Jimmy Carter...
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Polls are a reflection of the headlines. When the news is bad, the president's numbers go down, and when the news is good, they go up,
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She would be better off politically not making a commitment that she wouldn't run for president if she were re-elected, ... Clearly, if (her Senate race) were going to be a squeaker, she'd better give a lot of thought to how she responds to that. But, if, as it appears, she's going to have a pretty easy time of it, why put herself in a position of looking hypocritical or devious?
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Maybe he's been ducking this one because he wants to keep his shirt clean,
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The party needs him and, for all I know, the nation needs him. There hasn't been an African-American Democrat who has had an appeal broadly beyond his ethnic group.
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The president was still Ike, and the presidency went on.
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Ultimately, ... you have to stand for something.
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This White House's problems are not personnel, they are basically problems of policy.
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Those that are elected on Tuesday, we're likely to have as presidential candidates six and 10 years from now.
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There has been so much game-playing on her behalf, ... Suddenly, Texas judges are popping up out of the ether to defend her, and she seems to have a gentleman caller who speaks on her behalf, and on and on.
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Whenever a president is in trouble, as this one is, the pundits and observers in Washington say, 'Don't just stand there, do something.' So they give a speech -- he's done that. They appoint a blue-ribbon commission -- he's done that. They change personnel -- they are doing that. The point is, that is not what really ails this administration. They've got a policy problem, and either they can change the policy or they have to hope the policy starts working better for them.
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We're talking on a week in which a woman president was inaugurated in Africa and a woman was elected in Latin America, so this is not any longer so unique.
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The president looks across the cabinet table at the vice president and has to realize, 'The only reason he's there is in case I die.
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But life did not work quite as he designed it in the next year. He picked the wrong major item, Social Security. And then the war got worse and he had the hurricane. So now it's not only the sand that has run out of the hourglass but also the political capital has run out of the bank.
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Do not forget that it is a Congress in which the president's party has the majority.