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...
agenda katrina stops
Katrina pretty much stops his legislative agenda cold.
disaster fairly unprepared
He has come to symbolize how unprepared this administration was for this disaster, fairly or unfairly,
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Had this been handled expeditiously, quickly, it might have been a story on the style page, or limited to the late night comedians and the cartoonists. There's simply no question they fumbled this one.
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He has two major problems: the price of gas and the number of Americans killed in Iraq. Basically nothing is going to change for him until one or both of those problems are alleviated.
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He doesn't put in the equal sign. But it's not so subtle that any Future Farmer of America wouldn't catch on pretty quickly.
feet helpful hold
He does hold the administration's feet to the fire, and that's awfully helpful at this point.
deviate early lose sound work
Very early on, she will work out her sound bite, and that will be her sound bite. And she will not deviate from that, so after a while, that will lose its sting.
feels looking president
The president has made it very clear: no looking back, no regrets. He feels this was the right thing to do.
chamber echo huge presidency
The presidency is a huge echo chamber magnifying every little thing he does.
bad good heard
We need to know how bad it is — but we want a little good news, too. We've heard a lot about how bad Americans are, or some Americans were in Katrina, but we're not a bad people.
difficult either gets gone politics range reach religion true
By never having used a veto, either everything has gone his way--which is never true in this world--or he's been able to reach an agreement. When politics gets into this range of right and wrong, religion and morality, it is increasingly difficult to compromise.
glass hour running sand second term
A president's second term is like an hour glass with the sand running out.
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In a strange way, the issue is not as salient, as important or resonates on Main Street as much as politicians or legislators think it does. The reason is simple ? Main Street already thinks politicians are taking favors from lobbyists.
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If she had just gone home I think she would have been remembered importantly, but she didn't just go home.