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...
chamber echo huge presidency
The presidency is a huge echo chamber magnifying every little thing he does.
invited might president situation
I think the president might have defused the situation if he had invited her in instantly.
close outcome
I think the outcome is going to be pretty close to what we have now.
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I think as we become more and more of a celebrity culture -- as we expect to learn more and more about the people who we elect president or make movie stars -- we are intrigued by their families.
agenda katrina stops
Katrina pretty much stops his legislative agenda cold.
certainly domestic effect immediate money
It certainly has some effect on his immediate domestic agenda. He has no money for anything but Katrina.
certainly focus presidency question seem
It certainly made this presidency. There was no question that there was a new presidency that had a new agenda. ... It certainly did seem to focus him grandly and powerfully.
name thrown
His name is thrown into the mix. Big time.
disaster fairly unprepared
He has come to symbolize how unprepared this administration was for this disaster, fairly or unfairly,
comedians handled late limited might night question simply style
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.
basically both change gas major number price problems until
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.
america catch equal farmer future subtle
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.
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He does hold the administration's feet to the fire, and that's awfully helpful at this point.
campaign press secret seeking suddenly wake
Suddenly the campaign is over, they wake up and the press is not seeking their opinion. There's no more entourage, no Secret Service. It's very, very difficult.