By Lee H. Hamilton The presidential election is 16 months away, but already we’re smack in the middle of the usual media scrum of campaign coverage, prognostication, and strategizing by many who have nothing much to do with the real […]
Tag: Lee H. Hamilton
Why run for office?
By Lee H. Hamilton I spend a fair amount of time talking to students and other young people about Congress and politics in general, and I’ve noticed something. It used to be that I’d regularly get asked how one runs […]
Congress: “War powers? What war powers?”
By Lee H. Hamilton A few weeks ago, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia made a small splash in the press when he took Congress to task for failing to authorize our nation’s ongoing war against Islamic militants. “The silence of […]
Learning to be a citizen
By Lee H. Hamilton The question usually comes toward the end of a public meeting. Some knotty problem is being discussed, and someone in the audience will raise his or her hand and ask, “Okay, so what can I do […]
With the budget, the President calls the shots
By Lee H. Hamilton It may not be obvious from the news coverage, but a good bit of Congress’s 2015 agenda just landed on Capitol Hill with a thud. I mean this literally. The federal budget that President Obama recently […]
November’s elections won’t resolve much of anything
By Lee H. Hamilton Members of Congress are home now, campaigning for the upcoming elections. Their messages are all over the map, and for a good reason: they have very little to brag about. The Congress that just recessed until […]
The president and the Congress should work together on military intervention
In his speech last week outlining his plans to use military force against the jihadists of the Islamic State, President Obama gave Congress only passing mention. “I have the authority to address the threat from ISIL,” he said. “But I […]