One Term Presidents

“I’D rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president,” President Obama confessed to ABC News’ Diane Sawyer last year. Other than the “really good” part, Republicans would be happy to see this wish fulfilled.

With waning approval ratings and a stagnant economy, the possibility that Mr. Obama will not be re-elected has entered the political bloodstream. Suddenly, the opposition party envisions a scenario in which its presidential candidate could defeat Mr. Obama in a referendum on his job performance. Mr. Obama needs to think hard about his own statement and consider what it takes to be a successful one-term president, in the light of history.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/11/opinion/sunday/if-obama-is-a-one-term-president.html?_r=2&ref=todayspaper

Political and Social Effects of the Great Recession

A video lecture: Don Peck talked about the long-term social and cultural impact of the current economic recession, arguing that although the peak of the financial crisis has passed, its effects will be many and lasting, especially on employment .

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/Pinch

How Should We Remember 9-11?

Ten years later, many Americans still remember clearly the unfolding of horrible events on September 11, 2001. Planes flying into the World Trade Center; people jumping out of windows more than 100 stories high; thousands of civilians fleeing out of downtown Manhattan by foot: These kinds of images are hard to forget.

On the other hand, most people who were glued to the news for days in 2001 now think only rarely about that horrifying day. And people who were far from the scene or who were very young at the time may not know many details about the terrorist attacks at all.

http://news.discovery.com/history/september-11-remembrance-110902.html

Latest Washington Post Poll On Presidential Approval

Public pessimism about the direction of the country has jumped to its highest level in nearly three years, erasing the sense of hope that followed President Obama’s inauguration and pushing his approval ratings to a record low, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Post Office Nears Default

Here’s a New York Times article on the financial problems of the Post Office. The USPS occupies a strange position in the American government as a “government corporation,” neither fully a part of the structure, nor entirely out of it. This article touches on issues of the finances of a government corporation, Congressional oversight of the agency and attendant partisan disagreements over spending, and labor relations.