Elections

The American Academy of Diplomacy sent letters to the two presumptive presidential candidates last week, proposing several criteria for choosing non-career ambassadors, including foreign affairs experience, communication and persuasion skills, and leadership abilities...

..."It might be perfectly fine in today's climate, where you can raise more money over the Internet than ever before," to make a pledge such as the one the academy has called for, said Steven Hill, director of the Political Reform Program of the New America Foundation.

"With Barack Obama raising so much money… more

...Sen. Barack Obama, a Democrat, would create a National Health Insurance Exchange for any individual and business that wants to purchase a private insurance plan or enroll in a new public plan. Subsidies would be provided to families with lower incomes to help make insurance affordable. 

While still giving workers the option of retaining their employer-based coverage, Republican candidate John McCain would make tax credits available to help them obtain their own insurance. He also wants to allow people to purchase… more

...Democratic candidate Barack Obama has outlined a range of ambitious programs, from rebuilding the nation's bridges to extending health care to the nation's 47 million uninsured, that could cost hundreds of billions of dollars.

Republican John McCain hopes to make Bush's 2001 and 2003 income-tax cuts permanent, cut the corporate tax rate and simplify the tax code. These measures could dramatically slash federal revenue.

"While each of them is running on one agenda, whoever wins, the day they enter office another is… more

To explore the likely future performance of candidates Obama and Clinton (while she was still in the race), Steve Clemons of the Washington, DC-based New America Foundation decided late last year to study closely how each handled their committee assignments as US Senators.

"I thought Hillary Clinton did not have the patience and that Obama was probably very involved in committee processes," said Clemons, who directs the Foundation’s American Strategy Program and previously worked in the Senate. "In fact I… more

...Maya MacGuineas, a budget expert at the New America Foundation, said the McCain camp is trying to create an exaggerated impression of the number of people from lower- and middle-income groups who would be hurt by Obama's tax proposals. "It is legitimate to say that they can find a cleaning person or a waitress somewhere who will be affected, but the numbers should not be overwhelming," she said...LINK

While congressional negotiators build a federal budget for 2009, a group of bipartisan budget experts are launching a campaign to wean the government off what they call a debt addiction. John Dimsdale reports.

RENITA JABLONSKI: In Washington today, House and Senate negotiators will try to sketch out a federal budget for 2009. At the same time, across town, a group of bipartisan budget experts will launch a campaign to wean the government from what they say is a debt addiction. John… more

Washington, DC – The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a bipartisan group of some of the most highly respected budget experts in the United States that includes former directors of the Office of Management and Budget, Congressional Budget Office, and Government Accountability Office, as well as many former members of Congress, today launched US Budget Watch, a critically important new effort to force the 2008 presidential candidates to pay attention to the deteriorating federal budget situation.

US… more

. . . Terrorism analyst Peter Bergen took aim at McCain's bin Laden prediction. "Maybe some key lieutenants, but bin Laden has not made the mistakes to get caught or killed, and we haven't had actionable information on where bin Laden is since the battle of Tora Bora in 2001," Bergen said. Bergen pointed out that President Bush has said the United States and its allies would get bin Laden, but has put no timetable on it --… more

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. . . "Because of Florida's higher age profile, the state will be difficult for Obama in a general election," says Mark Schmitt, a political analyst at the New America Foundation. "But Obama will also open up other states, such as Colorado, that have a younger age profile, which would probably be beyond Senator Clinton's reach." . . .

Bloggingheads.tv / New York Times

Mark Schmitt of the New America Foundation, left, and Noam Scheiber of The New Republic discuss whether Barack Obama should pick Hillary Clinton as his running mate.