The National Journal

The Preacher Vs. The Warrior? (The Hotline - National Journal) Meanwhile, TAPPED's Mark Schmitt offers Obama some advice: [Obama] is falling into the tendency that many 'wine-track' candidates do of talking about his candidacy as if it were some sort of other-worldly cause: 'something happening,'...'it's about you,' etc.

Remember the slogan about Bill and Hillary Clinton in the 1992 presidential race -- two for the price of one? The New America Foundation seems to be getting something similar with the hiring of husband-and-wife tandem Douglas Rediker and Heidi Crebo-Rediker (although they'll both get paid at the think tank). The Redikers, former investment bankers in Europe, have returned to the United States to co-direct the foundation's Global Strategic Finance Initiative. The couple met in Washington about 20 years ago.… more

One month after President Bush reluctantly signed legislation requiring the government to auction the rights to make student loans, the Education Department is calling the new program unworkable and inflexible. Even some proponents of auctions agree, while the loan industry says that the plan will hurt borrowers by narrowing their lender choices.

The auction program is included in the College Cost Reduction and Access Act that Bush signed on September 27 despite a veto threat. The bidding requirement attracted little… more

As part of a project with The National Journal, Len Nichols helped assess health care proposals from presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Barack Obama, Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, and Mitt Romney. Following the project, The National Journal published related articles on the uninsured, the economy, consumers, employers, and quality of care. Here is an excerpt from the cover story introducing the project:

Quality wasn't a big topic when presidential candidates debated health care… more

The New America Foundation has hired a deputy director for its foreign-policy program and is turning its sights on Cuba. Patrick Doherty, who was communications director at the Center for National Policy, led by former Rep. Tim Roemer, D-Ind., will join Director Steven Clemons at NAF's American Strategy Program next month. "I am much more of a policy guy at heart than a communications guy," says Doherty, who has a master's degree in security studies from Tufts University's Fletcher School.… more

And Democrats who voted for the [No Child Left Behind] law five years ago in the glow of post-September 11 bipartisanship are unlikely to do so again now that Bush has failed to deliver the hefty budget increases for education that they expected would accompany it. For the president to persuade a Democratic Congress to reauthorize No Child Left Behind without dismantling it, the bottom line may very well be the bottom line.

"The reason he's still relevant is money,"… more

Education wonk Sara Mead is joining the New America Foundation as a senior research fellow studying education, workforce, and family issues. Mead, 28, has received notice for contending that the "crisis" in boys' education is overblown and for her criticism, with Andrew Rotherham, of the ranking system used annually to determine Newsweek's "100 Best High Schools." "We have found that many schools in Newsweek's ranking have high dropout rates or glaring achievement gaps… more

A proposal aimed at helping lower-income families save for college -- part of the Bush administration's FY08 budget proposals unveiled Monday -- might have found a receptive ear in Senate Finance Chairman Baucus...In unveiling its proposed FY08 budget, the White House proposed to make contributions to a Section 529 qualified tuition plan count toward the computation of the saver's credit.As a result, qualifying taxpayers would be eligible for a tax credit of up to $2,000 to… more

On a warm day in late December, two dovish Washington groups, the American Task Force on Palestine and the Foundation for Middle East Peace, hosted a panel discussion at a historic mansion on 18th Street NW. The topic on the table was "After the Iraq Study Group: Possibilities for Arab-Israeli Peace..." It was, in short, the usual Washington peace-wonk crowd, and when the time for questions came, the first man to rise said that everything everyone had said was true… more

Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, Prince Turki al-Faisal, was 3 years old and eating dinner when he learned about the war. Outside, there were sirens: Bombers were flying over Cairo. Inside, his mother ordered the family to get under a table. It was July 1948. Israel had declared independence three months earlier, prompting an immediate invasion of Jewish-held territory by its Arab neighbors. "From then on, the Arab-Israeli dispute was a constant," Turki… more