As President Barack Obama finalizes his State of the Union address, he must go beyond simply specifying agenda items and sharpening applause lines. After seven years in office, Obama has not yet defined his governing vision. When Bill Clinton—who had a worldview—delivered lengthy State of the Union speeches …
Brookings Institution
More scandals for Clinton, or just more scandal-mongering?
Last week, while concluding a Brookings Spreecastabout my book The Age of Clinton: America in the 1990s, I ran out of time before I could answer a great question. The questioner wondered whether Hillary Clinton was similar to Bill Clinton in not being able to avoid getting herself into trouble. This …
A Bill Clinton balance sheet: Peace, prosperity, pluralism, and progress
It’s time to take Bill Clinton, his presidency, and his times seriously. Historians dithered before getting right with Reagan, letting their political and intellectual disdain discourage thoughtful scholarship for over two decades after his inauguration. The media’s obsession with both Clintons’ genuine character flaws, have disappointed …
Living in contradiction: Helicopter parenting and what it means for educators today
“This must stop,” a Maryland principal recently implored in a mass email. “Parents, find another way to bond with your children.” A principal feeling compelled to remind parents not to allow underage drinking parties at their homes contradicts the usual stereotype these days of aggressive, …
Why we will all be singing the Benghazi blues…
On Thursday, when former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton appears before the Senate Benghazi Committee for a new round of hearings, reporters with vivid historical imaginations will be pining for an epic battle. Melodramatic journalists may recall the 1950-1951 Kefauver Committee investigating organized crime, which …
Understanding the culture of the Clinton Era
Writing about the Clintons as a real-time commentator during the 1990s and then again as an historian when writing my new book, The Age of Clinton: America in the 1990s, was an interesting intellectual experience in charting my own evolution. Learning about the administration from the inside …