Professor of history at rice university. We found this piece in politico. They ask a bunch of history professors which president had the best last year in office. Who do you think had the best final years in office . Bill clinton did not have a bad at last year in the sense that the economy started getting so strong that we were able to, by the time he left office, we were able to balance the budget and have a surplus. He was able to survive the lewinsky scandal, people almost wishing he was running for a third term. Unfortunately, the Vice President did not realize he still had the magic in him and distanced himself from him because of the moral impropriety. It hurt al think gore. He could have won the election if he wrapped his arms around bill clinton. I would give him the last year nod. Usually these last years are tough on president s. Harry trumans last year, he run for reelection because he had a 27 Approval Rating and nobody wanted much to do with him. Consumed by be a non, alm
Moderated the conversation which focused on economic policies for 2016. He said that tax reform is a key issue and should be a priority for the next president. This is 40 minutes. [applause] thank you. Thank you. Thank you for joining us. We appreciate this as we start this new session of congress. We will start out with the broad picture. President obama will deliver the Union Address to the nation tomorrow night. He said it was a nontraditional address. We dont expect powerful proposals to go before congress. He will talk about his vision for the country, may be reviewed the past a little bit. Is there anything you are looking for or hope to hear from him . Are there any things he could say legislatively that you might be able to Work Together on during 2016 . The general consensus is, nothing comes from capitol hill 2016. I am a texan fan. We had a really rough they will be back for next year, count on it. The president has kind of a clear choice here. He can continue with items tha
[laughter] here i am, im coming from an area of the world where you have a totally different legal system for women, different from men. If youre a woman, your testimony in court is half the value of a man. Can you believe this . So if i go to court, and i am testifying and theres a man testifying, and we contradict each other, he wins because hes a man. Thats the law. That is not the culture. Thats the legal system. So when you come suddenly to america and youre confronted that youre equal, its almost like, oh, my god, im equal . How do i deal with that . Really, it took me a while for me to really feel equal. Its not easy when youre living in a prison. Its not easy to see the freedom right away. And thats why im speaking, because i love this country. Im just very grateful for this country. It gave me my freedom. [applause] so ever since after 9 11 happened, a lot of americans, remember, were saying, where are the voices of the middle eastern people to speak against jihad and to stand
Which moves to challenge three, assisting labor as an overriding strategic task. The Labor Movement is an essential cornerstone of transformative politics. Not everyone in the left is of this mind. Some do not want no part of the process of change. Still others include labor in a very long list of other political actors. This obviously is in our attitude. When organized, united, and equipped with a democratic vision. The working class in this sector possess transformative power. Of course, this is not the case today. The membership is at its lowest level since world war ii. It is on the defensive and fractured. The left and the labor, while is still small in size and the barriers to reconstitute are revitalized and the growing Labor Movement are formidable. Now, if this were the entire story it would be a bummer. I would go on vacation and head to the pub by noon. But, it isnt. Labor is breaking out of his defensive shell, opening its arms to millions of new members, and taking new ini
Identifying areas for improvement, identifying areas for managerial improvement. The problem is that those improvements rarely get made. And to the extent that congressional action is necessary to make some of these changes, theres so much else to do. Theres very little glory in eliminating a program especially if people face layoffs. Theres even less glory in that. So to some extent its not that we dont know where to cut that we dont know which programs work and which ones dont. We do have some Good Government reports that help guide those decisions, but its that from recognizing the problem the next step is missing. Where is the action to actually get rid of some of these programs . I think thats exactly right. It comes in the action. When you were talking what popped in my mind was Ronald Reagans famous quote about politics and Foreign Relations which is trust but verify. And that seems to work for a lot of issues we deal with in our life. But when it comes to government spending, y