Entries for November 2009

I know it seems a little early, but in politics you've got to pay attention to stories when they bubble up to the top. And Sarah Palin is about to bubble, if not outright explode, back onto the national scene. Her book, Going Rogue, had been on Amazon's bestseller list even before it came out. She's now started her book tour, or is it a presidential campaign? Whatever you think of Palin, she is a remarkable political figure. From the moment I watched her walk onto the Republican convention stage and wow a skeptical crowd with rare magnetism, it was clear to me that she was going to be with us for a while. What do you think of her? Could she be president? Do you plan to read her book?Drop me a note below or at editor@usnews.com and let's chat about where the Palin phenomenon is heading.

That didn't take long. He is just completing his first year in office, and Barack Obama's presidency is verging on crisis mode. Not a full-blown crisis, to be sure, but an array of bedeviling issues on so many fronts that he might soon set some kind of historical record for facing the most bad-choice/worse-choice decisions. He is officially a war president, having upped the troop level in Afghanistan and weighing even bigger questions about where we go from here. Then there is the Iranian pursuit of nuclear weapons, the stalled Mideast peace process, the fragile financial system, and the prospect of a jobless economic recovery. There's a global warming coalition in disarray, an incipient trade war with China—and of course the slog over healthcare reform, which Obama intended to be his first triumph.

In each case, the questions being asked around the world are: How will the American president lead? What direction will he give? What tone will he set? Is he up to the job?