Stephen Hess
Stephen Hess
Stephen H. Hessis a senior fellow emeritus in the Governance Studies program at the Brookings Institution. He studies media, the U.S. presidency, political dynasties and the U.S. government. He first joined Brookings in 1972 and was distinguished research professor of media and public affairs at the George Washington University. He served on Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard Nixon's White House staff and as an adviser to Presidents Gerald R. Ford and Jimmy Carter...
certainly domestic effect immediate money
It certainly has some effect on his immediate domestic agenda. He has no money for anything but Katrina.
call effect profound shows
I don't want to call it only cosmetic, because these things do have an effect, but how profound the effect is, that I would question. Much of this is not about policy, it's about motion. It shows that they are responding; that they are moving.
celebrity culture elect expect intrigued learn people president stars
I think as we become more and more of a celebrity culture -- as we expect to learn more and more about the people who we elect president or make movie stars -- we are intrigued by their families.
agenda came last robust state
Last year, he came out with a very robust agenda in the State of the Union.
agenda katrina stops
Katrina pretty much stops his legislative agenda cold.
campaign press secret seeking suddenly wake
Suddenly the campaign is over, they wake up and the press is not seeking their opinion. There's no more entourage, no Secret Service. It's very, very difficult.
main
That's the main thing he's got going for him,
change nature
It doesn't change the nature of the court.
presidency president
The president was still Ike, and the presidency went on.
across cabinet case looks president reason table vice
The president looks across the cabinet table at the vice president and has to realize, 'The only reason he's there is in case I die.
appeal beyond democrat ethnic nation needs party
The party needs him and, for all I know, the nation needs him. There hasn't been an African-American Democrat who has had an appeal broadly beyond his ethnic group.
bad good heard
We need to know how bad it is — but we want a little good news, too. We've heard a lot about how bad Americans are, or some Americans were in Katrina, but we're not a bad people.
good ordinary second simple sort year
If it were an ordinary year, a traditional year, sort of a simple first year of a president's second term, you would have to say he had a pretty good year.
name thrown
His name is thrown into the mix. Big time.