Opportunity 08: Independent Ideas for America's Next President - Hardcover

9780815764649: Opportunity 08: Independent Ideas for America's Next President

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0815764642 ISBN 13: 9780815764649

Publisher: Brookings Institution Press, 2007

American voters say they want to hear more about the issues and less about partisan politics. An unusually wide-open presidential race presents a unique opening for frank discussion and innovative solutions to pressing policy challenges. Opportunity 08 takes advantage of this political space to help presidential candidates, political observers, and the informed public focus on critical issues facing the nation. Opportunity 08 tackles a broad range of issues, organized under three categories: Our World, Our Society, and Our Prosperity. On the latter, for example, Brookings scholar Isabel Sawhill joins former Congressmen Bill Frenzel (R) and Charles Stenholm (D) and longtime budget counsel Bill Hoagland to provide a clear picture of the American budget deficit situation and what should be done about it. Sawhill also collaborates with Ron Haskins on a plan to provide greater support for education, work, and marriage. Hugh Price puts forth a strategy (and price tag) for boosting academic achievement among American schoolchildren. Brookings scholar Henry Aaron and Harvard professor Joseph Newhouse describe America's health care predicament and discuss options for expanding coverage and reducing costs. Mark McClellan, until recently the administrator of Medicare and Medicaid, takes another angle on the same subject. In the realm of international affairs, Jeffrey Bader and Richard Bush as well as former Bush administration official Michael Green discuss how best to deal with China. Jeremy Shapiro calls for a more analytic and threat-based approach to homeland security, arguing that many proposals are too ambitious and costly. On the Middle East, Martin Indyk and Tamara Cofman Wittes emphasize the need for a moderate coalition that will counter Iran's ambitions in the region, while also discussing political reform in Arab states and the Arab-Israeli peace process. Peter Rodman, until recently a Bush administration Pentagon official, also addresses the challenge posed by a radical Iran. These are just a few of the critical issues and renowned authors included in this timely book. Insightful, informed, and independent, Opportunity 08 truly is Brookings at its best.

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About the Author:

Michael E. O'Hanlon is a senior fellow in Foreign Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution, where he holds the Sydney Stein Jr. Chair. His recent books include The Future of Arms Control (Brookings, 2005; with Michael A. Levi), Neither Star Wars nor Sanctuary (Brookings, 2004), and Crisis on the Korean Peninsula (McGraw Hill, 2003; with Mike Mochizuki).

From Publishers Weekly:

In partnership with ABC News, one of the nation's oldest policy think tanks, the Brookings Institute, hope to rouse productive, independent-minded debate with this collection of essays that examine policy history and recent presidential missteps to address the country's most urgent issues on the eve of the 2008 presidential election. From emerging technology and international relations to oil dependency and the importance of 401(k) plans, experts confront a wide range of topics in areas of policy, industry and attitude. Michael Green, formerly of Bush II's National Security Council, devises an organized, democratic strategy for China, suggesting that the next president will be judged more critically on that question than the Iraq war; former senators Warren Rudman (R-NH) and Robert Kerry (D-NE) fend off economic crisis by taking on skyrocketing health care costs and diminishing national savings; other concerns include retirement security, healthcare quality and access, and poverty at home. Each chapter contains well-organized, innovative and practical approaches not just for the sitting president, but for the campaigning hopefuls, and should inspire voters to look beyond all-too-typical horse race coverage-and perhaps demand more from their news media and their leaders.
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