Insightful commentary about the crucial test facing the next president, which the author claims is to define and deliver on these generation-spanning causes: "the need to jump-start a new energy economy, and, in so doing, help to contain climate change; and the need to enact a plan to provide quality health care to all Americans, and, in so doing, complete the project of social insurance that Roosevelt described in 1935." This article focuses largely on the latter, health care ... More »

This piece, like the FT opinion by Strobe Talbot also on NewsTrust (see links), argues that for the next president to be successful, he will have to tackle big, long term issues. It uses FDR's New Deal as the comparison point. What I wonder is whether there have been great presidents who are great for only dealing with immediate crisis very well?