Special Report

Since World War II, American foreign policy in general has been both realistic and moderate. There have been occasional bursts of intensified anxiety and paranoiac fears, but, by and large, American presidents–both the Democrats and Republicans who’ve been elected since 1948–have been able to maintain a steady course. Today, however, we are facing the first […]

As president, John Kerry would inherit the most formidable grass-roots force in recent American history. Born in the rising populism of last year’s frenetic primaries, this force has generated its own cobblestone leadership. What will Kerry do with these exuberant leaders dispersed across country and city? What will they do with him? To hold this […]

I have two words for our next president: no excuses. You will be facing an angry country frustrated by the serious challenges we confront and hungry for a leader who will actually get things done. I am from a small town in Maine, where I occasionally join in an early-morning breakfast with a few longtime […]

My advice, President Kerry, is that you assemble a political “A” team, install it in the West Wing, and fight like hell against the right over the next four years. “We ought to have two real parties,” President Franklin Delano Roosevelt told speechwriter and adviser Sam Rosenman in 1942, “one liberal and the other conservative.” […]

Every week, celebrate a public hero.

Given his lack of mandate, one might have expected moderation and caution from George W. Bush. Instead, Bush moved aggressively to reframe the basic dialogue of American politics and restructure the institutions of American government. What has Bush to teach John Kerry? Bush adhered consistently to three core principles: 1. Vision. Unlike his father, this […]

The inauguration of President Kerry on January 20, 2005, will be the beginning of the global post-Bush era. As a young American, I would give President Kerry one central, and simple, piece of advice: Be a hero. His success at recasting the issues in a progressive light can only occur if he takes immediate hold […]

In 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court declared the death penalty unconstitutional. The Court found that because the capital-punishment laws gave sentencers virtually unbridled discretion in deciding whether or not to impose a death sentence, “The death sentence [was] disproportionately carried out on the poor, the Negro, and the members of unpopular groups.” In 1976, the […]

Gathering dust in Texas Governor Rick Perry’s inbox is a clemency petition from Joe Lee Guy, a death-row inmate. The petition declares that “the integrity of Guy’s capital trial was severely compromised.” Considering how horrendously the wheels of Texas justice turned for Guy, the petition’s claim seems, if anything, understated. In 1994, Guy was sentenced […]

As you have read in the preceding pages, a large majority of countries in the world have abolished the death penalty. In order to join the European Union, for example, countries have to become parties to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, and specifically to Protocol 6, which explicitly […]