Scholar Douglas J. Besharov

I am delighted to be here today and to have had the opportunity to serve APPAM, an organization I respect and care deeply about. Over the years, I've learned a lot from APPAM, from its meetings, from JPAM, and from participating in its governance. So, thank you all very much.

I also want to congratulate president-elect Kathy Swartz, the Program Committee, and our stalwart executive director, Erik Devereux, for a great conference. Thanks for all your hard and very good work.

Many of those in the room (dare I say most?) were cheered by Tuesday's results. After years of questionable policies and catastrophic management, there are, I fear, many hidden Katrinas yet to surface, as evidenced by the current financial crisis. Even those who did not vote for Barack Obama should wish him--and our nation--a successful presidency.

In important respects, my talk today is based on my own hopes for Obama's presidency. (Yes, I did prepare two drafts of this talk, but I spent more time on this one.). . . .

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Douglas J. Besharov is the Joseph J. and Violet Jacobs Scholar in Social Welfare Studies at AEI.