This is the season of generational twaddle. At graduation ceremonies across the country, politicians, authors, actors, and businessmen take to the stage to tell young people they are fantastic simply because they are young. This year, the ritual is more pathetic than usual because there’s a presidential election in the offing.

Voters are tired of the partisan bickering and ideologically driven rancor--they want problems solved in Washington.

Let’s start with the stark reality: Second presidential terms rarely result in major accomplishments. Presidents have few new ideas that have not been posed in their first two years, and already met with success or failure. And second-term presidents face even more obduracy from the opposition, bitter at a second loss of the big prize. 

As the president has ramped up into campaign mode, he has studiously avoided mentioning most of his signature accomplishments. One can see why. The one thing President Obama always seems to mention is the auto bailout. His implication that the bailout is succeeding-that it will not ultimately be a loss for taxpayers-is a constant theme of Democrats.

The Obama administration exaggerates the accomplishments of its Russia policy to offset a shortage of foreign-policy achievements in other areas.

President Obama’s reelection largely hinges on his ability to play young voters for suckers — again — and whether Mitt Romney will let him.In 2008, Obama won the youth vote by better than a 2–1 margin, 66 percent to 32 percent. Even more impressive, he actually expanded the...

Impressive as China's economic accomplishments over the past generation have been, new demographic realities may ultimately force us to revise today's received wisdom about the future of "China's rise."