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. 

Export-related jobs are a huge and important driver of the U.S. economy, and the record of the Ex-Im Bank is clear: Using private funds and with minimal exposure to taxpayers, it has been a major driver of U.S. exports and a driver of jobs and corporate profits in the United States.

We have been studying Washington politics and Congress for more than 40 years, and never have we seen them this dysfunctional. In our past writings, we have criticized both parties when we believed it was warranted. Today, however, we have no choice but to acknowledge that the core of the problem lies with the Republican Party.

Abipartisan conventional wisdom has recently emerged that conveniently excuses the shortcomings of the awkwardly assembled No Child Left Behind law.

Bipartisan agreement to engage in lazy hosannas and excuse incoherent provisions by blaming the bugbear of "implementation" is not the way to value and protect the No Child Left Behind Act.

The election results pose two enormous strategic choices for America.

While the Left claims to want bipartisanship and compromise, the incremental clicks of the ratchet only go in one direction: toward European-style social democracy.

"The choice in this election is between an economy that produces a growing middle class and that gives people a chance to get ahead and their kids a chance to get ahead, and an economy that continues down the road we are on, where a fewer and fewer number of people do very well and everybody else is running faster and faster just to keep pace."