After the longest presidential campaign in our history, president-elect Barack Obama now has ten weeks to prepare to govern.

The five areas to guide long-term reforms are: 1) government policies to subsidize affordable housing, 2) rules defining the limits of safety net protection , 3) policies governing financial institution consolidation and competition, 4) prudential regulation and supervision, and 5) rules ensuring transparency in financial transactions and positions.

Could Obama's energy plan actually work?

Last week I wrote about the standings in the presidential race and said it looked like a long, hard slog through about a dozen clearly identified target states, much like the contests in 2000 and 2004. Call it the 2000/2004 long, hard slog scenario.

President Barack Obama has been on a tour of college campuses touting proposals to lower student loan repayments for college graduates. He hopes to rekindle the enthusiasm of young voters, who in 2008 favored him over Sen. John McCain by more than two-to-one.

Ironically, these same young Americans...

Political dysfunction. Partisanship at record levels. Attack politics run amok. And public approval of Congress scraping the single digits (Sen. John McCain is fond of saying it's down to blood rlatives and paid staff).

Every federal official has an obligation to act in line with the Constitution as he or she understands it. And that doesn't necessarily mean obeying Supreme Court decisions.

When he took office in 2009, Obama’s job approval rating with women had reached 70 percent; today it has slipped to 49 percent — a precipitous decline of 21 points. This is why the president has been working overtime to court the women’s vote. But here’s the interesting thing: It’s not working.