The spring Perspectives with Peter Beinart series opens with an evening examining the new order in Washington. The discussion features Gail Collins, columnist for the New York Times, and Mike Allen, chief political correspondent for Politico. Peter Beinart is a faculty member at CUNY's Graduate Center and Graduate School of Journalism and a senior political writer for the Daily Beast.
Bio
Mike Allen
Mike Allen is the chief White House correspondent for Politico. Previously, he held the same position at TIME magazine. Prior to that, Allen spent six years at The Washington Post, where he covered President George W. Bush’s first term, Capitol Hill, campaign finance, and the presidential campaigns of 2000. Before turning to national politics, Allen covered schools and local governments in rural counties outside Fredericksburg, Va., for The Free Lance-Star, then wrote about Doug Wilder, Oliver North, Chuck Robb, and the Bobbitts for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, where he nurtured police sources on overnight ride-alongs through housing projects. Allen also covered Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, the Connecticut statehouse, and other topics for The New York Times. Prior to that, Allen did stints in the Richmond and Alexandria bureaus of The Washington Post.
Peter Beinart
Peter Beinart is an American journalist and Associate Professor of Journalism and Political Science at the City University of New York. He is a Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation and Senior Political Writer for The Daily Beast website. Beinart worked at The New Republic until 2006, for much of the time writing The New Republic's signature "TRB" column, which was reprinted in the New York Post and other major American newspapers.
From 2007 to 2009, Beinart was a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Beinart is the author of The Good Fight: Why Liberals, and Only Liberals, Can Win the War on Terror and Make America Great Again, and The Icarus Syndrome: A History of American Hubris.
Gail Collins
Gail Collins joined the New York Times in 1995 as a member of the editorial board and later as an Op-Ed columnist. In 2001 she became the first woman ever appointed editor of the Times's editorial page.
At the beginning of 2007, she stepped down and began a leave in order to finish her new book: When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present. She returned to the Times as a columnist in July 2007.
Before joining the Times, Ms. Collins was a columnist at New York Newsday and the New York Daily News, and a reporter for United Press International.
Her first jobs in journalism were in Connecticut, where she founded the Connecticut State News Bureau, which provided coverage of the state capitol and Connecticut politics. When she sold it in 1977, the CSNB was the largest news service of its kind in the country, with more than 30 weekly and daily newspaper chains.
Journalists Gail Collins and Mike Allen discuss the likelihood of Mitt Romney making a successful bid for president in 2012. Allen argues that Romney's good looks are his best chance at becoming President because "looking the part counts in America."
Collins counters, saying Romney doesn't have a chance because he flip-flops on political issues. Moreover, jeers Collins, "The man drove to Canada with his dog strapped to the roof of his car."
Mike Allen and Gail Collins weigh in on the debate over pension reform. Collins addresses the need for specific reforms across the public sector. "Disability is really abused. A lot of people retire on disability that shouldn't be allowed to," argues Collins. She also highlights the public sectors' inefficient retirement system, in which few benefit.
Series of periodic money payments made to a person who retires from employment because of age, disability, or the completion of an agreed span of service. The payments generally continue for the rest of the recipient's natural life, and they are sometimes extended to a widow or other survivor. Military pensions have existed for many centuries; private pension plans originated in Europe in the 19th century. There are two basic types of pension plans: defined contribution and defined benefit. A defined contribution plan invests a defined amount each pay period. The individual may have some discretion as to how the money is invested. The benefit, the amount of the pension, depends on the success of those investments. A defined benefit plan pays a known amount according to some formula, but the amount invested in the fund may vary. Pensions may be funded by making payments into a pension trust fund or by the purchase of annuities from insurance companies. In plans known as multiemployer plans, various employers contribute to one central trust fund administered by a joint board of trustees.
Public provision for the economic security and social welfare of all individuals and their families, especially in the case of income losses due to unemployment, work injury, maternity, sickness, old age, and death. The term encompasses not only social insurance but also health and welfare services and various income maintenance programs designed to improve the recipient's welfare through public services. Some of the first organized cooperative efforts to provide for the economic security of individuals were instituted by workingmen's associations, mutual-benefit societies, and labour unions; social security was not widely established by law until the 19th and 20th centuries, with the first modern program appearing in Germany in 1883. Almost all developed nations now have social security programs that provide benefits or services through several major approaches such as social insurance and social assistance, a needs-based program that pays benefits only to the poor. See alsoSocial Security Act; unemployment insurance; welfare; workers' compensation.
(born Aug. 4, 1961, Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.) 44th president of the U.S. (2009– ). Obama graduated from Columbia University (1983) and Harvard Law School (1991), where he was the first African American to serve as president of the Harvard Law Review. He moved to Chicago, where he served as a community organizer and lectured in constitutional law at the University of Chicago before he was elected (1996) to the Illinois Senate as a member of the Democratic Party. In 2004 he was elected to the U.S. Senate and quickly became a major national political figure. In 2008 Obama won an upset victory over former U.S. first ladyHillary Clinton to become the Democratic presidential nominee. He easily defeated Republican candidate John McCain and became the first African American president. In 2009 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”
MITTENS MITT CUDDLES MORMONS LOVE MONEY MORE THAN LOVE FOR GOD:
Doctor Ron Paul Only one who saves lives, brings over 4000 babies into the world,
All the rest are corporate WARMONGERS working FOR WALL STREET: ALL THE REST other than Ron PAUL ARE CHURCH MICE there to steal your cheese.
Is Ron Paul the only one who served in the military AIR FORCE Viet NAM.
RON PAUL only one who serves the PUBLIC all HIS LIFE! THANK YOU DR.PAUL.
AS for the rest a waste of time at best!
America......World thinks your Stuck on stupid! ..ARE YOU!
Vote RON PAUL only intelligent future!
@ Aristophanes: they had the foresight to realize Donald trump cannot be seriously considered for the presidency. His run was a publicity stunt intended to get his name circulating in the tabloids once again.
I agree, how they could possibly have missed Donald Trump I have absolutely no idea. He may not be a traditional candidate and is surely a surprising republican candidate, considering his personal life; but he has the money and the confidence to take on Obama. Hopefully, however, we won't have that scenario prove true.
When Peter Biener said "on that cheerful note" at the end, that was probably one of the most profound refrains (in the context given) and most depressing. I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation and the guests empathy for some of the followup questioners.
