Eleanor Clift

Eleanor Clift: Program Outlines

Politics. President Obama: Can he recover the magic? After the midterm shellacking, what has Obama learned, and how will he retool his presidency? Is he a one-term president?

Divided government. What are the prospects for bipartisanship? And how will the newly empowered Republicans handle the rise of the Tea Party? Will Maine Senator Olympia Snowe become an Independent rather than face a primary challenge from the right?

Third party politics: Voters don’t like either major party. Time for a real change?

The presidency: Sizing up the candidates for the GOP. Which one can navigate the treacherous primary terrain? Anniversaries – 2012 is the centennial year of Ronald Reagan’s birth and the 50th anniversary of JFK’s inauguration. What can these iconic presidents teach us? Is our political system broken, or is it leadership that we’re lacking?

Women and Politics. Hillary Clinton didn't win the presidency, dashing the hopes of a generation of women. From suffrage to sexism, Clift looks at the obstacles that remain and how to shatter the last glass ceiling. Also, examining what’s ahead for Hillary Clinton, who’s become the indispensable woman in the Obama administration with speculation about her as the next Secretary of Defense, or replacing Joe Biden as vice president.

Healthcare. Republicans campaigned on a promise to repeal health care reform. Clift can talk about the politics as well as offer a personal perspective on end of life care and the choices before us individually and as a society. Doctors can tell us what we can do; they can't tell us what we should do. (Two Weeks of Life is now also in paperback).

First Ladies. Michelle Obama fully understands the power of her platform, and she is using it to convey the priorities and values she shares with her husband. Her campaign against childhood obesity and the garden she planted on the South Lawn as a teaching tool for inner-city kids touch on important issues yet steer clear of controversy, which is how Obama, a Princeton and Harvard-educated lawyer, navigates the line between style and substance.

Media. The shrinking role of the mainstream media and its impact on politics. Can newspapers survive? Does anybody under 30 give a hoot if they don't? Barack Obama won the presidency in part because he understood the new tools of communication and mobilized them to his advantage. He lost that connection when he became immersed in governing. His re-election hinges on his ability to get all those new voters he inspired in ’08 back to the polls in 2012. Clift can talk personally about the changing media landscape now that Newsweek is merging with the Daily Beast and will be under the editorial direction of Tina Brown, the iconic editor of our age.