Brain Fuel

October 2009 will be a critical point in the Presidency of Barack Obama. His approval ratings have dropped from 65 to 55 percent, and Americans remain deeply concerned about a variety of issues. Opinion polls reveal both ambivalence and concern about health care reform even as bills make their way through Congress. The debate over whether the President’s stimulus package will produce a robust financial recovery, or a crippling federal deficit will grow more heated, as the federal fiscal year begins October 1. Meanwhile, the difficult wars in Iraq and Afghanistan dominate, and constrain, American foreign policy. Yet, Obama remains a transformative President. He has personally spearheaded all of the White House’s key initiatives, consolidated federal power in the Oval Office, and turned the bully pulpit into a 21st century publicity machine. Join Professor Schiller as she analyzes President Obama’s legislative success in Congress, approval ratings, and his chances for success or failure during the rest of his term.

Wendy Schiller is a professor of Political Science and Public Policy at Brown University. She is an expert in the field of the U.S. Congress and political representation, and the recent recipient of a $212,000 National Science Foundation grant to study party conflict and factionalism in the U.S. Senate. Professor Schiller has been a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution and a six-time recipient of the Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award at Brown. She is an editorial board member at the Journal of Politics and has published widely on the topic of Congress, including the book The Contemporary Congress, which she co-authored with Burdett Loomis.