Change for America: A Progressive Blueprint for the 44th President

In this lengthy collaboration Jolin, of the Center for American Progress, and Gren, president of the New Democracy Project, gather a comprehensive series of essays for the new president's consideration, arranged into four broad categories: the White House, domestic policy, economic policy and national security policy. Along with suggestions and goals for the first 100 days, contributors like Tom Freedman, Karen Davenport, Jessica Stern and Lames Lee Witt paint sobering portraits of areas in need of overhaul. Criticism is frequently lobbed at the outgoing administration for, among other grievances, the termination of the Manufacturing Extension Partnership and Advanced Technology Program, the Labor Department's 34 percent loss of staff, the Department of Justice indictment, the Federal Trade Commission's incompetence, and ""the poster child for government dysfunction,"" the Department of Homeland Security. The editors' and contributors' agenda is obviously enormous, requiring the solid support of some 5,000 White House employees and cabinet officers implementing a huge range of ideas, including better education for at-risk and disconnected youth, establishing Internet accountability and creating a political culture that responds to reality as it is, rather than as a function of partisan ideology. At the very beginning of what could be a new political era, this book makes a thorough (if overwhelming) guide.