ChronoSpark

What do you think of the Obama Administration's continued crackdown on medical marijuana?

Why not talk to the guys who do Udacity? That seems to have been a rousing success.

Looking back on the Obama Administration's first term, do you think that if he had appointed more Washington outsiders (as he promised in 2008) instead of the likes of Larry Summers and Timothy Geithner, his economic policies would have been more beneficial? Or do you think that the deadlock in Congress would have prevented more progressive economic policies regardless?

I read your book, Locked in the Cabinet, a couple years ago, and given your account in the Clinton administration, even with your intelligent, progressive approach to the economy, there was a lock of deadlock and immobility...

First, thanks so much for responding to much of what I've said.

Have you read this article from Ezra Klein in the New Yorker? In it, he argues that in today's political climate, a President's power to persuade is limited to his own party, and that his attempt to persuade the opposition (in this case the Republicans) in Congress only deepens their resolve to oppose him.

In essence, the idea of bi-partisanship as spearheaded by a President is a utopian fantasy, in the very classical sense. Furthermore, the more a President endorses a proposal or speaks out in support of it, the more the opposition turns against it. (One MAJOR example: the individual mandate in healthcare reform, originally proposed by conservatives in opposition to Clinton's healthcare reform.)

If he's re-elected to a second term, do you think Obama should simply ignore attempts to bring Republicans to his side?

Except when Jon Stewart comes on... And then he just makes the same arguments he always makes, and the next day we're back to square one.