James M. Lindsay, an expert on U.S. politics and foreign policy, says President Bush will be regarded as “a below-average president” due to issues like Iraq and immigration reform.

CFR's Peter Beinart says the Iowa caucuses reveal shifts in the political beliefs of both parties' bases.

James M. Lindsay, a former CFR director of studies, says a politically weakened Bush administration has been forced to broaden its support base through compromise.

American foreign policy expert James A. Lindsay says candidates for the 2008 presidential race will face the daunting issue of withdrawing troops from Iraq.  

CFR's Julia E. Sweig says President Bush’s trip to five Latin American nations “went as badly as I expected it to.”

Kenneth M. Pollack says Democrats should give President Bush’s new Iraq plan a chance, but also prepare alternatives.

Nancy E. Roman, who heads CFR’s Washington program, says she was struck by President Bush’s push for energy conservation.

Richard N. Haass, CFR president and a well-known Middle East expert, says what President Bush’s Iraq speech “represented more than anything else was the re-Americanization of the effort.”

Robert Dallek, a prominent historian on the American presidency, says that historians will remember President Gerald R. Ford as “a distinctly minor figure,” in part because he was in office for such a short period and “one cannot point to any great initiatives that changed the course of history, in my judgment, in that time.”

James M. Lindsay, CFR Vice President and Director of Studies, says President Bush's public approval ratings "are down because he's in trouble in his foreign policy, most notably in Iraq." Says Lindsay: "He has gone from being seen as a man in control of events, in charge of his administration, to being perceived as someone who does not command in government."

Joseph Biden, Barack Obama's "single most influential foreign policy adviser," is poised surpass Dick Cheney as the most powerful vice president in American history in the president's second term, writes David Rothkopf.

The Wall Street Journal explains how speeches by Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan and former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice invigorated and energized an otherwise lackluster Republican National Convention.

The next president should keep after al-Qaeda but mend relations with Congress on terrorism, reports this Brookings Institution campaign briefing.

From both the right and left, there has been a dramatic disconnect between President Obama's record and the public perception of his leadership: despite his demonstrated willingness to use force, neither side regards him as the warrior president he is, writes Peter L. Bergen.

Jim Hoagland writes that President Obama should be careful in planning major policies for the second term. Barring surprises, he writes, recent history shows that if re-elected at all, presidents get caught up in resolving issues created in their first terms.

Obama's potential voters might not judge him only by his success on catching the al-Qaeda mastermind, but also by the way he has been handling the American economy, writes Scott Clement.