William A. Galston - Mentions and Appearances

"The United States political scene is as deeply polarized along partisan lines as it has been for at least a century. It would take a very brave Republican indeed to break ranks with the president under these circumstances."

On the question of bringing witnesses and new evidence into the Senate trial on impeachment: "Democrats will ask, ‘Don’t the American people deserve to know the truth?’ On the other hand, [Republicans] may well calculate that public testimony would create uncertainties that they’re willing to go to considerable lengths to avoid.”

"There’s a reason why ‘Profiles in Courage’ is a very short book. Courage is not the norm. It’s the exception."

"The polarization is both increasing and deepening and there is no getting around the fact that we are in for months of conflict around [impeachment]. It will pour gasoline on an already raging fire."

I don’t see a viable majority in the two houses of Congress in favor of getting out of [the sequester] in a way that the president would accept.

The State Department report will make it much harder for Obama to justify rejecting the Keystone project. Still, it has become a highly visible and emotionally charged symbol of an often diffuse issue, and it is where many leading environmental organizations have chosen to draw the line.

I think that Obama's second inaugural address will go down in history as the last speech of his election campaign. I think the 2013 State of the Union address will be regarded as the framing speech for his second term. If President Obama wants to be a transformational president and be regarded in history in that way, he's going to have to build on this new vision of government that he's advancing.

Forces within the Democratic Party are clearly mobilizing to prevent President Obama from returning to anything resembling the 2011 negotiations. Where [Nancy Pelosi] will come down on that, I don't know.

The government does remain divided, and I know there are a lot of people in the Democratic Party who believe the president doesn't have to compromise. But he has no choice but to negotiate. The chance of getting stuff done is dependent on his negotiations. He can't force his will on House Republicans.

I see [the Obama] campaign as having, at the very least, not furthered the cause of compromise.