Campaign 2012: Twelve Challenges Facing the Next President

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The 2012 presidential campaign is well underway, with Republican primaries already winnowing the field of challengers vying to compete against incumbent president Barack Obama. As the nation struggles with high unemployment, record budget deficits and questions about its future role as a world power, immense challenges await the next president of the United States. But too often, public discussions about the presidential campaign focus on polls and sound bites rather than ideas and information.

On January 19, the Brookings Institution officially launched Campaign 2012, a new project that will identify and address the 12 most critical issues facing the next president. Campaign 2012 will provide recommendations from Brookings experts on the pressing policy challenges facing America in a series of forums over the coming months. Speakers at the first event discussed the key issues of 2012 with a particular focus on the federal budget deficit. The event featured opening remarks from Kenneth Duberstein, former chief of staff to President Ronald Reagan and co-chairman of Brookings’s Opportunity 08 project in the last presidential cycle. Senior Fellow Benjamin Wittes, director of Campaign 2012, introduced the project and John F. Harris, POLITICO editor-in-chief, moderated a panel discussion with Brookings Senior Fellows Ron Haskins, Isabel Sawhill, and William Gale.

After the program, panelists took questions from the audience.

This event was live tweeted using the hashtag #BIdeficit and on our @BICampaign2012 Twitter feed.

Download papers from the event:

• Addressing the Budget Deficit: The Next President Must Solve the U.S. Deficit Crisis, by Ron Haskins
   
• A Perspective on the Budget Deficit and Job Creation, by Isabel Sawhill
   
• A Perspective on the Budget Deficit and Revenues, by William Gale