The Buzz

“There is no one in government who is advocating for the public to hear information.”
Ron Suskind, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of The One Percent Doctrine, discussing the Bush administration’s determination to operate covertly, at a seminar in September sponsored by the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

“We decided: Why not ask the students directly? As General Motors would say, ‘Ask the customer.’”
Richard Light, director of the Harvard Seminar on Assessment, explaining how universities can learn from businesses and government, at a talk sponsored by the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government in September.

“We think of Al Qaeda as a terrorist organization, but for young men who join, it’s a suicide organization.”
Lawrence Wright, staff writer for The New Yorker and author of The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, at a seminar in October sponsored by the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy.

“The Republican party has…as its constituency and leaders…people who are used to winning.”
Tom Edsall, of The Washington Post, discussing his book Building Red America: The New Conservative Coalition and the Drive for Permanent Power, at a brown bag lunch in September sponsored by the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy.