Ron Elving
Ron Elving is Senior Editor and Correspondent on the Washington Desk for NPR News, where he is frequently heard as a news analyst and writes regularly for NPR.org.
He is also a professorial lecturer and Executive in Residence in the School of Public Affairs at American University, where he has also taught in the School of Communication. In 2016, he was honored with the University Faculty Award for Outstanding Teaching in an Adjunct Appointment. He has also taught at George Mason and Georgetown.
He was previously the political editor for USA Today and for Congressional Quarterly. He has been published by the Brookings Institution and the American Political Science Association. He has contributed chapters on Obama and the media and on the media role in Congress to the academic studies Obama in Office 2011, and Rivals for Power, 2013. Ron's earlier book, Conflict and Compromise: How Congress Makes the Law, was published by Simon & Schuster and is also a Touchstone paperback.
During his tenure as manager of NPR's Washington desk from 1999 to 2014, the desk's reporters were awarded every major recognition available in radio journalism, including the Dirksen Award for Congressional Reporting and the Edward R. Murrow Award from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. In 2008, the American Political Science Association awarded NPR the Carey McWilliams Award "in recognition of a major contribution to the understanding of political science."
Ron came to Washington in 1984 as a Congressional Fellow with the American Political Science Association and worked for two years as a staff member in the House and Senate. Previously, he had been state capital bureau chief for The Milwaukee Journal.
He received his bachelor's degree from Stanford University and master's degrees from the University of Chicago and the University of California 鈥� Berkeley.
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In the face of congressional and popular resistance to his call for retaliation against Syria, the president had a conversion on the missile flight path to Damascus. But what constitutes presidential wisdom and strength in today's global politics? It may have less to do with traditional notions of strength and more to do with vision and adaptability. -
The sudden eruption of second-term scandals in his administration will have many costs for President Obama, but surely the most grievous will be the lost opportunity to transcend the partisan wars of Washington, his fondest dream for his second term, much as it was for his first. Now it seems destined to be dashed once again. -
What stood out were the moments he seemed at a loss with the frustrations of dealing with Congress. But no matter how frustrating a president finds this dilemma, it does not advance his cause to wear his frustration in public. Yes, he must acknowledge the difficulties he faces, but he also needs to transcend them. -
A look back at landmark cases makes clear that the Supreme Court never really knows exactly how its decisions will play out 鈥� especially not in the long run. That uncertainty must loom over the justices now as they contemplate the issue of gay marriage. -
Jeb Bush is popular in conservative circles and is the third member of the Bush family to be seen as a presidential contender. (The last two were elected.) So is there some sort of How to Be President checklist somewhere in the Bush house? If so, it might look something like this. -
Even if the Senate were to approve a compromise package and a majority of the House (Republicans and Democrats) were prepared to accept it, the deal likely won't even be brought to the House floor for debate and a vote. How can this be? Because of the de facto "majority of the majority" rule.
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House Speaker John Boehner had a news conference Friday, after he had to withdraw his "Plan B" for avoiding the tax increases and spending cuts due at the end of the year. Many of his fellow Republicans wouldn't support it because it included higher taxes for millionaires.
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The latest NPR Battleground Poll shows former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney holding the narrowest of leads in the national sample, but trailing President Obama in the dozen states that will decide the election. The poll adds evidence that the Oct. 3 debate between the two men redefined the race.
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The retracting of the Romney horns was too obvious to be spontaneous. That is not the way the GOP nominee and his team operate. They have decided that polls in their favor are now the contest's defining factor. So their tactics for the third debate went from "go after him" to "don't blow it." -
The opposition to the Vietnam War was young, unconventional, countercultural and suspicious of government. McGovern himself was none of these things. At the time of his presidential nomination in 1972, the two-term Democratic senator was a decorated World War II veteran who had spent most of his adult life in politics.
