Our next President will be greeted with challenges of a magnitude that have not been seen since Franklin Delano Roosevelt took office and launched the New Deal to place America back on track. This week in a series of essays, we examine FDR, the New Deal and what qualities our next President will need to successfully address the difficult issues confronting our nation.

Becoming Roosevelt — Hall Institute Executive Director Michael P. Riccards, a leading presidential scholar, comments on the need for leadership in an America in economic trouble. Read

Questions For The Next President — In his PolitickerNJ column, Riccards lays out a questionnaire for the presidential candidates in an effort to encourage informed debate and discussion in the campaign this fall. Read

It's Time for a New Deal — Rutgers Professor Norman Markowitz shifts attention to the failure of anti-New Deal policy and provides the conditions for a return to progressive reform and a new New Deal. Read

Can this Election Produce Another Hundred Days? — - In a separate piece, Markowitz examines the 2008 presidential elections alongside the early days of the FDR administration and finds a new possibility for progressive change. Read

Podcast — - To hear audio commentary on the New Deal, the 2008 race for the White House, and more, visit the Hall Institute Radio Policycast Page.

Visit the Hall Institute online at WWW.HALLNJ.ORG to read these articles and other topical material:

• Riccards on New Jersey 2008 — A blog on our state's expanded role in the 2008 presidential race.
• Rich Lee on Media — Musings on those who make the news and those who report it.
• A School Funding Scrapbook — Commentary on education issues and policy.
• Hall Institute Forum — Our public affairs television program.
• Hall Institute Radio Podcast Forum — Audio discussion of timely and topical public policy issues.
• White Papers
• Research Essays
• Op-Ed Articles
• Press Releases

The Hall Institute is a non-partisan, not-for-profit foundation established to explore social, economic, educational and cultural issues. Since its inception in 2005, the institute has posted more than 400 white papers, research essays and op-ed articles on its website at www.hallnj.org in an effort to generate debate and discussion and develop solutions to the problems confronting the state and its residents.

The institute has conducted several special events, including NJ2008, a series of public forums on the state’s role in the 2008 presidential campaign. In 2006, the institute presented an online Virtual Debate among the candidates in New Jersey's U.S. Senate race. At present, we are sponsoring a Similar Virtual Debate for the state's 2008 U.S. Senate election.

The organization produces public affairs television, podcasts and blogs, and also has published two books -- The State of the Garden State and Reaction and Reform in New Jersey. Both are compilations of the major papers posted on its website. A third volume, Creating A Common Future: New Jersey and Public Policy, is posted on the Hall Institute website.

Earlier this year, the institute acquired the Bay Area Center for Voting Research, a non-partisan think tank based in Berkeley, California, leading to the start of the Hall Institute of Public Policy – California.

Located in Trenton directly across from the New Jersey State House, the institute was established by George E. Hall, a successful business executive and a leading philanthropist who lives in Middletown, N.J.