A senior editor of Newsweek berated the Bush administration for a lack of accountability and looked to the upcoming presidential elections to redeem America’s international reputation in a discussion with students, yesterday evening.

Jonathan H. Alter ’79, who is also an NBC political correspondent, met with about 25 Harvard students to address the question, “The Bush Failure: Can the Next President Fix It?”

The event was organized by Alter’s nephew Spencer B. Lazar ’07 as part of the “Conversations with Kirkland” discussion series and took place in the Kirkland Junior Common Room last night.

Lazar said he wanted to engage students in a productive political conversation with a respected authority, and he described his guest as “one of the keenest political observers on the landscape.”

“It’s a very interesting time in American politics,” Lazar said in a phone interview before the event. “[Alter] has a kind of credibility right now.”

Alter, who is a former Crimson news editor, discussed his personal experience with Congressional corruption and criticized the mistakes of the current administration during his talk.

“We missed a tremendous opportunity to make a commitment to security [after Sept. 11],” he said.

A history concentrator during his time at the College, Alter added that Bush and his cabinet should have learned from previous mistakes in American history.

“If they say the definition of insanity is repeating the same thing over and over and expecting a different result,” Alter said, “I think we’re in an insane interlude in American history.”

Alter’s most recent foray into historical analysis resulted in a 2006 book, “The Defining Moment: FDR’s Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope.”

The next president should be capable of bringing together coalitions, Alter said, describing the ideal candidate as a “Tom Sawyer” who “get his friends to paint the fence for him.”

Naming Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John Edwards as “first-tier” Democratic candidates, Alter said that he does not see any frontrunners in the Democratic party.

Joshua Patashnik ’07 said that he agreed with some of Alter’s points, but was surprised by “how negative his discussion was.”

“He seemed kind of disillusioned; it was kind of depressing,” Patashnik said.

Alter said he disagreed with the assessment, adding that he is optimistic about a turnover in leadership.

“I am hopeful,” Alter said. “I think that when we get a new president, we will restore our prestige in the world.”

The “Conversations with Kirkland” discussion series was co-founded in 2002 by Kirkland resident scholar Peter Emerson and co-House Masters Tom C. Conley and Verena A. Conley.

Guest speakers have included a variety of figures—from actor Richard Dreyfuss to the current president of Zambia—and all major 2008 presidential candidates are expected to speak.