James R. Gomes, director of the Mosakowski Institute for Public Enterprise, at Clark University, was the special guest on “Politics in the Age of Obama,” an episode of White House Chronicle, hosted by Llewellyn King.

Gomes discussed the role of Clark and other institutions of higher education in influencing lawmakers by putting research into effective practice. The wide-ranging half-hour conversation, which included co-host and syndicated columnist Bob Franken, included such topics as helping academics to become a bridge between research and policy and practice; President Obama’s leadership; Congressional partisanship; unemployment; technology; and the future of the nation.

“One thing [Obama] genuinely tried to do was to end some of the partisan bickering,” Gomes said. “There’s the phrase about not bringing a knife to a gunfight. I think President Obama may be guilty of bringing an olive branch to a gun fight, and that the first year may toughen him up and toughen up the Democrats so that they get real about how to engage across the aisle.”

King launched White House Chronicle in Washington, D.C., as a radio companion to White House Weekly. White House Chronicle is a weekly news and public affairs program, airing nationwide on PBS, public access cable and commercial television channels. The program also airs on Sirius XM Satellite Radio and Voice of America. Its hosts are nationally syndicated columnist and author Llewellyn King and veteran journalist Linda Gasparello.

Gomes, former president and CEO of the Environmental League of Massachusetts, joined Clark University in 2007 as the inaugural director of the Mosakowski Institute. Prior to his work at the Environmental League, Gomes was Massachusetts Undersecretary of Environmental Affairs, Executive Assistant to Senator John Kerry and an attorney at the Boston firm of Hale and Dorr.