sylspr00308

Political Science 308, United States Presidency

Spring 2008

Bill Newmann, L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs

Office Hours: 301B Scherer Hall, Monday and Wednesday 1-2:30 and by appointment;

Phone Number: 828-8038: 24 hours a day: I have voice mail. E-mail: wnewmann@vcu.edu

Newmann's home page with links to other course syllabi (http://www.people.vcu.edu/~wnewmann)

Links to the Presidency that will be useful or interesting (some might even be both).

Key Links

Tracking the Schedule and delegate counts

· Debate Schedule

· LA Times Delegate Tracker

· CNN Election central Tracks delegate totals

· CNN Super Tuesday Map

· Republican Schedule NY Times

· Democratic Schedule NY Times

· Interactive Electoral map

Coverage of the Election (non-partisan sites)

· You Decide 2008 comprehensive coverage with links to debate video

· Real Clear Politics polls, polls, and more polls, with links to articles from everything

· Politico comprehensive coverage of 2008

Fact Check.Org Are the candidates telling the truth about themselves and each other? This checks their facts.

Reference

· Dave Leip’s Atlas of US Presidential Elections info on every US presidential election and more

Presidential Libraries

Statistical Abstract of the United States (US census Bureau compilation of statistics on social and economic conditions in the US

Introduction

The presidency is a huge topic. Recognizing this, the course will take a sweeping look at the US Presidency, arguably the single most powerful office in the history of the planet. Getting a handle on the presidency is a difficult, if not impossible job. Probably the best way to start learning about the subject is to think of the US presidency as the nexus of three streams: (1) the times -- the ebb and flow of American political culture, national trends, and international historical forces; (2) the presidency -- the office and powers of the institution as it has evolved from the US Constitution to the media-focused, celebrity Presidency of the 1980s and 1990s; and (3) The president -- the character, vision, strengths and weaknesses of the man or woman who occupies the Oval Office. As these three streams come together the political history of the nation is shaped.

The US has been called a "Presidential Nation." It is in the office of the presidency where the US people have decided to place power time and again. In the historical grappling for power between the president and Congress the US people have continually sided with the president. It is the place where we look for leadership, and direction. The person who occupies that office is given a stature like no other. (Has anyone seen any monuments to senators or representatives?) The president gets too much credit when things go well and too much blame when things go wrong. For better or worse, the president has become the embodiment of the nation, and therefore, his or her character, personal habits and infirmities become the stuff of national obsession, and national security. (During the 1980s, the polyps on Ronald Reagan's colon received more media attention than the workings of the Federal Reserve.)

The office of the president is the repository of the greatest powers in the land, not just in terms of physical power (the authority to use military force, even nuclear weapons), but moral power -- the ability to shift the ethical standards of a nation and to influence, if not define, the national mood. Our presidential elections often focus on issues of personal character, not issues of economic, social or foreign policy. We seem to be choosing not simply someone to run the country, but someone to represent us -- half-prime minister, half-monarch. Our choices, of course, depend on the national mood. Jimmy Carter's election was helped by his promise that he would never lie to the American people. Honesty was the character trait America searched for after the less than honest presidencies of Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon. Ronald Reagan was elected, in part, for his optimism about America at a time when the nation seemed to be losing its sense of purpose, its power, and its hope. Bill Clinton seemed to come to power through the repetition of a single word -- "change." America had tired of the stalemate in Washington and yearned for something, anything different. George W. Bush was elected even though he received fewer votes than his opponent and a significant portion of the electorate thought he was his father. A candidate's character and the nation's historical forces collide to provide a new leader, and it is the office of the presidency and the new chief executive's approach to it that will decide whether the president will succeed or fail.

This is the central point we should focus on: Is it possible for a president to "succeed" in "modern" times? What do I mean by "succeed?" It is best to take ideological judgments out of the definition of success. We should not try to define success subjectively -- in terms of individual political goals that those on one side or the other of the political spectrum might have, such as reducing poverty through government action or shrinking the size of the welfare state. Using these notions as the judgment of success would lead to endless debate about the purposes of government from a partisan point of view. We’ll probably have a little bit of that, but we don't want it to dominate the course. It is better to try for some scholarly objectivity, by defining success in the following manner -- did the president achieve what he set out to do? Whether you, as an individual, shared the goals of one president or another, is irrelevant to this question. Analytically, the focus should be upon how successful was any president in attaining the goals that he sets for himself.

By the "modern" presidency I refer to the presidency as it has been defined since Franklin Roosevelt. It is FDR who, with the help of national crises of the Depression and WW II, transformed the presidency into the focus of power that it is today. He also raised expectations so high that it is doubtful that any president can meet those expectations for any length of time. It is a bit scary to think that the only two presidents since the depression to leave office with their political stature intact were the two who died while in office -- Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy. Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower were seen as failures as they left Washington, though history has been kind to both. Lyndon Johnson's popularity was so low he declined to run again for President in 1968, as his Great Society was Killed-In-Action by Vietnam. Richard Nixon resigned the office in disgrace, but seems to have been forgiven after his death. Gerald Ford is seen as a caretaker President -- nothing ventured, nothing gained. Jimmy Carter's presidency went down in flames during the failed hostage rescue mission in the spring of 1980. Ronald Reagan's tenure in office was almost inconceivably successful until the Iran-Contra Affair raised questions about Reagan's competence and veracity. George H. W. Bush wasted his post-Gulf war popularity by ignoring the economic problems of the nation and was voted out of office after one term. Several days after the Clinton inauguration, the president was reading new headlines that referred to the "Failed Clinton Presidency." Though Clinton won a second term in office, he was dogged by Whitewater, "Travelgate," "Filegate," “Lewinsky-gate” to name a few, and ultimately a special prosecutor. Of course, Bill Clinton will go down in history for being the only president to be impeached in the 20^th century. The House of Representatives voted to remove him from office. The Senate did not convict him. Bill Clinton served out his terms, but has given new meaning to the phrase "affairs of state." George W. Bush has had his presidency defined for him. The 9/11 attacks made him a wartime president and changed his agenda significantly. But, as is the case in second terms, he faces declining popularity, several potential scandals, and, worse yet, a war that seems to be going sour.

Can the job be done? That is what we will focus on during the course of the semester. We will examine the powers of the presidency, the men who have held the office and the shifting demands that our political culture places on both the office and the individual.

Just to let you know what I think. A successful residency is possible. A President needs the political instincts of FDR, the tenacity of Truman, the organizational strategy of Eisenhower, the style of JFK, LBJ's ability to work with Congress, the strategic sense of Richard Nixon, the moderation of Gerald Ford, Carter's good intentions and decency, the media image of Ronald Reagan, the political connections of the Bush family, and the survivability of Bill Clinton. No Problem.

Some of the issues we will discuss include: The Presidency and the Constitution; Presidential Character; The Roosevelt Revolution; "The Personal Presidency;" Presidential Management Styles; Bureaucracy, Organizations, and Presidential Power; The "Imperial Presidency" and Foreign Policy; The White House Staff and its power; Watergate and the abuse of power; The post-Watergate Presidency; The Reagan Revolution; The President and the media; Presidential Campaigns; Expectations of the President; Image making; Shifting Coalitions in Presidential Voting; Red and Blue America; And more, other issues you might bring up. Of course, we will spend a lot of time discussing the election.

Texts: You need to read them; you don't need to buy them. There is a lot of reading for this course, but it is fun reading. I've tried to keep the dry political science textbook style to a minimum. I've assigned mostly journalistic accounts that are entertaining and educational.

The books are available at the Virginia Book Company (intersection of Shafer and Franklin) and the VCU Bookstore. Some of them may be found also at the large chain bookstores in town (Borders, Barnes and Noble). You might find them there at a discount. They may also be available on reserve at the Cabell Library room 301. If anyone has problems getting access to the texts, for any reason, let me know as soon as possible so you don't get too far behind in the reading. You may find these texts other places; be sure you get an edition of the text that includes everything that is in the edition I have assigned.

Assigned Texts:

Doris Kearns Goodwin. Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream (New York: St. Martins, 1991) (on reserve E 847 .G64 1991)
David Greenberg. Nixon’s Shadow (New York: W. W. Norton, 2003) (on reserve E 856 G747 2003)
Richard Reeves. President Reagan. (New York: Simon and Shuster, 2005) (on reserve E 877 .R44 2005)

Joe Klein. The Natural. (New York: Doubleday, 2002) (not on reserve)
George Edwards. Governing by Campaigning. (New York: Pearson Longman, 2007) (not on reserve)

Grading System: Grades will be determined through the following:

Paper One	February 18	20% of the grade
Exam One	March 3	30% of the grade
Paper Two	April 7	20% of the grade
Exam Two	May 2, 8-10:50, same room	30% of the grade

How do you calculate your grade? Use the percentages from the above table. So, if you received the following grades, you would calculate your grades in the following manner:

Paper One: 88, at 20% of the grade; that’s 88 multiplied by .20 = 17.6
Exam One: 92, at 30% of the grade; that’s 92 multiplied by .30 = 27.6
Paper Two: 91, at 20% of the grade; that’s 91 multiplied by .20 = 18.2
Exam Two: 90, at 30% of the grade; that’s 90 multiplied by .30 = 27.0
To get the final grade, add up all the scores: 17.6 + 27.6 + 18.2 + 27.0 = 90.4. Congratulations you got an A.

I give you this very detailed formula for a number of reasons. You should never be unaware of what your class average is. You can calculate it at any point in the semester. If your grade is not what you'd like it to be, you should know, and you should come see me about it. Please don’t wait to come to my office hours until after the final exam and say then tell me that you're having trouble in the class. It's too late at that point; there’s nothing that I’d be able to do to help at that point. But any time in the semester that you feel you are having trouble, or not doing as well as you feel you should, come talk to me. During my office hours and by appointment I am happy to talk to you about the class

Grading scale: I use a typical scale: A = 90-100; B = 80-89; C = 70-79; D = 55-69. Borderline grades are considered in the following manner. If your grade is 69.5, 79.5, or 89.5, then you are a candidate for a round up to the higher grade IF your grades have been going up during the semester. That means that if you are borderline, but your third exam is lower than the previous exams (you are between a B and C, but your third exam is a C, you will probably get the lower grade. If you are between a B and C, but your third exam is a B, you will probably get the B).

EXAMS: The exams will be short answer and essay. One week before the exam I will place a review sheet on line, linked to this syllabus, below this paragraph. This review sheet should be used as your study guide for the exam. The review sheet will include some terms that are from the readings only, so that you can go back and review those items from the readings. Once you have the review sheet, feel free to ask me questions about the terms. This is the best way to study for the exam. If you understand the terms on the review sheet, you can define each one and see how each one relates to the larger concepts and issues we've discussed in class, you should do just fine on the exam. The exams will consist of short answer/identifications and one essay. I will give more details on the exams in class as we approach the first exam.

Review 1

Review 2

Papers:

You will have two papers in this class. They are small research papers of 7-8 pages. The specific assignments can be found by clicking here. The due dates are in the schedule above and below. The papers are due at the beginning of class. After that they will be marked down 10 points per day.