Presidential Studies Quarterly articles from September 2008

Presidential Studies Quarterly archives from September 2008

The new vice presidency: institutions and politics.(SYMPOSIUM ON THE NEW VICE PRESIDENCY)(Essay)
September 1, 2008... The criteria for selecting vice presidential candidates and the electoral and institutional impact of the running mates are important and understudied questions in American politics. Popular assumptions are rampant, and yet scholarship is slim....

The rising power of the modern vice presidency.(SYMPOSIUM ON THE NEW VICE PRESIDENCY)(Essay)
September 1, 2008... These are truly extraordinary times for the American vice presidency. For most of American history, citizens have heard the familiar disparagements about the weakness of the nation's second office, from John Adams's complaint that "[m]y country...

The making of the modern vice presidency: a personal reflection.(SYMPOSIUM ON THE NEW VICE PRESIDENCY)(Essay)
September 1, 2008... In an otherwise masterful document, the Founding Fathers created the vice presidency with almost no thought as to how it would fit into the structure of the new federal government. The office was, in fact, a constitutional afterthought designed...

Institutional change and the dynamics of vice presidential selection.(SYMPOSIUM ON THE NEW VICE PRESIDENCY)(Essay)
September 1, 2008... The American vice presidency has recently matured into a distinguished office of considerable authority (David 1967; Goldstein 1982; Light 1984; Mayer 2000; Nelson 1988a; Pomper 1966). Vice President Richard Cheney's unprecedented power in the...

Vice presidents and other heirs apparent: the historical experience of experience.(Report)
September 1, 2008... Experience has been a dominant issue in the 2008 presidential campaign. In what initially was thought to be an open contest, the range and types of candidate experience varied substantially: sitting and former senators, representatives, and...

Theodore Roosevelt's diplomacy and the quest for great power equilibrium in Asia.(Essay)
September 1, 2008... In his treatise on modern diplomacy, Henry Kissinger (1994, 38-39) argues that Theodore Roosevelt approached the global balance of power with a sophistication matched by no other American president and approached only by Richard Nixon....

Did Reagan make Gorbachev possible?(Ronald Reagan, Mikhail Gorbachev)(Essay)
September 1, 2008... Ronald Reagan's rhetoric and policies toward the Soviet Union in his first administration delayed the reconfiguration of the Soviet outlook toward the Cold War that came to define the Gorbachev era. His words and deeds gave credence to...

The contemporary presidency: and we will know their greatness by the trail of controversy: Washington, Lincoln, and Franklin D. Roosevelt and their increasingly contested successors.(George Washington, Abraham Lincoln)(Report)
September 1, 2008... Presidential scholars argue that recent presidents are more contested than earlier presidents (Bose 2003; Lonnstrom and Kelly 2003; Murray and Blessing 1994). This is attributable to scholars' limited information--research in progress, data...

The law: executive power and prosecution: lessons from the Libby trial and the U.S. attorney firings.(Lewis Libby)(Essay)
September 1, 2008... Presidential control of federal prosecution has created, throughout American history, tensions between the realities of political control and the ideal of the rule of law. While executive control guarantees a measure of democratic...

Polls and elections: Southern discomfort? Regional differences in voter decision making in the 2000 presidential election.(Report)
September 1, 2008... The contemporary American South continues to experience dramatic changes in population, economics, and partisanship that have fundamentally altered the political landscape of not only the region but the entire nation. The wide-ranging effects...

If everyone had voted, would Bubba and Dubya Have Won?(Bill Clinton, George W. Bush)(Essay)
September 1, 2008... Raymond Wolfinger's seminal research has established with elegance and precision the demographic and institutional bases of voter turnout in the United States. With these results in hand, Wolfinger turned to the significant "so what?" question,...

Public confidence and executive power: the symbiosis.(Book review)
September 1, 2008... Thomas Jefferson and Executive Power. By Jeremy D. Bailey. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007. 280 pp. The Terror Presidency: Law and Judgment Inside the Bush Administration. By Jack Goldsmith. New York: Norton, 2007. 256 pp. ...

Electing FDR: The New Deal Campaign of 1932.(Book review)
September 1, 2008... Electing FDR: The New Deal Campaign of 1932. By Donald A. Ritchie. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2007. x, 274 pp. For far too long, scholars have overlooked the election that pitted Franklin D. Roosevelt against Herbert Hoover. Many...

The Race to 270: The Electoral College and the Campaign Strategies of 2000 and 2004.(Book review)
September 1, 2008... The Race to 270: The Electoral College and the Campaign Strategies of 2000 and 2004. By Daron Shaw. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006. xii, 232 pp. Daron Shaw's aptly titled work, The Race to 270, focuses on two realities facing...

The George W. Bush Legacy.(Book review)
September 1, 2008... The George W. Bush Legacy. Edited by Colin Campbell, Bert A. Rockman, and Andrew Rudalevige. Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2008. 352 pp. Attention to the George W. Bush presidency has been eclipsed by raucous presidential campaigns, but as the...