The Politics of the Presidency

"Three successive presidents have entered office in truly tumultuous times. Supporters of Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden had high expectations of what the new president could achieve, while at the same time each confronted a hard core of opponents who could not be convinced that he was even a legitimate president. As the nation's first president of color, Obama broke a barrier that had stood for more than two centuries and confronted what seemed at the time like a remarkably challenging list of national problems: the worst economic recession in more than half a century, two ongoing wars, a dysfunctional health care system, a warming planet, widespread public distrust of politics, and a Washington riven by partisan discord. Trump, the first president with no prior government experience, engineered surprise victories in both the Republican primaries and the Electoral College, promising to upend the Obama legacy on the way to returning the nation to its past greatness. By the end of his single term, a global pandemic raged and recession reigned, protesters had flooded the streets, alliances were strained, and American democracy itself was under fire. Biden, the oldest person to ever serve as president, led a bitterly polarized country dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic consequences, the biggest land war in Europe since World War II with its threat of nuclear escalation, battles over abortion and other "culture war" issues, and the potentially existential threat of climate change. After more than two centuries of evolution and development, the presidency stands not only as the nation's preeminent public office but also as its most problematic. Because presidents today are far more important for peace and prosperity than were their nineteenth-century counterparts, ensuring the selection of qualified candidates and enhancing the winner's effectiveness in office are major concerns of specialists and citizens alike. In the post-World War II period, however, few presidents have left office with a record of unqualified success. In fact, academic and media observers have labeled most of the presidents since Lyndon B. Johnson as "failures" on at least some dimensions"--