Looking for President Obama over the next few years? You should start at the White House, of course, and then try Camp David. But if you can’t find him there, you’d be wise to look overseas. According to new research, U.S. presidents—at least in recent decades—take far more trips out of the country during their second term in office. “A liberated president tends to spend more time abroad,” according to scholars Kathryn Dunn Tenpas of the University of Pennsylvania, Emily Jane Charnock of the University of Virginia, and James McCann of Purdue University. They outline their ... Read More
‘Speeches Must Be Short’: Radio and the Birth of the Modern Presidential Campaign
October 2, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
Tomorrow night, millions of Americans will tune in to the first presidential debate of the 2012 campaign. The 21st century voter has a multitude of media to see and hear the debates in real time: TV, streaming online video, radio, and even "live-GIF." But before the United States was awash in broadcast signals and Internet tubes, voters had far fewer options to learn about the candidates for president and what they stood for. But with the presidential election of 1924, American politics would be thrust into the future with a little help from a newcomer called radio. Radio was still a young ... Read More
Presidents’ Day: Just Another Presidential Fable
February 14, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
In the United States, February brings “Presidents’ Day” and some familiar stories, such as George Washington chopping down ye olde cherry tree, circulate anew. Sweet as it may sound about not lying to one’s father, this story is not true. Nor, to bite into a story of more recent vintage, did he have wooden teeth. Let’s skeptically consider a few of the many fables that regularly appear about current and past presidents, and critically think about the purposes they may serve. First, we need to address the initial fable of a “Presidents’ Day.” Yes, Martha, there is no such ... Read More
Brams: Use Approval Voting in Presidential Primaries
December 27, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
If Republicans are wondering about how to choose among less-than-inspiring choices available in the upcoming primaries — and how to sort losers from potential winners in a national election — they would be wise to sign up for study with Steven J. Brams. What happens in primaries of both parties, he says, is that the “field is crowded, the centrist is squeezed, the strong left candidate or strong right candidate wins. And it’s a disaster, in my opinion, for the country.” Brams says approval voting, in which voters can vote for more than one candidate — in some scenarios as ... Read More
Nixon’s Presidential Library: The Last Battle of Watergate
December 8, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
Should the National Archives be in the business of presenting objective public history at the nation’s presidential libraries? Or should the private organizations that fund many of these institutions be able to lionize their man in the White House? In an exclusive from the upcoming issue of Miller-McCune magazine, learn how the fractious new partnership between the Archives and the foundation intent on rehabilitating Richard Nixon’s legacy has become the issue’s ... Read More
The Ultra-Imperial Presidency
December 16, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
Back in 2006, Bruce Ackerman co-authored the "Liberal Manifesto," a document of protest signed by dozens of prominent intellectuals who condemned the "illegal, unwise and destructive" Iraq war and the "politics of panic" of the administration of President George W. Bush. But Ackerman, a professor of law and political science at Yale and the author of the new book The Decline and Fall of the American Republic, is worried about more than one unenlightened man in power. He believes that a runaway U.S. presidency could someday be the springboard for an authoritarian takeover. He wants to shake ... Read More
