MW 2:45-4:00 PM, Classroom Bauer Center 2
Office Hours: MW 10AM - noon, and by appointment
J.J. Pitney
Office: Center Court D-16 Telephone: 909/607-4224
E-mail:
jpitney@cmc.edu
or profpitney@yahoo.com
General
This course will survey the American presidency to ask these questions:Classes
Class sessions will include lecture and discussion. Finish readings before class because our discussions will involve those readings. We shall also talk about breaking news stories about the presidency, so you must read a good daily news source such as the New York Times or Los Angeles Times or The Politico.
Grades
The following will make up your course grade:
Three 4-page essays:
20% each
Final exam: 30%
Class participation:
10%
The
papers will develop your research and writing skills.
In grading your papers, I will take account of the quality of your
writing, applying the principles of
Strunk
and White's
Elements of Style. If
you object to this approach, do not take this course, or anything else
that I teach.
The exam will test
your comprehension. Class
participation will hone your ability to think on your feet.
If you often miss class or fail to prepare, your grade will suffer. In addition to the required readings (below), I may also give you handouts
and web links covering current events and basic factual information.
The exam will cover this material.
As a courtesy to your fellow
students, please arrive on time, and refrain from eating in class.
I reserve the right to withhold class handouts from latecomers.
Check due dates for coursework and arrange your schedule accordingly.
Do not plan on seeking extensions.
Plagiarism
will mean referral to the Academic Standards Committee.
Blog
Our class blog is at http://gov102.blogspot.com. I shall post videos, graphs, news stories, and other material there. We shall use some of this material in class, and you may review the rest at your convenience. You will all receive invitations to post to the blog. (Please let me know if you do not get such an invitation.) I encourage you to use the blog in these ways:
To post questions or comments about the readings before we discuss them in class;
To follow up on class discussions with additional comments or questions.
To post relevant news items or videos.
Required Books
Also
see links on my Presidency page.
Schedule (subject to change, with notice)
Sept 3:
Introduction
“Presidents are the custodians of the time in which they live as well as the instruments of the visions and dreams they have." -- Bill Clinton
Sept 8, 10:
The Presidency in the Founding Era
“Frequent war and constant
apprehension, which require a state of as constant preparation, will infallibly
produce [standing armies]. It is of
the nature of war to increase the executive at the expense of the legislative
authority.” -- Alexander
Hamilton, Federalist 8.
Milkis and Nelson, ch. 1-3.
Nelson, ch. 1 (Constitution), ch. 2 (letters of Cato), ch. 3 (Federalist 69, 70, 71, 72, 73), ch. 4 (Washington inaugural), ch. 5 (Madison on removal), ch. 6 (Pacificus-Helvidius), ch. 7 (Washington Farewell)
Pika, ch. 1.
Sept 15, 17: The 19th Century Presidency
"You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong."
"God must have loved the common people; he made so many of them."
"You can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people
all the time, but
you can not fool all the people all the time." --
Fake Lincoln quotations
FIRST
ESSAY ASSIGNED SEPT 15, DUE SEPT 29.
Read Strunk and White's Elements of Style
Sept 22, 24: From the Big Stick to the Military-Industrial Complex
"We stand at Armageddon and we battle for the Lord." -- Theodore Roosevelt, 1912.
Sept 29, Oct 1: The Contemporary Presidency
"We don't want our American boys to do the fighting for Asian boys."-- LBJ, September 25, 1964
Oct 6, 8: The Public Presidency
"We once wrote, `This nation will prepare. We will not live in fear. We choose to fight them there, so we don't have to fight them here,' only to read it aloud and realize it sounded less like Winston Churchill than Dr. Seuss." -- Matthew Scully, on writing for George W. Bush
Oct 13, 15: Character and Performance
"ACTION IS CHARACTER." -- F. Scott Fitzgerald
SECOND ESSAY ASSIGNED OCTOBER 15, DUE OCTOBER 29.
Oct 22: Presidential Selection I
"YEEEEEEAHHHHHHHGGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!" -- Howard Dean, January 19, 2004.
Oct 27, 29: Presidential Selection II
"On November 1, I received two communications, privately tendered, that I attached meaning to. The first originated with a professor of government in California who, it was bruited, had always succeeded in predicting the outcome of presidential-year elections. The news was given in telegraphic idiom, no curlicues, embellishments, appoggiaturas: President: Kerry wins the popular vote 50-49. Kerry wins electoral vote 291-247." -- William F. Buckley, Jr.
Nov 3, 5: President and Congress
"I earned capital in the campaign, political capital, and now I intend to spend it." -- George W. Bush, November 4, 2004.
"Bush traded his political capital for the magic beans of Social Security reform, but the ground was too frozen for the seeds to take hold." -- Jonah Goldberg, August 15, 2007.
Nov 10, 12: Executive Branch
"I'm a myth. There's the Mark of Rove. I read about some of the things I'm supposed to have done, and I have to try not to laugh." -- Karl Rove, on his departure
THIRD ESSAY ASSIGNED NOVEMBER 5, DUE NOVEMBER 19
Nov 17, 19: Judiciary, Civil Rights, and Domestic Policy
""We should reverse the presumption of confirmation." -- Senator Charles Schumer
Nov 24, 26: Economic Policy
"Politicians generally believe what they say. One of the main ways by which politicians learn what they think is through listening to what they say." -- Herbert Stein, Presidential Economics
Dec 1, 4:
"On the brink of war, and in front of the whole world, the United States government asserted that Saddam Hussein had reconstituted his nuclear weapons program, had biological weapons and mobile biological weapon production facilities, and had stockpiled and was producing chemical weapons. All of this was based on the assessments of the U.S. Intelligence Community. And not one bit of it could be confirmed when the war was over." -- Report of the President's WMD Commission
Dec 8, 10: The Future of the Presidency
Mitt Romney: "I think the presidency ought to be held at a higher level than having to answer questions from a snowman."
Snowman: "Lighten up slightly."
FINAL EXAM: THURSDAY, DECEMBER 18 AT 2 PM