Presidency Syllabus

American Presidency

CMC Government 102, Fall 2005

MW 2:45-4:00 PM, Classroom RN 15

Office Hours: MW 4:15-6:15 and by appointment

J.J. Pitney

Office: Pitzer 215

Telephone: 909-607-4224

E-mail: jpitney@mckenna.edu or

profpitney@yahoo.com

General

This course will survey the American presidency to ask these questions:

How does the Constitution both strengthen and constrain the chief executive?
How has the balance of power shifted between the White House and the Capitol?
How does the president deal with aides and bureaucrats?
How does a president get elected -- and reelected?
How does character influence performance?

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 ABC's "The Note."

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.

Required Books

James W. Ceaser and Andrew E. Busch, Red Over Blue: The 2004 Elections and American Politics (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield, 2005).
Sidney M. Milkis and Michael Nelson, The American Presidency: Origins and Development, 4th ed. (Washington: CQ Press, 2003).
Michael Nelson, ed., The Evolving Presidency: Addresses, Cases, Essays, Letters, Reports, Resolutions, Transcripts, and Other Landmark Documents, 1787-2004, 2d ed. (Washington: CQ Press, 2004).
Joseph A. Pika and John Anthony Maltese, The Politics of the Presidency, 6^th revised ed. (Washington: CQ Press, 2006).

Bob Woodward, Plan of Attack (New York: Simon and Schuster, paper ed., 2004).

Also see links on my Presidency page.

Schedule (subject to change, with notice)

August 31: 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 5, 7: 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 and Federalist 70), ch. 4 (Washington inaugural), ch. 5 (Madison on removal), ch. 6 (Pacificus-Helvidius), ch. 7 (Washington Farewell)
Pika, ch. 1.

Sept 12, 14: 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

Milkis and Nelson, ch. 4-7.
Nelson, ch. 8 (Jefferson inaugural), ch. 9 (Jefferson on two-term tradition), ch. 10 (Monroe Doctrine), ch. 13 (Jackson bank veto), ch. 14 (Lincoln on prerogative), ch. 15 (Gettysburg Address).

FIRST ESSAY ASSIGNED SEPT 14, DUE SEPT 28.

Read Strunk and White's Elements of Style

Sept 19, 21: From the Big Stick to the Military-Industrial Complex

"We stand at Armageddon and we battle for the Lord." -- Theodore Roosevelt, 1912.

Milkis and Nelson, ch. 8-11
Nelson, ch. 19 (Theodore Roosevelt & William Howard Taft on presidential power), ch. 22 (FDR first inaugural), ch. 27 (Youngstown case).
Eisenhower Farewell Address, at http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=12086&st=&st1=

Sept 26, 28: The Contemporary Presidency

"We don't want our American boys to do the fighting for Asian boys."-- LBJ, September 25, 1964

Milkis and Nelson, ch. 12-14
Nelson ch. 29 (JFK Inaugural; video at http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/mediaplay.php?id=50&admin=35), ch. 32 (LBJ Great Society), ch. 42 (Reagan inaugural; video at http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/mediaplay.php?id=103&admin=40).
Pika, ch. 11.

Oct 3, 5: The Public Presidency

"No president had ever spoken more frequently than Bush [41]; no president had ever said less." -- John Podhoretz

Pika, ch. 3
FDR's "Map Speech," February 23, 1942, at http://www.millercenter.virginia.edu/scripps/diglibrary/prezspeeches/roosevelt/index.html (scroll down for both text and audio).
Cheney press conference memo to Ford, October 20, 1976, at http://www.ford.utexas.edu/library/exhibits/campaign/cheney.htm
Reagan, 1983 "Evil Empire" speech in Orlando: both the manuscript (handout) and the final version at http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1983/30883b.htm
Nelson, ch.16 (Lincoln Second Inaugural), ch. 20 (Wilson State of the Union), ch. 41 (Carter "crisis of confidence" speech), ch. 49 (GW Bush War on Terrorism Speech)

Oct 10. 12: Executive Branch I

"ACTION IS CHARACTER." -- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Pika, ch. 4.
Milkis and Nelson, ch. 15.
Nelson, ch. 39 (Nixon "smoking gun" tapes; audio at http://watergate.info/tapes/72-06-23_smoking-gun.shtml),
Woodward, prologue and ch. 1-4.

SECOND ESSAY ASSIGNED OCTOBER 12, DUE OCTOBER 26.

Oct 19: Executive Branch II

Tabatha (the poet laureate, played by Laura Dern): “Nice office.”
Toby: “Exactly sixty-three feet from the Oval Office. If you don't think we measure, you're out of your mind.”

-- The West Wing, aired March 27, 2002

Pika, ch. 6.
Milkis and Nelson, ch. 16
Woodward, epilogue.

Oct 24, 26: Presidential Selection I

"YEEEEEEAHHHHHHHGGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!" -- Howard Dean, January 19, 2004.

Pika, ch. 2
Ceaser and Busch, ch. 1-3.

Oct 31, Nov 2: 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.

Ceaser and Busch, ch. 4-6.

THIRD ESSAY ASSIGNED NOVEMBER 2, DUE NOVEMBER 16

Nov 7, 9: Congress and Judiciary

"I'm the guy they used to call Deep Throat." -- Mark Felt, 2005.

Pika, ch. 5, 7.
Nelson, ch. 25 (FDR on court-packing; audio at http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/medialist.php?presid=32), ch. 37 (Nixon impeachment articles), ch. 38 (US v. Nixon), ch. 40 (pardon), ch. 43 (legislative veto).

Nov 14, 16: Domestic and Economic Policy

"I think we can reduce the size of Washington. Get rid of the Energy Department. Get rid of the Agriculture Department, or at least render it three-quarters the size it is today; there are more agriculture bureaucrats than there are farmers in this country. We can probably meld the Labor and Education departments because the job of both is so symbiotic today." -- John F. Kerry, quoted in Worcester Telegram & Gazette, January 6, 1996

Pika, ch. 8, 9.
Nelson, ch. 28 (Ike on Little Rock). ch. 31 (JFK on civil rights), ch. 45 (Clinton: "The era of big government is over."), ch. 46 (item veto)

Nov 21, 23: Foreign Policy and National Security

“If the Union’s existence were constantly menaced, and if its great interests were continually interwoven with those of other powerful nations, we would see the prestige of the executive growing, because of what was expected of it and of what it did.” -- Alexis deTocqueville, Democracy in America

Pika, ch. 10
Nelson, ch. 24 (US v. Curtiss-Wright), ch. 30 (Cuban Missile Crisis), ch. 33 (LBJ on Tonkin Gulf), ch. 36 (War Powers Resolution), ch. 44 (George H.W. Bush & Gulf War), ch. 50 (Bush Doctrine).
Woodward, ch. 5-14.

Nov 28, 30: Iraq War I

"No plan survives contact with the enemy." -- Helmuth von Moltke

Woodward, ch. 15-25.

Dec 5, 7: Iraq War II

"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

Woodward, ch. 26-34.

FINAL EXAM: WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14 AT 2 PM

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