Abstract
So begins Richard Neustadt’s classic 1960 book Presidential Power. Fifty years later, seeped as we are in a media-driven political culture devoted to the instant analysis of who’s hot (and not)—to the “horse race,” the “top ten list,” and a proliferation of league tables—his emphasis seems more apt than ever. Efforts to rate and order presidencies have become something of a cottage industry in their own right.2 Even pundits outside the United States have entered the field; in advance of “the world’s most important general election” in 2008, the Times of London, in what might be considered a belated declaration of American dependence, put out a list of its own.3
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Notes
Richard E. Neustadt, Presidential Power (New York: Wiley, 1960), 3.
For a helpful survey of what is available, see Meena Bose, “Presidential Ratings: Lessons and Liabilities,” in Meena Bose and Mark Landis, eds., The Uses and Abuses of Presidential Ratings (New York: Nova Science, 2003), 3–26.
See Colin Campbell, Bert Rockman, and Andrew Rudalevige, “Introduction: Legacies and Leadership in Context,” in Campbell, Rockman, and Rudalevige, eds., The George W. Bush Legacy (Washington DC: CQ Press, 2008), 1–20.
Neil Reedy and Jeremy Johnson, “Presidential Greatness Reconsidered,” in Robert Maranto, Tom Lansford, and Jeremy Johnson, eds., Judging Bush (Stanford CA: Stanford University Press, 2009).
See, for example, Michael Nelson, “George W. Bush: Majority President,” in Nelson, ed., The Elections of 2004 (Washington DC: CQ Press, 2005), 2.
Alvin S. Felzenberg, The Leaders We Deserved (And a Few We Didn’t): Rethinking the Presidential Rating Game (New York: Basic Books, 2008), 3; and see also Felzenberg, “ ‘There You Go Again’: Liberal Historians and The New York Times Deny Ronald Reagan His Due,” Policy Review, 82, March/April 1997.
Clinton quoted in Dick Morris, Behind the Oval Office (New York: Random House, 1997), 307–8; Emanuel quoted in Mike Doming, “Rahm Emanuel: President’s Chief of Staff Has Lost None of His Drive,” Chicago Tribune, April 26, 2009, http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/obama/chi-rahm-emanuel-26-apr26,0,4148537.story (Accessed July 3, 2009).
William W. Lammers and Michael A. Genovese, The Presidency and Domestic Policy: Comparing Leadership Styles, FDR to Clinton (Washington DC: CQ Press, 2000).
Stephen Skowronek, The Politics Presidents Make, 2nd ed. (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1997).
Fred I. Greenstein, The Presidential Difference: Leadership Style from FDR to George W. Bush, 2nd ed. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004).
William W. Lammers and Michael A. Genovese, The Presidency and Domestic Policy: Comparing Leadership Styles, FDR to Clinton (Washington DC: CQ Press, 2000).
Marc Landy and Sidney M. Milkis, Presidential Greatness (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2000).
Regarding Reagan see, for example, Lou Cannon and Carl M. Cannon, Reagan’s Disciple: George W. Bush’s Troubled Quest for a Presidential Legacy (New York: PublicAffairs, 2008); and regarding McKinley, see Joshua Green, “The Rove Presidency,” Atlantic (September 2007), 60.
Whitman, Complete Poetry and Collected Prose (New York: Library of America, 1982), 246.
See Jane Mayer, The Dark Side (New York: Doubleday, 2008);
James P. Pfiffner, Power Play: The Bush Presidency and the Constitution (Washington DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2008).
See, for example, James P. Pfiffner, “Intelligence and Decision-Making before the War in Iraq,” in George C. Edwards III and Desmond King, eds., The Polarized Presidency of George W. Bush (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), 213–42.
Michael A. Genovese, Memo to a New President: The Art and Science of Presidential Leadership (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 219–20. Genovese proposes asking whether a given policy resonates with the “touchstone documents of our nation,” from the Declaration of Independence to the Four Freedoms.
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© 2010 Iwan Morgan and Philip John Davies
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Rudalevige, A. (2010). Rating Bush. In: Morgan, I., Davies, P.J. (eds) Assessing George W. Bush’s Legacy. The Evolving American Presidency Series. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230114333_2
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