This blog serves my presidency course (Claremont McKenna College Government 102) for the spring of 2026. SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE FOR THE BLOG ARCHIVE.
About this Blog
During the semester, I shall post course material and students will comment on it. Students are also free to comment on any aspect of the presidency, either current or historical. There are only two major limitations: no coarse language, and no derogatory comments about people at the Claremont Colleges.
Movies supply insights into attitudes of their time. Did Americans think about military matters and nuclear war in the years after the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis? See scenes from three 1964 movies:
Which passages of Scripture should guide our public policy? Should we go with Leviticus, which suggests slavery is ok and that eating shellfish is abomination? How about Deuteronomy, which suggests stoning your child if he strays from the faith? Or should we just stick to the Sermon on the Mount - a passage that is so radical that it's doubtful that our own Defense Department would survive its application? So before we get carried away, let's read our bibles. Folks haven't been reading their bibles.
What happens when Silicon Valley meets D.C.? A very interesting clash of staff cultures.
Mikey Dickerson PO '01 became Administrator of the White House's newly created U.S. Digital Service. And he's brought Silicon Valley's work culture (including the no-suit policy) with him. (Watch the video. DO IT.)
He was part of the group that worked on revamping healthcare.gov. As he says, "there was a sufficient number of programmers, designers, everything you needed was already there, had been hired onto the project somewhere. They just needed to be coordinated and managed better." Mikey's one of the people that coordinated and managed them better. "So," the White House asked Mikey, "why don't we try to do that for all of the agencies in all of the federal government?" And that's where Mikey's U.S. Digital Service comes in.
The new government service, new batch of minds, and new work culture seem to diverge radically from what the White House (and D.C. in general) is used to. And hopefully that's a good thing.
House Republicans hired Professor Jonathan Turley "to oversee a lawsuit against President Barack Obama for alleged executive overreach." This comes just as many expect Obama to pursue executive action on immigration which, as WH correspondent to NYT Michael Shear (a CMC alum) reports, would be quite a "turnabout." As Obama himself said, "If we start... that, then essentially I’ll be ignoring the law in a way that I think would be very difficult to defend legally."
The Turley-Schroeder readings showcased the difficulty in determining when executive authority/discretion crosses the line into executive overreach. As Professor Pitney mentioned in class, this might just be a shirts-skins issue. But if Obama really intends to commit such an apparent turnabout, he might just consider consulting Schroeder.
Relax. This “air midterm” does not count toward your grade; do not even turn it in. Instead, use it to appraise your own progress in the course. Try out this test, either in your head or on paper. If you flounder, then you should take more care with class sessions and assigned readings.
I. Identifications: Identify the meaning and significance of the following items. On the real final exam, I shall ask you to write a short paragraph on each item that you choose. What is fair game for an identification?
Items that we have discussed in class or on the blog;
Items that appear in bold or italics in the readings;
Items that cover several pages in the readings.
Hayes-Tilden race (1876)
Faithless electors
Martin Van Buren
Front-loading
The nuclear freeze
The Hepburn Act
Helvidius
Line Item Veto
The Roosevelt Corollary
The Fair Deal
Benghazi
Youngstown v. Sawyer
The “Revolution” of 1800
The Palmer Raids
II. Short essays: In a couple of paragraphs each, answer the following.
Who made the following statement and why? "The bank is professedly established as an agent of the executive branch of the Government, andits constitutionality is maintained on that ground. Neither upon the propriety of present action nor upon the provisions of this act was the Executive consulted. It has had no opportunity to say that it neither needs nor wants an agent clothed with such powers and favored by such exemptions. There is nothing in its legitimate functions which makes it necessary or proper."
Who made the following statement and why? "I did understand however, that my oath to preserve the constitution to the best of my ability, imposed upon me the duty of preserving, by every indispensable means, that government -- that nation -- of which that constitution was the organic law. Was it possible to lose the nation, and yet preserve the constitution? By general law life and limb must be protected; yet often a limb must be amputated to save a life; but a life is never wisely given to save a limb."
What was the pattern of "discovery, scrutiny, and decline" in the 2012 GOP primaries?
III. General essays (2-3 bluebooks pages each)
Resolved: President Obama won the 2012 election primarily because of underlying features of American electoral politics, and his campaign made relatively little difference.Do you agree or disagree? Explain, with reference to the Side-Vavreck book, along with other class material.
Is it possible to devise an objective measure of presidential greatness? Explain.
If neither Senator in a state is of the President’s party, each usually, by custom, plays a secondary role in recommending district court candidates for the President’s consideration, with the primary role assumed by other officials from the state who are of the President’s party.)
White House Counsel’s Office receives nominee recommendations from home state Senators; for each district court vacancy, the office asks Senators to send three recommendations.
Senators send one or more recommendations to the Counsel’s Office.
Counsel’s Office does preliminary check of the recommended candidates, then selects one to be thoroughly vetted by the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Policy (OLP).
OLP does detailed vetting of the candidate, including exhaustive reading of candidate’s past writings, speeches,interviews, etc., and making “about 25 to 50 phone calls.”
Counsel’s Office and OLP jointly interview the candidate.
Counsel’s Office and OLP jointly review OLP’s detailed vetting and interview record and decide whether to send candidate’s name for ABA and FBI investigations.
FBI and ABA’s Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary conduct separate evaluations of the candidate and then report their findings to the Administration.
OLP and Counsel’s Office sign off informally on the candidate.
A Politico article talks about five presidential books that are interesting to read. For when we all get the time to do so, some of these sound pretty good! Carter, Eisenhower, Hoover, Grant, and Jefferson get the "worthy-to-read" book award.
Some of the members of the Claremont College Republican club had the
opportunity to go to Neel Kashkari's election party last night in Orange County. We were
invited to stand on the stage behind him as he gave his concession
speech. On stage was Libby Ramsey, Jennifer Sitton, Cameron Ridley, and
myself. It was pretty exciting for those of us who had never been on TV before.
Here's the link to a brief segment of Kashkari walking on stage and us in the background.
I believe he received about 41% of the vote last night compared to Governor Brown's 58%. Kashkari's focus for his campaign was "Jobs and Education. That's it." In his speech, Kashkari announced he was"just getting warmed up" and he challenged Gov. Brown to "be bold" his next four years.
Also, Kashkari is a huge Michael Jackson fan. MJ was playing when he walked on stage and throughout the night.
Anthony Kennedy has just retired from the Supreme Court. Whom should President Obama nominate in his place? Explain, considering qualifications and confirmability.
Identify a personnel change that you would make in the Obama administration. In other words, whom would you sack and whom would you hire in that person’s place? Explain how your proposed change would serve the president.
Identify a policy change that President Obama could implement without Congress. What would be the legal basis for such an action? Would it be wise policy and smart politics? Explain.
Write on a relevant question of your own choosing, subject to my approval.
Essays should be typed (12 point), stapled, double-spaced, and no more than four pages long.I will not read past the fourth page.
Put your name on a cover sheet.Do not identify yourself on the text pages.
Cite your sources with endnotes. The page limit does not apply to endnote
Watch your spelling, grammar, diction, and punctuation.Errors will count against you.
Return essays to the Sakai dropbox by 5 PM on Friday, November 21. (Yes, you have two extra days.) Essays will drop one gradepoint for one day's lateness and a full grade for two or more days' lateness.I will grant no extensions except for illness or emergency.
It is interesting to see the evolution of presidential candidates' campaigning strategies with the advent of technology. The link provides images of posters/ flyers as well as TV ads used since the 1960 election. You can view changes in web technologies - compare Clinton's 1996 website to Obama's 2012 homepage! You can also compare the improvement in Obama's campaign from 2008-2012. Obama e-cards? Nice.
