President Obama and PM Rudd

With Copenhagen talks and Afghanistan policy on the President's plate, international cooperation becomes more and more important.

This morning Australian PM Kevin Rudd met with President Obama and Secretary Clinton, declaring:

Australia takes its alliance with the United States very seriously. That’s why we have been with America for a long time in Afghanistan, and why we will be with America for the long haul.

The President has also been (seemingly successfully) pushing for NATO to increase its troop level in Afghanistan and helped convince Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to attend the Copenhagen talks.

A NATO diplomat said Friday that European and other nations already participating in the international force are expected to contribute between 4,000 and 6,000 fresh troops.

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China announced today that Premier Wen Jiabao will attend the Copenhagen climate summit and that China will commit to reducing its carbon intensity by 40 to 45 percent from 2005 levels by 2020.

Foreign Policy & National Security I

The Football

Recognition

• Truman and Israel


• China


• Cuba

Treaties & Executive Agreements


Use of Armed Force

Organization

• National Security Council


• Intelligence Community


• The Military


• Foreign Service

Presidential Health

This article from Slate discusses a new theory about FDR's health in his final days. A new book alleges that FDR actually died from a cancer that he and his doctor's knew about before he ran for his fourth term.

Conspiracy theories like this bring up important issues of presidential transparency. How much are president's and their doctors obligated to reveal about their health? When such a private issue can affect the nation so greatly, is it better to be honest or to uphold the image of the president? JFK kept his health problems private, going out of his way to appear athletic and energetic. After Reagan was shot, he walked into the hospital without help. Bush Sr. was mocked for vomiting on the Japanese Prime Minister. The McCain campaign was criticized for minimizing McCain's melanoma battle.

If FDR really did have cancer, why would he decide to run for a fourth term? How much did it affect his selection of Truman as a running mate? How much does a president's health factor into his decisions?

Hollywood and the Presidency

Actors have endorsed presidential candidates. Harry Belafonte backed JFK. Ronald Reagan made a famous speech on behalf of Barry Goldwater.Actors have run for president. Ronald Reagan usually played good guys, but in his last role, he played a villain.

Movies and TV shows portray real and fictional presidents and presidential candidates:

• Gabriel Over the White House (1933)
• The Best Man (1964)
• Air Force One (1997)
• The West Wing
• 24

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:

• Seven Days in May (military coup)
• Fail-Safe (scary accidental attack)
• Dr. Strangelove (funny accidental attack)
  
  
  Did a conspiracy kill JFK? Most Americans think so. And so Oliver Stone's JFK (1991) found an audience. Though a few years later, Seinfeld had a different take.

Pacific Presidents

Article by George Will that expands on the idea that we briefly touched on in class. During his trip to Asia, Obama claimed that he was the first "Pacific President", Professor Pitney pretty much debunked that, and this article goes into even further detail. This article also seems to take a very negative view of Obama and doesn't criticize so much for fact checking but instead seems to take it out on Obama as being egotistical.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/223821

Defense Outlays

Fiscal Year..........%GDP..........%Outlays

2010.....................4.8.....................19.9

2000.....................3.0....................16.5

1990......................5.2....................23.9

1980......................4.9....................22.7

1970......................8.1.....................41.8

1960.....................9.3.....................52.2

Source: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2010/assets/hist.pdf

Freakonomics: The President's Party and the Economy

The Freakonomics blog posted on how the economy fares under different Presidents.

The salient points:

Since 1949, Democratic presidents almost always presided over a decreasing or flattening of income inequality. During that same time period, Republican presidents have always presided over increasing income inequality.

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Additionally, real per-capita G.D.P. growth for all income strata is consistently higher under Democratic presidents. Individuals in the 95th percentile, however, do well under both Democratic and Republican presidents, but growth for the rich still tends to be higher when a Republican is in office.

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Democrats preside over lower levels of unemployment while their Republican counterparts have historically presided over lower levels of inflation. The most accepted explanation for this phenomenon is the existence of a short-run Philips Curve in which inflation and unemployment are inversely related.

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In the first two years of a Democratic president’s term, the economic growth accelerates. During the third and fourth years, however, the economic growth decreases. The opposite effect is seen with Republican presidents, who preside over decreasing overall growth during the first two years of their term only to have it followed by increased economic growth as re-election looms