Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Not What the Founders Had in Mind 1
The Presidency Has Grown-and the Citizens Have Shrunk 4
What Makes a Truly Great President? 5
Measuring Presidents-the Forgotten Yardstick 7
The Constitution Ignored 10
Chapter 2 The Presidency the Founders Created 13
The Electoral College and the Creation of "Deliberative Majorities" 16
The Founders on the Character of the Executive Office 19
George Washington's Republican Modesty 20
Our Early Presidents: Defenders of the Constitution 24
The Birth of the Modern Presidency 29
Grading the Presidents 33
Chapter 3 Woodrow Wilson, 1913-1921 37
Wilson the Conservative? 39
The Revolutionary President 41
Wilsonian "Progress" on a Collision Course with the Constitution 43
Wilson's "Mature Freedom" versus the Founders' "Liberty" 47
Wilson on the President: Visionary Leader, Voice of the People, and Crusher of the Opposition 49
Wilson, Enthusiast for Bureaucracy 51
Arrogance in Office 53
Chapter 4 Warren G. Harding, 1921-1923 57
The Most Underrated Modern President 58
An Unlikely Nomination, a Landslide Election 60
Harding, the Anti-Wilson 61
Solid Achievements in Foreign Affairs 67
Harding on the Constitution 69
Harding's Posthumous Reputation 70
The Scandals 71
Chapter 5 Calvin Coolidge, 1923-1929 77
A Classical American Education 81
Rising Political Star 85
Coolidge in the White House 87
Coolidge's One Supreme Court (Dis)Appointment 92
Chapter 6 Herbert Hoover, 1929-1933 95
Politics Is Not Engineering 99
Hoover Tries to Fix the Depression, Inadvertently Makes It Great 100
Out of Office. Hoover Moves Right 103
Chapter 7 Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1933-1945 107
The Modern Left Is Far Left of FDR 109
The Paradox of FDR 111
FDR's Living Constitutionalism 115
FDR's Assault on the Judicial Branch 118
FDR's Lasting Legacy: A Supreme Court Unconstrained by the Constitution 122
Chapter 8 Harry Truman, 1945-1953 125
The Self-Taught Statesman 129
Truman's Last Great Achievement: Cold War Strategy 131
Abuse of Executive Power 132
Chapter 9 Dwight David ("Ike") Eisenhower, 1953-1961 135
A Master Manager 138
Not an Ideological Conservative 141
Chapter 10 John F. Kennedy, 1961-1963 145
Kennedy's Recklessness 147
Character and Performance in Office 148
Botching the Cuban Missile Crisis 150
JFK, Supply-Sider 152
Kennedy's Political Legacy 156
JFK's Constitutional Legacy 158
Chapter 11 Lyndon Baines Johnson, 1963-1969 159
The "Great Society" and the "War on Poverty": Johnson Fails at Home 162
The Vietnam War: Johnson Fails Abroad 166
A Low Point in Judicial History 170
Chapter 12 Richard M. Nixon, 1969-1974 173
Nixon's Complicated Character and Forgotten Magnanimity 174
The Embattled President 176
The Folly of Détente 179
Nixon's Liberalism on Domestic Policy 180
Getting Watergate Wrong 182
Nixon's Constitutional Legacy 187
Chapter 13 Gerald Ford, 1974-1977 189
Stagflation at Home 193
Weakness Abroad 194
A Mixed Record on the Constitution 197
Chapter 14 James Earl Carter, 1977-1981 201
Carter's Character 202
Domestic Policy Disasters 203
President Malaise 205
Foreign Policy Disasters 206
President Carter's Constitutional Grade 209
Chapter 15 Ronald Wilson Reagan, 1981-1989 213
Reagan the Restorer 214
Reagan's Unfinished Agenda 217
The Pro-Life President 220
The President's Prerogative Power 221
One Bull's Eye and Two Close Shots 225
Chapter 16 George H.W. Bush, 1989-1993 229
Squandering the Reagan Legacy 230
Bush Abroad 232
A Split Decision 233
Chapter 17 William Jefferson Clinton, 1993-2001 237
By Order of the President 239
Clinton's Monument Valley 242
I Beg Your Pardon 242
From Odometers to Anteaters 248
Things Go Better with Coke 249
Close Enough for Government Work 250
Family Values 251
Rich and Pinky 252
Descent to the Murky Bottom 254
The High Cost of Bad Character 256
Radicals in Black Robes 257
Chapter 18 George Walker Bush, 2001-2009 259
"Events, Dear Boy" 260
More Compassionate than Conservative? 261
Defending America, Enraging the Left 265
Bush and the Constitution 268
Chapter 19 Barack Hussein Obama, 2009-2017 271
Obama's "Fourth Wave" Ambitions 273
The Nature of Obama's Radicalism 276
Obama's Contempt for the Middle Class 278
A Citizen of the World 280
Holding the Constitution in Contempt 285
Conclusion: Taking the Oath Seriously 289
Selected Bibliography 291
Index 295
