Comments on: Gabriel Over the White House

By: Mike H

Mike H — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 19:41:00 +0000

At 0:58, just as the president is saying “…if that makes me a dictator…”, there’s an actor who’s the spitting image of Dick Cheney rubbing his chin.

By: kishnevi

kishnevi — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 15:39:08 +0000

How many “great” Presidents do we hear about who reduced the power of government overall or of the office specifically?

Never mind how many “great” Presidents.

How many Presidents, great, mediocre, or really awful, reduced the power of government or their office?

By: Brandon Bowers

Brandon Bowers — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 00:23:59 +0000

That’s the theory by which Bush seems to be operating. By that metric, he’s one of the greatest presidents in history. Which pretty much means, well, that metric is deeply, deeply flawed.

By: freedomfan

freedomfan — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 00:06:22 +0000

I really need to read Healy’s book.

And, the deification of the President goes beyond the popular perceptions of the average Joe. Another aspect comes from historians who tend to evaluate a President based on how much power accrued to the office during his term, and to government in general. War leadership and handling of other dramatic events (whether the President himself really made much difference or not) is a factor, of course. But, if you listen to these historians on PBS specials (somehow Doris Kearns Goodwin keeps coming to mind), they talk about how FDR, TR, Wilson, Lincoln, (more recently) Reagan, and so on increased the power and influence of the President and set executive precedents that assumed power that was previously unknown or in the hands of Congress or the courts.

That approach to evaluating a Presidency always struck me as fundamentally statist. How many “great” Presidents do we hear about who reduced the power of government overall or of the office specifically? It’s a metric that encourages authoritarianism.