"What Factors contribute to a 'Failed' presidency? Illustrate your answer with examples from the period 1961-2004"

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Oliver King        Page--    02/05/2007

AMERICAN POLITICS

“What Factors contribute to a ‘Failed’ presidency?  Illustrate your answer with examples from the period 1961-2004”

On the surface, the most straightforward way of deciding who can be deemed a successful president is whether they complete a second term of presidency by gaining a victory upon re-election after completion of their first term.  The biggest ‘failure’ of a president is surely not being victorious in election for a second term of power, or worse still not being elected in the first place.  More crucial is to establish the key ‘factors’ as to why a particular president ‘failed’ to successfully fulfil two terms of power.  It would be to simplistic to state that, in recent times, Presidents Johnsen, Nixon, Reagan, Clinton and Bush have all been successful for they have all completed, or in Bush’s case set to complete, two terms of Presidential power.  In many cases Presidents have been extremely competent in some areas while systematically failed in others.  It is also important to be aware that there can be polarising opinions, by different factions, as to whether a President has been a success or failure.        

The President is represented as a symbol of American people for the simple reason that he is the only solitary official of America, excluding the vice president, that the whole country elects.   The presidency, as with any imperative institution is in constant transition.  Historically he receives the utmost respect and admiration by the American people, however recent presidents and controversies have significantly discredited the position.  A major problem for the president is that due to the diverse culture in American, there are many different groups and so they will be judged by them as to how representative they are of their needs in his policies and bills.  For instance during the 2004 U.S elections, in the post election polls, the key factors that voters stated determined who they voted for were, moral issues-22 per cent, job opportunities/the economy-20 per cent and terrorism/security-19 per cent.  Obviously people’s priorities change from campaign to campaign and the president needs to aware of these priorities and ensures he meets them.  Earning clear public support is a key element to a President’s status and ultimately success, if Congress are under pressure from the public then they are more likely to give their support to a presidency.  

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Over the years there has been great debate and mixed feelings on how powerful the President should be, on the one hand he can be seen as too powerful and unbounded by restrictions while on the other there is the opinion that he is too inhibited by provincial politicians confining themselves to short term advantage in place of long term strategies.  The American President has varying power domestically to what they have abroad, often described as a ‘Lion’ in terms of foreign power but a ‘Fox’ at home.  There is a narrow margin in the public’s opinion as to ...

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