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Lyndon Johnson and Adam Clayton Powell with profiles merged

Education

‘Don't get sucked into it’

Frustrated by Congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr.’s attempt to gain funding for other priorities as a price for reporting the education bill, President Lyndon Johnson dismisses Powell’s concern about an education clause in the administration’s Appalachia bill.
painting of george washington

The Presidency

American regicide

On December 20, just after arriving in the nation’s capital at Annapolis, Washington sent a note to the president of the Confederation Congress saying that he was there to resign his commission as commander-in- chief and wondering whether he should do so “in writing or at an audience.”
cartoon of Andrew Jackson as a king

The Presidency

The living presidency: Always at a crossroads

Why did the powers of the executive accrete over the course of the Constitutional Convention? Credit (or blame) George Washington and the determined delegates who relentlessly pressed for a robust executive.
Woodrow Wilson giving a speech with fingers raised

The Presidency

The personal presidency

Jeffrey Tulis has argued that there are “two constitutional presidencies”: the Founders’ formal office established by the Constitution of 1789 with checks on popular will, and the informal modern presidency created by Woodrow Wilson based on popular rhetorical leadership.
Barbara Perry and Stefanie Georgakis Abbott
Al Gore and George Bush composite photo

Elections

Bush v. Gore

The national spectacle of the Florida recounts, with its disputed ballots, “hanging chads,” and determinative Supreme Court ruling, undermined Bush’s wish to start his presidency with a strongly united nation. While he won an Electoral College victory 271 to 266, Gore won 500,000 more popular votes from the American people than the victor.
Gary L. Gregg II