This is where our daily reactions to the readings will be posted. Also, we will be able to reply to each other and continue discussions outside of class.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Hey
The Presidency, continued.
Post here for Friday's class. Just click on the comment link below.
I think we are still behind on quizzes, so, as always, be on time and smile!
I think that one of the reasons that the presidency has become so powerful after World War II was because of FDR but also because televisions began appearing in everyone's homes. When you are watching TV, the president is the person who broadcasts a speech outlining what he is doing for the nation. You can watch the Congressional meetings, but they are not personal and you never feel as if you are directly involved in what is happening during Congressional sessions. The president looks at you through the TV and speaks to the nation directly, the way Nixon did in the speech we watched in class. As Americans in the 20th and 21st centuries, we have become more demanding of our government and we want to see exactly what our government is doing while they are in office. Many Americans think that the Congressional meetings are to boring to watch, so America wants to hear the president's plans for the nation. It is much easier for him to speak about what the nation is doing, if he is the one devising all of the plans. This has already pushed him into a new policy making position in our government. This has forced the president to become more forceful in his job because people are directly demanding results through their TV sets. Also, our enemies can watch him on TV as well, so he has to be a strong and fearless leader to prove to the world that America cannot be walked all over. This requires the president to be ready and able to handle any questions and make no mistakes when executing his policies. Also, the media's critique of the president's speeches require him to be more actively involved because they already overanalyze his policies, so imagine what they would do to a president from the 19th century. Our culture now just demands a strong leader, and because Congress is too large, the president has had to step up and become more involved in governing our nation.
The office of the presidency has definitely changed throughout history. It is hard for me to imagine that the Founding Fathers wanted the president to be nothing more than a clerk-like figure for the country. My mind creates a somewhat of a funny picture when I think of this. Really can you imagine President Bush sitting in the Oval Office signing bills into laws and nothing but that. I see the Speaker of the House or Senate Majority Leader marching into his office and yelling, “W,” they would call him this because it sounds more degrading. “What the hell are you doing? I told you I wanted all of these bills signed by 4 today. How hard can it be just to write your freaking name on a line?” Of course I also imagine President Bush cowering behind his desk with the onset of the verbal abuse he would be so used to by now. Of course this is not reality, although it would make a great idea for a political cartoon though. This is an over exaggerated explanation of how the Founding Fathers viewed the office of the presidency. Thanks to the great men such as Abraham Lincoln and FDR, etc., we now have a powerful presidency. I know some people do not like that our own president has so much power, but think about it. I feel a lot safer knowing that the rest of the world fears our president. It really does not matter who is holding the office. As long as they have President of the United States of America after their name, other countries fear him or her. Sometimes I feel as though the president may over step his boundaries. However, I feel as though our president does everything with the best interest of the country at heart, well except for maybe President Nixon. He mainly just was looking out for his own interests, but that is another response. Another thing that amazes me about the office of the presidency is the fact that most of the powers the president has was never actually given to him. Each new president is a little more willing to take risks. I think that when they try something and it works, the country just accepts it. So from that point on each president just does this thing because it goes with the job per say. One great example of this is waging a conflict with another country so that Congress does not have to declare war. This was used first in Korea, and now it has been used for ever other battle we have fought with the exception of the Iraqi War. The office just keeps changing.
The power of the president to lead in times of war without Congress’s approval can be, I think, a reckless power. Without approval from the legislative body, the full responsibility of war rests on the President’s shoulders; if he happens to be a reckless sort of commander-in-chief, there is no limit to how much destruction he may indirectly cause by his decisions. That being said, I think it is very important for the Congress to approve beforehand any military action the president leads against a country or group, provided there is sufficient evidence for such an action; even if they do not declare official war, they should approve of a precise, narrowly-focused plan of military action. Any kind of open-ended permission for military force just invites hasty decisions and costly campaigns for “victory.” Recent news is that the Congress plans to strike down President Bush’s authority for an invasion of Iran, which to me is a welcome development. The U.S. already has too much of an investment in Iraq without worrying about Iran’s motives in nuclear development and such. There is no hard proof of Iranian involvement in Iraqi sectarian violence, so Bush has no convincing evidence to invade Iran as well. Instead of creating a larger strain on military families, the federal budget, and the countless number of civilians that would bear the brunt of the invasion in the Middle East, the President should concentrate on completing his mission in Iraq. The Congress should realize already that following one person blindly, no matter how powerful he may be, is a risky decision. If 3,100 military deaths haven’t proven that, how many more lives will it take?
I have always been fascinated by the power of the presidency and how the presidency was able to express these powers. I’ve always knew that the president had power, but I never knew that there were so many different types of powers. Being president does not seem like a very easy and glamorous job to me anymore. It’s like no matter what decision you make, there are always people who are going to disagree with you and dislike you, such as Bush’s decision to leave troops in Iraq and many of his decisions he made with the relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina. It’s almost no matter what you do, you will always lose with some people. I guess you just can’t please everyone. Everyone is always so quick to criticize the president, and I’m guilty of it to, but I would really like to see other people have to make some of the decisions that the president has to make with all the pressure facing them and see how easy it is when you know no matter what you decide, that there will still be people who disagree with you and want you out of office. Something that has always boggled my mind is the presidents military powers. The position of commander in chief makes the president the highest military authority in the United states which I am sure isn’t the easiest job in the world considering it comes with so much responsibility but sometimes I just don’t agree with some of the presidents decisions in this area. Now I agree with Bush’s decision with FEMA after Katrina and I agree with his decision to create the Department of Homeland Security, but I don’t agree with his decision to continue to have troops over in Iraq. Now I may be being a little bias about this since I have a brother over in Iraq, but regardless, I just don’t agree with his decision to still have troops over there. It seems to me that as the power of the presidency has increased, popular expectations of presidential performance have increased at an even faster rate, requiring more leadership than was ever expected from past presidents.
Over the past four administrations there has been a decline of how many times the President goes out and speaks on prime-time television. This was baffling to me especially after looking above the paragraph I read this and seeing that the public appearances by the presidents in the last for administrations have gone up for every administration. Most of the time when a president gives a speech on prime-time television it is because he needs to polish his image in some way or another or he needs to boost his approval rating. An example of this is how President George W. Bush was trying to boost his approval of the Homeland Security Department and his public relations people were bringing up issues such as his support for Israel and how he was determined to prevent terrorism. By doing this they were putting him up on a pedestal and almost forcing America to see what they wanted America to see about him. I believe that ever administration does this and I do not blame them I think that they should use all of there resources to the best of there abilities. I would also think that at the same time there is a lot of pressure on the president because he cannot just come out and just speak to be seen. He has to come out with something of substance or he will be critiqued and criticized by the media. It seems as if they wait for the day that he messes up so they can be to run the story. Another thing that he has to do is be strong and well spoken to show and put out a good image of America for the rest of the world to see. He also has to be very prepared and understand his policies to the fullest so he can elaborated on them after the speech if anyone has questions or comments that they would like to ask or say.
This month represents a month of great significance for not only for all African Americans, but for all Americans in general. It is a time for reflection and respect that probably is not taken seriously enough. All through my life I have known that during February the history of African Americans is honored but that was all that I knew about it. So to change that, I did some researching to find out more about this national month of remembrance. Dr. Carter G. Woodson, considered to be a pioneer in the study of African American history, is given much of the credit for Black History Month. The son of former slaves, Woodson spent his childhood working in coalmines and quarries. Woodson originally created Negro History Week, until 1976 when it was expanded to Black History Month. He was disturbed by the fact that history books seemed to ignore America’s black population, so he created a type of history journal for African Americans and achieved his goal by educating the country.
This man was truly an entrepreneur, but I can not seem to figure out why I have never heard of him. Maybe I just never looked, or maybe he never got the recognition he deserved. What he did has had an enormous impact on society and I am ashamed to admit that I did not even know his name until today. We need to be better informed regardless of whether or not we are interested, Anna Nicole Smith died last week and she is still all over newspapers, radio, and television. My point being, what historical impact did she play on society? How did she make a difference in the world we live in today? Congrats Anna you lost ninety pounds by overdosing on Trimspa, but I would rather here something more important about society that has significance, such as Black History Month.
I would have to agree with David Higgins on his comments about the presidential position. The President of the United States is seen as the most powerful person in the world, so his job today is a little harder than what the founding fathers originally wanted. They wanted a "clerk" that would show up to work and sign a few papers and that would be it. However, it didn’t happen that way. Virtually almost all decisions that are made in the national government have to go through the president. The final decision is his unless over powered by Congress in a two-thirds majority vote. There are plenty of situations when I think that the decisions made by the president aren’t right and there are some that I agree with him on. For example, when it comes to the war in Iraq and Hurricane Katrina. I believe that the war in Iraq should be over and we should have our troops come home, however, I can see why they are still there because from my stand point the president would rather be safe than sorry. When it come to Katrina I do not agree that he should have waited so late to send aid, but on the other hand look at the help he is providing now to people who have lost everything. I’m not the only one who feels this way and I certainly will not be the last. It just seems to me that the president is in office to do what he feels like is best for our country. He is like a father figure that was elected to do a job, and just like a father when he does something we don’t like we get mad at him and throw a fit. This just proves the common saying that "you can’t make everyone happy" so you just do what you can and hope it’s the right decision.
The power of the president can be very interesting. For instance, his power of the military. How one man can just simply control thousands of soldiers, can seem to be a very hard job. During times of war, this is a time where the president can really show his power and show that he can make the right decisions for his people. If he does this, he will show his people and the country that he was the right choice for president. Also showing that he has what it takes to make the best decisions in bad situations. If the president makes bad decisions that the people don’t like, next term his chances of making it again want be as strong. Being only one person, the president takes a lot of heat if something goes wrong. The people can all be for him or against him. For instance, the war in Iraq and hurricane Katrina are two recently situations where the president has had to make really tough decisions. From these decisions, not everyone is going to agree with what the president does, but the thing is not people don’t always agree with each other or see eye to eye. Everybody is going to have their own opinion on certain things. If someone feels like they can do a better job or know the best thing to do, then they should tell what they would do. Even in doing so not everyone is going to agree with that. So its best that they let the president do his job, because those are some hard shoes to fill for a day.
The power of the presidency has been on my mind for quite some time now. Even before taking this class, I sometimes wondered why so much power is given to one man. For example, like Mr. Moore said, our founding fathers thought of this position as nothing more than a clerk that came in and signed a couple of documents, but today the president does much more than that. For instance think that the president wants to begin a war and congress votes against it. The president still has the power to overturn their decision and proceed as planned. Well I must admit that there is a lot of responsibility that goes along with the position, but in my opinion the president has too much power. This power can get you supporters as well as people that hate you. For example, after Hurricane Katrina nothing was done right away to help the people of New Orleans. This is one of the main reasons, along with our trrops in Iraq, that many folks don't really like President Bush. I know that this is a hard job but still he possess too much power.
9 comments:
I think that one of the reasons that the presidency has become so powerful after World War II was because of FDR but also because televisions began appearing in everyone's homes. When you are watching TV, the president is the person who broadcasts a speech outlining what he is doing for the nation. You can watch the Congressional meetings, but they are not personal and you never feel as if you are directly involved in what is happening during Congressional sessions. The president looks at you through the TV and speaks to the nation directly, the way Nixon did in the speech we watched in class. As Americans in the 20th and 21st centuries, we have become more demanding of our government and we want to see exactly what our government is doing while they are in office. Many Americans think that the Congressional meetings are to boring to watch, so America wants to hear the president's plans for the nation. It is much easier for him to speak about what the nation is doing, if he is the one devising all of the plans. This has already pushed him into a new policy making position in our government. This has forced the president to become more forceful in his job because people are directly demanding results through their TV sets. Also, our enemies can watch him on TV as well, so he has to be a strong and fearless leader to prove to the world that America cannot be walked all over. This requires the president to be ready and able to handle any questions and make no mistakes when executing his policies.
Also, the media's critique of the president's speeches require him to be more actively involved because they already overanalyze his policies, so imagine what they would do to a president from the 19th century. Our culture now just demands a strong leader, and because Congress is too large, the president has had to step up and become more involved in governing our nation.
Justin Huckaby
5th paper
The office of the presidency has definitely changed throughout history. It is hard for me to imagine that the Founding Fathers wanted the president to be nothing more than a clerk-like figure for the country. My mind creates a somewhat of a funny picture when I think of this. Really can you imagine President Bush sitting in the Oval Office signing bills into laws and nothing but that. I see the Speaker of the House or Senate Majority Leader marching into his office and yelling, “W,” they would call him this because it sounds more degrading. “What the hell are you doing? I told you I wanted all of these bills signed by 4 today. How hard can it be just to write your freaking name on a line?” Of course I also imagine President Bush cowering behind his desk with the onset of the verbal abuse he would be so used to by now. Of course this is not reality, although it would make a great idea for a political cartoon though. This is an over exaggerated explanation of how the Founding Fathers viewed the office of the presidency. Thanks to the great men such as Abraham Lincoln and FDR, etc., we now have a powerful presidency. I know some people do not like that our own president has so much power, but think about it. I feel a lot safer knowing that the rest of the world fears our president. It really does not matter who is holding the office. As long as they have President of the United States of America after their name, other countries fear him or her. Sometimes I feel as though the president may over step his boundaries. However, I feel as though our president does everything with the best interest of the country at heart, well except for maybe President Nixon. He mainly just was looking out for his own interests, but that is another response. Another thing that amazes me about the office of the presidency is the fact that most of the powers the president has was never actually given to him. Each new president is a little more willing to take risks. I think that when they try something and it works, the country just accepts it. So from that point on each president just does this thing because it goes with the job per say. One great example of this is waging a conflict with another country so that Congress does not have to declare war. This was used first in Korea, and now it has been used for ever other battle we have fought with the exception of the Iraqi War. The office just keeps changing.
The power of the president to lead in times of war without Congress’s approval can be, I think, a reckless power. Without approval from the legislative body, the full responsibility of war rests on the President’s shoulders; if he happens to be a reckless sort of commander-in-chief, there is no limit to how much destruction he may indirectly cause by his decisions. That being said, I think it is very important for the Congress to approve beforehand any military action the president leads against a country or group, provided there is sufficient evidence for such an action; even if they do not declare official war, they should approve of a precise, narrowly-focused plan of military action. Any kind of open-ended permission for military force just invites hasty decisions and costly campaigns for “victory.” Recent news is that the Congress plans to strike down President Bush’s authority for an invasion of Iran, which to me is a welcome development. The U.S. already has too much of an investment in Iraq without worrying about Iran’s motives in nuclear development and such. There is no hard proof of Iranian involvement in Iraqi sectarian violence, so Bush has no convincing evidence to invade Iran as well. Instead of creating a larger strain on military families, the federal budget, and the countless number of civilians that would bear the brunt of the invasion in the Middle East, the President should concentrate on completing his mission in Iraq. The Congress should realize already that following one person blindly, no matter how powerful he may be, is a risky decision. If 3,100 military deaths haven’t proven that, how many more lives will it take?
[my 4th]
I have always been fascinated by the power of the presidency and how the presidency was able to express these powers. I’ve always knew that the president had power, but I never knew that there were so many different types of powers. Being president does not seem like a very easy and glamorous job to me anymore. It’s like no matter what decision you make, there are always people who are going to disagree with you and dislike you, such as Bush’s decision to leave troops in Iraq and many of his decisions he made with the relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina. It’s almost no matter what you do, you will always lose with some people. I guess you just can’t please everyone. Everyone is always so quick to criticize the president, and I’m guilty of it to, but I would really like to see other people have to make some of the decisions that the president has to make with all the pressure facing them and see how easy it is when you know no matter what you decide, that there will still be people who disagree with you and want you out of office. Something that has always boggled my mind is the presidents military powers. The position of commander in chief makes the president the highest military authority in the United states which I am sure isn’t the easiest job in the world considering it comes with so much responsibility but sometimes I just don’t agree with some of the presidents decisions in this area. Now I agree with Bush’s decision with FEMA after Katrina and I agree with his decision to create the Department of Homeland Security, but I don’t agree with his decision to continue to have troops over in Iraq. Now I may be being a little bias about this since I have a brother over in Iraq, but regardless, I just don’t agree with his decision to still have troops over there. It seems to me that as the power of the presidency has increased, popular expectations of presidential performance have increased at an even faster rate, requiring more leadership than was ever expected from past presidents.
Over the past four administrations there has been a decline of how many times the President goes out and speaks on prime-time television. This was baffling to me especially after looking above the paragraph I read this and seeing that the public appearances by the presidents in the last for administrations have gone up for every administration. Most of the time when a president gives a speech on prime-time television it is because he needs to polish his image in some way or another or he needs to boost his approval rating. An example of this is how President George W. Bush was trying to boost his approval of the Homeland Security Department and his public relations people were bringing up issues such as his support for Israel and how he was determined to prevent terrorism. By doing this they were putting him up on a pedestal and almost forcing America to see what they wanted America to see about him. I believe that ever administration does this and I do not blame them I think that they should use all of there resources to the best of there abilities. I would also think that at the same time there is a lot of pressure on the president because he cannot just come out and just speak to be seen. He has to come out with something of substance or he will be critiqued and criticized by the media. It seems as if they wait for the day that he messes up so they can be to run the story. Another thing that he has to do is be strong and well spoken to show and put out a good image of America for the rest of the world to see. He also has to be very prepared and understand his policies to the fullest so he can elaborated on them after the speech if anyone has questions or comments that they would like to ask or say.
Black History Month
This month represents a month of great significance for not only for all African Americans, but for all Americans in general. It is a time for reflection and respect that probably is not taken seriously enough. All through my life I have known that during February the history of African Americans is honored but that was all that I knew about it. So to change that, I did some researching to find out more about this national month of remembrance. Dr. Carter G. Woodson, considered to be a pioneer in the study of African American history, is given much of the credit for Black History Month. The son of former slaves, Woodson spent his childhood working in coalmines and quarries. Woodson originally created Negro History Week, until 1976 when it was expanded to Black History Month. He was disturbed by the fact that history books seemed to ignore America’s black population, so he created a type of history journal for African Americans and achieved his goal by educating the country.
This man was truly an entrepreneur, but I can not seem to figure out why I have never heard of him. Maybe I just never looked, or maybe he never got the recognition he deserved. What he did has had an enormous impact on society and I am ashamed to admit that I did not even know his name until today. We need to be better informed regardless of whether or not we are interested, Anna Nicole Smith died last week and she is still all over newspapers, radio, and television. My point being, what historical impact did she play on society? How did she make a difference in the world we live in today? Congrats Anna you lost ninety pounds by overdosing on Trimspa, but I would rather here something more important about society that has significance, such as Black History Month.
Nick Dubuisson
Michael Moore
5th paper
I would have to agree with David Higgins on his comments about the presidential position. The President of the United States is seen as the most powerful person in the world, so his job today is a little harder than what the founding fathers originally wanted. They wanted a "clerk" that would show up to work and sign a few papers and that would be it. However, it didn’t happen that way. Virtually almost all decisions that are made in the national government have to go through the president. The final decision is his unless over powered by Congress in a two-thirds majority vote. There are plenty of situations when I think that the decisions made by the president aren’t right and there are some that I agree with him on. For example, when it comes to the war in Iraq and Hurricane Katrina. I believe that the war in Iraq should be over and we should have our troops come home, however, I can see why they are still there because from my stand point the president would rather be safe than sorry. When it come to Katrina I do not agree that he should have waited so late to send aid, but on the other hand look at the help he is providing now to people who have lost everything. I’m not the only one who feels this way and I certainly will not be the last. It just seems to me that the president is in office to do what he feels like is best for our country. He is like a father figure that was elected to do a job, and just like a father when he does something we don’t like we get mad at him and throw a fit. This just proves the common saying that "you can’t make everyone happy" so you just do what you can and hope it’s the right decision.
The power of the president can be very interesting. For instance, his power of the military. How one man can just simply control thousands of soldiers, can seem to be a very hard job. During times of war, this is a time where the president can really show his power and show that he can make the right decisions for his people. If he does this, he will show his people and the country that he was the right choice for president. Also showing that he has what it takes to make the best decisions in bad situations. If the president makes bad decisions that the people don’t like, next term his chances of making it again want be as strong. Being only one person, the president takes a lot of heat if something goes wrong. The people can all be for him or against him. For instance, the war in Iraq and hurricane Katrina are two recently situations where the president has had to make really tough decisions. From these decisions, not everyone is going to agree with what the president does, but the thing is not people don’t always agree with each other or see eye to eye. Everybody is going to have their own opinion on certain things. If someone feels like they can do a better job or know the best thing to do, then they should tell what they would do. Even in doing so not everyone is going to agree with that. So its best that they let the president do his job, because those are some hard shoes to fill for a day.
The power of the presidency has been on my mind for quite some time now. Even before taking this class, I sometimes wondered why so much power is given to one man. For example, like Mr. Moore said, our founding fathers thought of this position as nothing more than a clerk that came in and signed a couple of documents, but today the president does much more than that. For instance think that the president wants to begin a war and congress votes against it. The president still has the power to overturn their decision and proceed as planned. Well I must admit that there is a lot of responsibility that goes along with the position, but in my opinion the president has too much power. This power can get you supporters as well as people that hate you. For example, after Hurricane Katrina nothing was done right away to help the people of New Orleans. This is one of the main reasons, along with our trrops in Iraq, that many folks don't really like President Bush. I know that this is a hard job but still he possess too much power.
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