Reviews for Personal President: Power Invested, Promise Unfulfilled

The average rating for Personal President: Power Invested, Promise Unfulfilled based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-04-02 00:00:00 Stephen Murray This book is for intermediate or expert presidential scholars :) The only hit against it is that it is dated (late 80s), but, nevertheless, it is still highly relevant. The author basically lays out a thesis about the troubled presidency, what's wrong with it, and what can be done to reform it (though, like any "good" thesis, this is saved towards the end and doesn't really subject those suggestions to much critique). This is a great academic dissection of the presidency, but I would say that the main point of the book is unwritten but just as viable as its stated raison d'etre: Reform of Congress is needed - the book details all the attempts to fix and re-examine the presidency, but a lot of the blame goes to the gross delegation of Congress' power. There have been few reforms of the Article I branch, and so the presidency can be helped and "saved" by reforming Congress. The author's suggestions are mostly regressive and elite. While I can support a lot of what he says, I just don't think it's realistic to go to a strong-party, Congress-focused/constituency, small executive branch presidency. I do agree we can "build down" the presidency (by "building up" Congress, IMHO), I just don't think the American people will give up their post 19th Century expectations of the presidency and presidential candidates. The author is also visionary in the role of PACs, the weakening of parties, and the increased intrusion of executive power (again, this is written in 1985, waaay pre-9/11 and Citizens United!). I think most of his suggestions, other than a push toward third-party/multi-party system, are not feasible. But I would recommend this to any serious presidential scholar.

Review # 2 was written on 2016-03-26 00:00:00 Rob Lotta Definitely dry, but really interesting if you're fascinated by school lunches! It's pretty detailed foray into every aspect of school lunches from reimbursement rates to nutritional standards to the policy fights over the years. Starts with the history of national school lunch program in the early 1900s and details how the great depression and wwii fundamentally shaped the system as well as the cuts in the 80s, the war on fat in the 90s, and budget cuts throughout. I learned quite a bit and enjoyed the stories and anecdotes throughout!