Hail to the Chief: The Making and Unmaking of American Presidents

Gerald Ford once said, "We have not an imperial Presidency; we have an imperiled Presidency." In recent years, presidents have bemoaned the red tape, complained about the limitations of the position, and even lambasted the press for the ineffectiveness of the office. In Hail to the Chief, Robert Dallek argues that the institution of the Presidency is blamed too often for the shortcomings of its occupants. Character, he says, is what makes Abraham Lincoln stand out from Millard Fillmore, or Franklin Delano Roosevelt overshadow Jimmy Carter. Stellar presidents, he maintains, possess vision, pragmatism, persuasiveness, charisma, and credibility--qualities that a great majority of our nation's leaders have sorely lacked.