Tough Times for the President: Political Adversity and the Sour ...

do presidents respond to such situations, and how can adversity both limit incumbents and stimulate them to be innovative in their actions? This book will explore presidents in “tough times,” a situation that is all too familiar to the White House but that has been generally overlooked by students of the presidency fascinated with heroic presidents and strong leadership in the White House. Examining cases of tough times for the president can broaden our understanding of presidential power as well as both the limits and opportunities chief executives face as they govern from the Oval Office.

The Best of Times, The Worst of Times

The focus on presidential leadership and greatness has had significant consequences for the chief executive and the way Americans understand the presidency. It has led to unrealistic expectations of what presidents can achieve and has contributed (at least in part) to what Gene Healy called the “cult of the presidency”⁶ (i.e., support for sweeping presidential power and a tendency to regard the chief executive as having unlimited responsibility—and power—for delivering national well-being). Another consequence has been to make times of political adversity—tough times for the president—appear unusual or even prima facie evidence of failure. History shows, however, that adversity is certainly not unusual.

All presidents experience stressful situations. Even in times of apparent tranquility, presidents have faced difficulties. The Eisenhower era, remembered as one of prosperity and somnolence, was also a period of Cold War confrontations that conjured up images of nuclear holocaust. The Coolidge years were not only the “Roaring Twenties” but also a time of agricultural problems, organized crime (spurring the creation of Eliot Ness’s elite band the “Untouchables”), and international instability (which would lead to the rise of fascism and Nazism). Even James Monroe’s “Era of Good Feelings” was marked by disputes over the extension of slavery (leading to the Missouri Compromise) and European designs on