With A Stroke Of A Pen

The conventional wisdom holds that the president of the United States is weak, hobbled by the separation of powers and the short reach of his formal legal authority. In this first-ever in-depth study of executive orders, Kenneth Mayer deals a strong blow to this view. Taking civil rights and foreign policy as examples, he shows how presidents have used a key tool of executive power to wield their inherent legal authority and pursue policy without congressional interference. Throughout the nation's life, executive orders have allowed presidents to make momentous, unilateral policy choices: creating and abolishing executive branch agencies, reorganizing administrative and regulatory processes, handling emergencies, and determining how legislation is implemented. From the Louisiana Purchase to the Emancipation Proclamation, from Franklin Roosevelt's establishment of the Executive Office of the President to Bill Clinton's authorization of loan guarantees for Mexico, from Harry Truman's integration of the armed forces to Ronald Reagan's seizures of regulatory control, American presidents have used executive orders (or their equivalents) to legislate in ways that extend far beyond administrative activity. By analyzing the pattern of presidents' use of executive orders and the relationship of those orders to the presidency as an institution, Mayer describes an office much more powerful and active than the one depicted in the bulk of the political science literature. This distinguished work of scholarship shows that the U.S. presidency has a great deal more than the oft-cited "power to persuade."

The inspiration for my book started about seven years ago after I suffered a massive stroke that the doctors were amazed that I even survived. Over the course of the next five years my body was ravaged by one major illness after another. I lived through heart surgery while being awake after the doctor's inadvertently hit a nerve which woke me up and they could not get me back under anesthesia. I had to endure the procedure from start to finish wide awake and I can attest to the fact there is no greater pain in the world than being awake during heart surgery. I suffered two more strokes, not nearly as powerful but definitely taking its toll on my brain and left side functions. All told, I had six stroke and two minor strokes. My brain isn't what it used to be but then whose is?

A full understanding of the institution of the American presidency requires us to examine how it developed from the founding to the present. This developmental lens, analyzing how historical turns have shaped the modern institution, allows for a richer, more nuanced understanding. The Development of the American Presidency pays great attention to that historical weight but is organized by the topics and concepts relevant to political science, with the constitutional origins and political development of the presidency its central focus. Through comprehensive and in-depth coverage, Richard Ellis looks at how the presidency has evolved in relation to the public, to Congress, to the executive branch, and to the law, showing at every step how different aspects of the presidency have followed distinct trajectories of change. Each chapter promotes active learning, beginning with a narrative account of some illustrative puzzle that brings to life a central concept. A wealth of photos, figures, and tables allow for the visual presentations of concepts. New to the Third Edition Analysis of the 2016 election, including the role of the Electoral College and implications of Trump’s nomination for the "party decides" thesis; Exploration of Trump’s Twitter presidency and the effectiveness of using social media to bypass the Washington press corps; In-depth coverage of the development of twentieth-century president–press relations, including a new section on broadcasting the presidency that explores the development of the presidential press conference and presidents’ use of radio and television; Study of national security policy in the Obama administration, with a special focus on the targeted killing of American citizens and Obama’s legacy for presidential war powers; Examination of the original understanding and contemporary relevance of impeachment as well as updated discussion of the president’s pardon power; Discussion of recent developments in the legislative and legal realms, including Trump’s first hundred days, the Garland–Gorsuch episode, and abolition of the filibuster for Supreme Court appointments; Preliminary assessment of Trump’s place in historical time.

Sixty-eight year old widow Kaitlyn Frost has received a letter in the mail. The instantly recognized handwriting on the envelope creates a painful whirlwind of emotions and memories that stretch fifty years into her past. Anxiously torn between what the mysterious letter says and her own conflicting dreams of what might-have-been, Kaitlyn carries the reader on her journey back to the innocent time of love's first bloom. Throughout the day, the letter remains unopened, as Kaitlyn struggles with the twilight fragility of her present, and how it could all be swept away by chance, with a simple stroke of the pen.