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This article evaluates the usefulness of one currently available set of presidential recordings, those of President Lyndon Johnson. It demonstrates that these recordings constitute a sample of the president's phone conversations and a reasonable representation of his contacts with others. It demonstrates the use of these data in assessing presidential persuasion and activities. It also suggests how popular presentations of these data, through other published means, have distorted the picture of presidential activities.

This introduction to the special issue on presidential disability and succession focuses on the distinctly positive contributions that invocations of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment have made to American political life since the Amendment's ratification in 1967. It also underlines the importance for Presidents, their family members and aides to understand the necessity for putting the welfare of the country first, above all else—even at times above the wishes of a disabled Chief Executive. As the articles in this special issue make clear, the Twenty-Fifth Amendment provides an effective constitutional mechanism by which the country's well-being can be maintained while simultaneously showing compassion and respect for a disabled leader. The idea for this issue emerged from a conference organized by Professor Robert E. Gilbert focusing on presidential disability and succession held on the campus of Northeastern University in April 2014. Papers from the conference assembled here clarify and add to the historical record about presidential inability while illuminating the many political, legal, and constitutional contingencies that future presidential administrators may face. Contributors to this issue have varied disciplinary and professional backgrounds, including expertise in American politics, constitutional law, the presidency and vice presidency, presidential impairment, and, of course, the Twenty-Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

A war of ideas -- Who enters the ring? -- Debate traditions -- Debate timelines -- The Big Leagues -- The Golden Era of TV -- JFK versus Nixon -- The biggest bouts -- Primaries come first -- Different styles to dish -- The rules of engagement -- Commission on Presidential Debates -- When politics get political -- Better ways to debate -- Glossary -- Index -- Websites.

The modern President possesses enormous power. She can use military force abroad without congressional authorization, impose economic sanctions on foreign powers, or enter into trade agreements with foreign states. She can do all this on her own, with little constraint. Or so it seems. In reality, these important powers, along with numerous more mundane ones, are all contingent on the President first making certain factual determinations. For example, to use force abroad, the President must first determine that the use of force is in the "national interest," perhaps that it will preserve "regional stability" or protect American lives. To impose sanctions, she might have to determine that a country has used chemical weapons against its own people. To remove an officer with for-cause protection, she must find that there was "cause," such as "inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance." Given that the President can only invoke these powers-and many, many others-when certain facts exist, the process and standard of certainty the President uses to find such facts can have enormous consequences. The phenomenon of presidential factfinding is thus both commonplace and important. It is also almost entirely unstudied. This Article establishes the importance of factfinding as a pervasive feature of presidential power spanning constitutional, statutory, and international law. The Article then examines the President's existing obligations in conducting factfinding, arguing that the President has a constitutional duty to act, at the least, honestly and based on reasonable inquiry. Finally, it addresses how presidential factfinding ought to be structured and regulated internally within the executive branch, by Congress, and through judicial review

PRESIDENTIAL PRESTIGE OR POPULARITY HAS OFTEN BEEN CITED AS AN IMPORTANT SOURCE OF PRESIDENTIAL INFLUENCE IN CONGRESS. IT WAS NOT BEEN EMPIRICALLY AND SYSTEMATICALLY DEMONSTRATED, HOWEVER, THAT SUCH A RELATIONSHIP EXISTS. THIS STUDY EXAMINES A VARIETY OF RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN PRESIDENTIAL PRESTIGE AND PRESIDENTIAL SUPPORT IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

Presidential prestige or popularity has often been cited as an important source of presidential influence in Congress. It has not been empirically and systematically demonstrated, however, that such a relationship exists. This study examines a variety of relationships between presidential prestige and presidential support in the U.S. House of Representatives. The relationships between overall national presidential popularity on the one hand and overall, domestic, and foreign policy presidential support in the House as a whole and among various groups of congressmen on the other are generally weak. Consistently strong relationships are found between presidential prestige among Democratic party identifiers and presidential support among Democratic congressmen. Similar relationships are found between presidential prestige among the more partisan Republican party identifiers and the presidential support by Republican congressmen. Explanations for these findings are presented, and the findings are related to broader questions of American politics.

THIS STUDY EXAMINES A VARIETY OF RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN PRESIDENTIAL PRESTIGE AND PRESIDENTIAL SUPPORT IN THE US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN OVERALL NATIONAL PRESIDENTIAL POPULARITY AND OVERALL DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN POLICY PRESIDENTIAL SUPPORT IN THE HOUSE AS A WHOLE AND AMONG VARIOUS GROUPS OF CONGRESSPEOPLE ON THE OTHER ARE GENERALLY WEAK.

What is a presidential campaign? -- Understanding "Campaign" -- Setting up a campaign -- Why campaigns are important -- Primary and general elections -- The Electoral College -- Why elections are important -- The history of campaigns -- Use of technology -- What can go wrong? -- Civic responsibilities -- What we have learned -- Glossary -- Index -- Websites.

This chapter reviews psychological theories of leadership and selected literature on the American presidency to highlight key psychological principles of presidential leadership. Psychological theories, framed by the principles of leadership outlined by Freud (1921), include those of Burns (1978, 2003) on transformational leadership, Bass (1997) and House & Shamir (1993) on charismatic and transformational leadership, Gardner (1995) on stories of identity, Hogg (2001, 2003) on social identity, and Tyler & Lind (1992) on procedural justice. The discussion of presidential scholarship considers work by Barber (1992) on presidential character, Simonton (1986, 1987) on presidential personality and success, Skowronek (1997) on reconstructive politics, and Winter (1987) on presidential motive profiles. These studies suggest that followers have high expectations for presidents and that successful presidential leadership depends on opportunity, high levels of activity, intelligence, optimistic resilience, and flexibility.

The public's approval of the president plays a critical role in determining the president's power and policy‐making success. Scholars and pundits have thus devoted a large amount of attention to explaining the dynamics of presidential approval. Surprisingly, this work has overlooked one of the more important potential forces behind approval—that is, what the president himself says. In this article, we examine the direct impact of presidential rhetoric on approval. We do so by combining a content analysis of the 2002 State of the Union address with both a laboratory experiment and a nationally representative survey. We show that the president can have a substantial effect on his own approval by priming the criteria on which citizens base their approval evaluations. Our results add a new dimension to the study of presidential approval, raise intriguing questions about accountability, and extend work on priming and public opinion by introducing the idea of image priming.

The International Committee has decided to complete the Presidential Council by appointing Mr. Roger Gallopin and Mr. Pierre Micheli to membership.

Controversial and unexpected presidential election results have occurred throughout American history. Presidential Upsets: Dark Horses, Underdogs, and Corrupt Bargains carefully examines eleven presidential upsets spread across two centuries of American h