I think the first interesting thing that I gained from the class was learning about the development of the presidency. I never knew that there was such a significant struggle between the founding fathers on the development and the role of the president. It was so interesting reading about Madison’s and Jefferson’s struggle over how little or how much power the president should have. It was also very interesting to learn about Jefferson’s take on this issue and how he viewed the president as just another monarch, and even more interesting was the fact that later on he would later become president and go against some of his very own beliefs and convictions by purchasing the Louisiana territory.

 After examining the development of the president, I thought the class would get a little boring, because let’s be honest who actually knows that much about the 19^th century presidents besides information that’s on Abraham Lincoln. But once again, I was delightfully surprised learning about the continuing struggles over how much power the president should have. It was very interesting to see how there were conflicts between the legislature and the president. One specific point that I remember, was how James Monroe helped solidify the president’s involvement in foreign affairs by creating the Monroe Doctrine. Another interesting piece of information that I gained from the course was how Abraham Lincoln declared martial law during the Civil War. We often think of Abraham Lincoln being this great hero who was the “Great Emancipator,” but we don’t think about some of the other issues that occurred during his presidency.

 I think that the more recent developments of the presidency are also very interesting. Learning about the evolution of the presidency in the 20^th century was also very fascinating. I thought the entire concept of the “rhetorical” president was great. We can even see some reflections of the “rhetorical” president today in more recent presidents. I also enjoyed learning more about some of the recent presidents like Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan. I personally loved the lecture on Ronald Reagan, because I think his conservative beliefs are so interesting. Finally, I also enjoyed analyzing our current president’s governing style. After learning so much about the presidency, it has made it very interesting to determine what President Obama could and should do for the future.

 Overall, this class was a wonderful experience and I am extremely glad that I took the class. It is an interesting thing being able to analyze and examine this position in our government, and I think if I have the chance I will continue to examine the role of the president.

One President that I was greatly interested in learning about was President Reagan. I think Ronald Reagan was a fascinating character in our history because of his conservative roots. I personally like some of the different ideas that Reagan presented with his conservative beliefs. A smaller government, more tax cuts, and increased spending in defense are all very interesting ideas that Reagan had during his presidency.

 We will always remember Ronald Reagan’s famous quote, “Government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.” I personally agree with him on the issue of the involvement of our government in different aspects of our lives. I think one current issue that is affecting us the most, is the government’s involvement with our economy during this recession right now. We have bailed failed banks and businesses and we have paid the price for trying to save these dying organizations. Our national deficit has shot through the roof, and it will only continue to soar as our government becomes involved in more and more issues like healthcare and global warming.

 Another aspect about Reagan conservatism that I thought was very interesting was the idea of increasing tax cuts for the middle class. I think this entire idea of creating more tax cuts is interesting, because as the national government spends more money to give out tax cuts to the middle class our national debt actually increased during the process. The justification for doing this was that if people have fewer taxes to pay, they will use that money to put back into the economy. In essence, this sounded like a reasonable idea, but in practice I think it only created more problems, because at the end of his term President Reagan had increased the national deficit significantly. I think this idea of tax cuts is great, but the problem is dealing with the debt that comes away with trying to grant families more tax breaks. I think if our government could implement a system like this without increasing the national deficit too much, it would be great for trying to get economy back on track.

 Finally, the last issue that we discussed in class was Reagan’s beliefs that we should increase spending on national defense. Today, defense spending is an issue that we don’t really talk about much. It’s often the issue that we sweep under the rug, because as we criticize our government for increasing the national deficit for spending billions of dollars on social programs, we forget about the billions of dollars that we spend every year on national defense. Interestingly enough, just a couple of months ago, Congress agreed to spend 680 billion dollars for national defense. I think this issue is significant, but I find myself questioning whether or not it is so important to spend that much money on our national defense. I think Ronald Reagan was a very interesting  president, and we can learn a lot from him and his policies.

 One issue that I constantly seem to be frustrated by is the excuses the Obama administration makes when the issue of not getting anything done comes up. Now in some earlier posts I did argue that the President has not done much this year, but in reality I am concerned with the things that the President hasn’t accomplished so far, but I am also just as equally concerned about how President Obama has tried to dodge the issues by blaming the former administration.

 Yes, President Obama did inherit two wars, and yes, President Obama did inherit a recession, but blaming the Bush administration can only take you so far and after looking at the latest Gallup polls we can see that the public is growing weary of his excuses. I think people grow weary of hearing the same thing over and over again and not seeing any resolution or improvement to fix the problems that the current administration has inherited.

 The American people want to see change and resolution despite the fact that President Obama has inherited these problems. I think one of the most prevalent cases of this is seeing the unemployment rate rising over the last couple of months. After passing a stimulus package under the Obama administration, the unemployment rate has continued to rise and I think that the American public isn’t buying into the excuses anymore. They want to see change and when the Obama administration blames former president Bush it proves to be more of annoyance to the public.

Another problem with the Obama administration blaming the Bush administration is the increase in the national deficit. When former president Bush left the office the national deficit sat at 482 billion dollars, and now that we have passed the stimulus package and other programs we’re seeing that the national deficit has tripled to 1.4 trillion under president Obama. Once again it must be noted that the reality is under President Obama that the national deficit has increased, and yet he has still used the same excuse to justify his actions for spending more money by blaming the previous administration for leading our country into a recession.

Finally, another  issue that has been significant for President Obama is the two wars that he inherited. President Obama has already made it clear that he will pull troops out of Iraq, but what has proven to be a more difficult decision is whether or not we should continue to fight in Afghanistan. After months of deliberation, President Obama did decide he would increase the number of troops in Afghanistan, but before he came up with a decision he used the same excuse of inheriting the wars. I’m glad he has made a decision with the war in Afghanistan, but I think that if President Obama wants to gain more ground with the American public he will start to own up to some of the problems and will stop blaming previous administrations for the issues at hand.

 After analyzing this situation over the promises presidential candidates make during elections, I have found myself taking a serious interest in the issue over campaign promises. As we look at the Obama administration is seems that this idea of trying to fulfill campaign promises is just as apparent in his presidency as well. Although President Obama hasn’t quite served a full year in office, we can see that he has already gone back on some of his original campaign promises. One of the promises President Obama made was that he was going to end the petty and partisan politics in Washington, but as we look at this past year we can see that partisan politics has been one of the most prevalent problems in Washington. President Obama has tried to create an environment that seeks bipartisan efforts in Washington, but one factor that has placed a thorn in his attempts to do this is the healthcare debate. As the healthcare debate drags along, we can see that partisan politics hasn’t been more prevalent until now. Early on in the debate over healthcare reform Republicans and Democrats have fought over the different provisions in this healthcare overhaul. It has even reached the point to where Republicans have been shut out of meetings on healthcare reform by key Democratic officials, like Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. The efforts that President Obama has made to create an environment of bipartisan politics have failed.

 Another issue that has been significant for President Obama is trying to create a government that is more transparent. One of the promises President Obama made when he was running for president was that he was going to create more transparency in the government, but as we have seen with past presidents, President Obama has fallen into the same old trap. His promise for transparency has proven to be harder to fulfill than what he originally thought. With the dilemma over water boarding and enhanced interrogation techniques, President Obama showed us that transparency is not always the best answer. We saw this with the Obama administration deciding that it was not going release all of the photos that the CIA had on the interrogation techniques.

 Finally, President Obama has promised that he would not create any new taxes for the middle class, but once again this may be inevitable as well. With our national deficit through the roof, our government may have no other choice but to raise taxes for the middle class as a way to bring the national deficit down.

Overall, I think one way or another, presidents will eventually have to go back on some campaign promises they make, and I think that it’s just a reality that comes with the position.

President Obama inherited two wars when he was inaugurated last year and his governing style in relations to foreign affairs will be very important in the next couple of years. We will see just how his governing style will affect the outcomes of two wars, the relationships between other nations, and the threats that come from several other states. We saw just last week that President Obama has decided to continue with the push regarding to the war in Afghanistan. This role as the leading official in the development of the war in Afghanistan will prove to be significant for President Obama, and based on the outcome and future of Afghanistan, we will see just how important the decisions are for the president when it comes to foreign affairs.

President Obama’s decisions regarding foreign policies will be important, because the global community has had a change of heart for the new President. Over the last eight years, the United States was viewed as a global bully to other nations. With the invasion of Iraq and our more aggressive actions taken by former president Bush, the global community had a very high level of anti-American sentiment toward us. Another issue that has certainly helped with anti-American sentiment is the fact that we are the largest consuming nations in the world. These issues have caused the United States to have a very negative and poor relationship with the global community, but with that said we see a new opportunity and a new hope for President Obama to turn that perception around.

I think that President Obama has a real opportunity to change the perception of America and to show the global community that we really are a peaceful nation that does look out for the interests of other nations. I think that President Obama has made some progress with trying to rebuild our relationships with the global community. I think one of the first great opportunities President Obama had to change the global community’s perception of the United States was when he gave his speech in Egypt and addressed it to the Muslim community. Over the last eight years there was a sense that the United States hated the Muslim community, but I think that President Obama’s speech was a great step in the right direction to reestablish our relationship with the Muslim community. Another situation that I believe was great for rebuilding our relationships with the global community was his tour of the different Asian nations. What should be noted was the President’s infamous bowing before the Emperor of Japan. Some people believe that it was a sign of weakness, but I believe it was a genuine sign of humility. By trying to reestablish the perception of the United States, I believe we can accomplish a lot, and I think that President Obama will do great things to help with our relationships with the global community.

Last year when John McCain named his running mate for the 2008 elections, he named a woman who most people have never heard of before. What was so significant was that it didn’t take long before people decided how they felt about her. Some people loved her and believed that she was the hockey mom from Alaska that was in touch with the American public, but others thought she was as dumb as a rock and believed she didn’t have the intelligence to run for vice president. From the very beginning we saw people choose sides on how they felt about Sarah Palin. Even the media got their fair share of jabs into the former vice presidential candidate. I think in some ways we can all agree that Sarah Palin was unfairly criticized and attack by the main stream media, but that doesn’t mean she created some problems of her own. One of her greatest problems was her interview with Katie Couric. I think after she gave that interview with Katie Couric, it only helped lead to our perception of her not having the intelligence to potentially lead the nation. Another snafu on the former Governor’s part was the whole “I can see Russia from my house” debacle. You would think after all that had occurred with Sarah Palin with the election and the resignation from her position as Governor that her political career would be over, but after the release of her widely popular book “Going Rogue” I don’t know we can assume that quite yet.

Sarah Palin wrote the book “Going Rogue” and interestingly enough, the book has become very popular. Within the first couple of days of its release, her book sold over 700,000 copies. Now that her book tour is under way, it’s interesting to see just how popular Sarah Palin really is. Another thing to be noted is her slowly rising approval ratings. Now, that may not mean much to a lot people, considering she hasn’t done anything, but I think her popularity is pushing her in the direction to potentially run in another national election. She has stated that she isn’t quite sure if she is done with politics, and has continued to hint at the possibility of running for president. With her popularity rising and her ambitions climbing even higher, could we assume that she will run for president in the near future? I don’t know. I think it would be very interesting to see with the former Governor in the next couple of years.

I don’t think the Republican Party will let her ambitions take her that far. I think the Republican Party feels that she is too conservative to take the Republican nomination, and I believe if they were smart, they would do everything they could to make sure that she didn’t get the presidential nomination. Don’t get me wrong, I personally kind of like Sarah Palin, but in all honesty the Republican Party cannot win the next presidential election if she is on the ticket. My question to you guys is, do you think Sarah Palin is bold enough to try and run for president?

 I think that President Obama initially started off well with his goal to create more transparency in the government, but as he started to get more and more into his job, he started to pull back on his promise for transparency. I think the first time we saw the President pull back from creating a more transparent government was when the whole issue of water boarding and enhanced interrogation techniques came up right after he was elected. President Obama decided not to release certain photos to the public because of the potential implications they would have had with the safety of our nation.

This was a challenging decision; on the one hand President Obama wanted to create a more open and transparent government, but on the other hand, by releasing these photos there could have been a significant backlash from terrorists who would have been offended by the photos and it could have created a surge of violence in Iraq, Afghanistan, and even potentially the United States. This issue was hard for the President to settle, but ultimately I think he made the right decision. Can we really say we want to see these photos even though it would be at the soldiers’ expense? I think by not allowing the public to see certain photos helped our nation because I think that if the photos were released to the public, I really do believe some terrorist groups would try to retaliate against our soldiers or against American citizens. By holding on to the photos it has allowed President Obama to try and keep the levels of violence down over in Iraq and in Afghanistan.

 Another issue of transparency that we have seen within this last year is over the healthcare debate. The debate over healthcare has been a long and strenuous one, but one thing that has been very frustrating for a lot of Americans is not being able to know what is actually taking place with the bill. Initially, the different forms of the healthcare bill were not being released, and it wasn’t until a day before there would be a Congressional vote, that officials would release the bill to the public. I think this has proven to be a significant problem for our government, because many people are curious about what is being put in this healthcare bill, and if it’s not readily available for Americans to read and respond to their local officials, then it’s not really providing us as Americans chance to participate on what will affect us.

I think President Obama’s intentions are great but if he really wants to gain the public’s approval, he’ll continue to make this government more transparent. He could do this by having Congress release more documentation of the different bills that are currently being discussed earlier before Congressional votes,  and he can also do this by letting the public know more of the internal information that is being presented in the White House.

 One thing that I thought was very interesting, was this idea of only allowing the president to serve one six-year term. I discovered that in Mexico, the president can only serve one term and that the term last six years. This entire notion of one term limits got me to thinking, would it be such a bad idea if the president could only serve one term? The more I thought about the issue, the more I became intrigued with the idea of what could happen if the president could only serve one term. I think if the president could only serve one term, he or she would be less concerned about their approval ratings and more concerned about getting things done. There would be less of an emphasis to seek the public’s attention and approval.

 Another issue that I thought was very interesting, was the parliamentary type of government. I think the U.K has a very interesting style of governing, because when elections come around, you’re not necessarily voting for a candidate, instead you’re voting for a certain party. I thought this was so interesting because once a party gains control in their parliamentary style of government they try to get as much done as possible because of their control in the parliament.

 The reason I thought this was so interesting was because of how I view our own form of government and just how long it takes our government to pass legislation. Our form of government has a very slow process of passing legislative bills and a lot of the time most bills don’t even make it to the president’s desk. Looking at other political system made me think of whether or not I thought it was good that it takes our government such a long time to pass legislative bills in our country. I think that after analyzing the different systems my opinion of our government is fairly good. Our process may not be the fastest but I believe it is the safest. I think that the founding fathers meant for our government to be that way. I think they wanted the legislative process to take some time, so that bills that only had the highest importance could be passed. I don’t think our founding fathers would have been pleased with the notion of trying to pass as much legislation as possible just because one party is in control.

 As far as the president’s role goes, I also think it is good that we have the two term limit in place. I don’t think I would want a president that only serves one six-year term. The president must rely on the public’s consensus and approval, because ultimately it’s what we want as a nation to get done. It is important to take into consideration what we expect of our president, and how good of a job we feel they are doing.

After last year’s defeats in both houses, congressional Republicans were stunned with trying to figure out what went wrong, but with the 2010 elections a year away I think Republicans have a lot of work to do in order to try and make a comeback for next year.

I think the Republican Party needs to be more encompassing of people who come from all different parts of the political spectrum. If the Republican Party continues to try and lean more to their conservative base, I think Republicans will face another defeat in the 2010 elections. This will prove to be a difficult issue for Republicans as they try and revamp their image, because another serious issue Republicans face, deals with their own party on the issue of Senators and Representatives that are considered to be more liberal. These types of Republicans, also known as RHINOS, have created a division between more moderate and conservative Republicans. Senator Olympia Snowe one of several moderate Republicans, has been placed in the spotlight for her more liberal (moderate) views on healthcare reform. This may prove to help her, but it could cause an enormous upset within the Republican Party as they try and block the attempts made by Democrats to pass a healthcare bill.

The debate has caused so many problems of where the Republican Party stands on the issue, that public figures like Rush Limbaugh have been involved in the debate. Rush Limbaugh works in talk radio and is best known for his very conservative views and opinions. Currently Republicans have seen him to be the leading figure in the party. The Republican Party needs to find someone within the party that can be the head figure and voice for them.  If they don’t have one unifying voice for the party, I believe Republicans will continue to struggle in future elections.

Whether you believe in it or not, global warming has been an issue that the world has taken up, and this week officials from across the world will meet in Copenhagen to discuss this serious issue. During the meeting they will discuss the issue of green house gas emissions and whether or not there needs to be some form of involvement in trying to cut back on the levels of green house gases that each nation emits into the air every year.

I think this debate over green house gases will produce serious disagreement from all ends of the spectrum. With many scientists and scholars suggesting that we need to be more involved with trying to cut back on gas emissions and a small community suggesting that manmade global warming is a hoax, this debate has caused much discussion and frustration throughout the world. Just last week, the University of East Anglia’s servers were hacked and it has become apparent that top scientists and proponents of global warming may have actually falsified information pertaining to global warming. Michael Mann, one of the leading researchers on global warming who is best known for his famous hockey stick graph has been found to be discussing with Director of the CRU Phil Jones on how to alter graphs and information so that they will read in their favor.

This situation also known as Climategate has caused an enormous upset with some countries. Nations like Australia, have already refused to buy into the notion that global warming is manmade. Other lower developing nations have also expressed some concerns about the meeting in Copenhagen, because they want to make sure wealthy nations are held to the same standards as they are.

President Obama has a busy schedule ahead of him, and if he wants to make sure any change is made on the issue of global warming he will need to work very hard to make sure negotiations occur between both sides. It will also be challenging to make sure that our own government will ratify an agreement made at the Copenhagen summit. That is if there is an agreement made at the summit.