Deck 10: Evaluating Presidents

Question 1

Partisanship strongly influences the extent to which individuals report they approve or disapprove of the president.

Answer 1

True
Explanation:Contemporary judgments of the presidency are inevitably clouded by partisanship. For example, at the end of President Obama's first 100 days, 90% of Democrats approved of his performance, but less than 30% of Republicans felt the same way. Similarly, at the end of the George W. Bush administration, only 6% of Americans approved of his handling of the office, while 75% of Republicans still backed his administration.

Question 2

The importance of partisanship to presidential approval is a relatively new phenomenon, appearing only in the last few administrations.

Answer 2

False
Explanation:There has been a sizeable discrepancy between Republican and Democratic levels of support for presidents going back more than seven decades to the beginning of systematic survey measurement of presidential approval.

Question 3

Presidential reputations rarely improve after they leave office.

Answer 3

False
Explanation:As partisan passions cool, several presidents have seen their reputations improve, including Lyndon Johnson, Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, and Jimmy Carter.

Question 4

Only presidents who govern during times of crisis are likely to be considered great or near-great.

Question 5

Historians have convincingly determined that presidential greatness is largely a function of how bold a president was when in office.

Question 6

Which scholar pioneered the empirical study of presidential greatness?

A) Richard Neustadt
B) Arthur Schlesinger
C) David Frost
D) Stephen Skowronek

Question 7

Which of the following presidents is consistently rated among the worst in American history?

A) Cleveland
B) Harrison
C) Arthur
D) Harding

Question 8

A president's place in political time is structured by his relationship with the dominant party regime and:

A) the moral capacity of the dominant regime.
B) the presence or absence of a war.
C) the strength of the economy.
D) whether the dominant regime is resilient or vulnerable.

Question 9

Which post-Vietnam president has the best reputation for greatness?

A) Ford
B) Carter
C) Reagan
D) Clinton

Question 10

According to Skowronek, presidents committed to continuing a regime's politics while adapting its agenda to changes in the public's agenda are known as:

A) orthodox-innovators.
B) orthodox-articulators.
C) unorthodox-preemptors.
D) unorthdox-lawmakers.