Search

This article examines the evolution of presidential campaigning in a digital era. The authors contend that changes in political processes brought on by an extended caucus system, voting initiatives, and advances in communication technology are inspiring the repersonalization of presidential elections. Cyberpolitics draw candidates, parties, and citizens into a tighter web of connections that reinvigorates the personalized style of campaigning popular in earlier times in U.S. political history. Keywords: presidential campaigns; elections; digital politics

Americans have been taught to expect their presidents to be exalted figures. But the postwar figures, from JFK to LBJ, Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton, have presented a sorry roll call. Each figure possessed deep personality flaws. This article argues that Nixon was the last truly auratic president, that is, a leader who presented himself as being an exalted representative of the people in terms of his insight, courage, and convictions. However, the disastrous circumstances of his departure from the White House have punctured the auratic ideal. In contrast, Clinton's foibles bring him closer to public life. The sympathy that exists for his plight among large numbers of the public signifies the recognition that his weaknesses are common. This article argues that Clinton is the first post-auratic president, a fitting, depthless leader for an American polity in an age of media-based celebrities as leaders.

Woodrow Wilson is one of the most significant and controversial Presidents of the twentieth century. Scholars have developed a number of studies focusing upon the interrelationship between his personality, health and decision-making. Alexander and Juliette George published in the 1950s a 'psychologically-oriented' biography of Wilson in which they argue that Wilson's overbearing father deprived him of self-esteem. Wilson, they contend, spent his life in a vain attempt to compensate for this deficiency with an insatiable quest for power. Arthur S. Link, the acknowledged dean of Wilson historians and editor of the monumental collection of Papers of Woodrow Wilson, has vigorously disputed any psychological interpretation of Wilson's behavior. Link has developed a stroke thesis, in conjunction with a number of medical experts, to explain Wilson's failures at key times in his life. This paper will provide an overview of the conflicting interpretations on the relationship between Wilson's personality, health and decision-making and evaluate the role of Arthur S. Link as the chief editor of the Papers of Woodrow Wilson. The thesis of this article is that a close examination of Wilson's decision-making does not provide any clear evidence or examples of psychological or medical influences on Wilson as President before his massive stroke in early October of 1919. Rather, Wilson's decisions, although pressure-packed, fall within any reasonable definition of rational decision-making.

THERE is a side of President Clinton difficult to see because it is so visible. It is the side that has been making him--particularly since his impeachment ordeal--wander off into [...]