Trinity Professor’s Book Examines ‘Opposition Presidents’

 Trinity political scientist David A. Crockett has written a book that examines the effectiveness of a president who is out of step with the dominant ideology of contemporary culture. Titled The Opposition Presidency: Leadership and the Constraints of History, the book analyzes leadership styles of 12 presidents from Whig times through Bill Clinton.

 Professor Crockett, a presidency expert, says the book puts the issue of presidential leadership in a broader historical and constitutional context, not just in relation to the electoral process. “The tendency among Americans is to think of all presidents as created equal,” he says. “We think they come to power through the same process, with the same training and the same rules. But it’s not true. A president’s success or failure is contingent upon his own skill. We should try to evaluate political leadership within the specific context, rather than comparing all of them to each other.”

 All opposition presidents – those who represent one political party and face a congress dominated by the opposing party – must govern in an era in which they lack the power to define politics, but Professor Crockett contends that each president handles this challenge in a different way. Studying the presidency in such a political context enables him to break free of the “one-size-fits-all” model of presidential leadership. 

For example, President Clinton’s two terms in office should not be compared to the eight years of Ronald Reagan’s presidency but to Grover Cleveland or Dwight Eisenhower, Professor Crockett says. The current president, George W. Bush, shows a leadership style similar to that of John F. Kennedy, Warren G. Harding, and William Henry Harrison, and should therefore not be judged against the record of his predecessor, Bill Clinton.  

Based upon his research, how does Professor Crockett relate President Bush’s presidency to the upcoming November 2002 congressional elections? “To understand the midterm elections in 2002, we have to look back to 1962 when John F. Kennedy was president. Bush is facing constraints similar to that era, not to 1982 when Reagan was in his first midterm election.”

 The Opposition Presidency is published by the Texas A&M University Press and may be ordered through the Press or at Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com, and other online booksellers.

 For more information about Professor Crockett’s book, contact Susie P. Gonzalez at (210) 999-8406 or by e-mail at susie.gonzalez@trinity.edu.