The Presidency

Tomorrow's topic is the presidency, which we'll divide into two parts: Before the break, we'll talk about presidential selection, including both the nomination process and the Electoral College system. After the break, we'll talk about how the modern presidency works, including how it's changed over time to become the focal point of the American political system.

In the meantime, here are some web resources on the presidency:

• The White House website has a lot of easy-to-digest information about both the history of the presidency and the current Bush administration.


• The University of Virginia's Miller Center of Public Affairs maintains an online reference source on the presidency called American President, including biographical info and primary sources for each president. It also runs high-profile presidential oral history and presidential recordings projects.


• University of California - Santa Barbara's Presidency Project has a huge assortment of documents and data pertaining to the presidency.

Finally, to follow up on today's "question time" discussion, the following is a clip of President Bush's most recent State of the Union Address (the speech itself starts several minutes in). Do you think a follow-up Q&A session would be useful?