Hello, Brandon Hart, you did an excellent job with your summary of Chapter 9 The Presidential Spectacle written by Bruce Miroff of the textbook The Presidency and the Political system. Regarding your summary of the main ideas and themes of this chapter, you did a spectacular job. Especially regarding the topic of what a presidential spectacle is. The presidential spectacle is a concept that most Americans do not understand. But you explained it in a way that most voters understand and grasp. From there you did a fantastic job at explaining the different examples of presidents the author provided regarding the topic of the presidential spectacle. Those presidents were Reagan, Clinton, Bush junior, Obama, and Trump. You did a respectable job …show more content…
It is as if all the controversies that plagued his presidency allowed his accomplishments to be more noticeable and thus more widely aware by the American public. Regarding Bush junior, Obama, and Trump you were able to provide a quick and efficient summary as to why each president failed in the phenomenon of the presidential spectacle. I like the idea that you brought up about Obama not selling himself that well. It is quite interesting because Obama was a massive nerd and geek something that many Americans could have related to during his time as president. Yet he decided to never make a spectacle out of that despite the relatability he could have generated with the American people. Obama might have thought his nerdiness would hurt his appearance as a president instead of helping it or his advisors told him not to embrace that side of him for fear of looking …show more content…
Firstly, you did not highlight the strengths or weaknesses of the article enough. You could have gone into more as to what strengths expand what political scientists know about American politics, especially about the subject of the office of the president. What parts of the article did you feel were lacking? Do you think the chapter should have examined more presidents? Do you think the chapter should have focused on presidents who were out of office for 20 years? As it usually takes 20 years to see the full extent of the impact a president has made on the US and American society. These are just some examples. In my second criticism, you could have dug deeper into each of the 5 case studies. While you did an excellent job at doing a quick concise summary you could have gone a little bit deeper in your summary and analysis. For example, do you agree with the case study for each of the presidents? Do you think the author oversold the spectacle of the Reagan presidency while undersold the spectacle of the Obama presidency? Do you think the author should have chosen different presidents for the case study or should the author have added more