The American Presidency

Mainly focussing on presidents Ford through Bush 43, the author tries to explain the contrast's of these presidents. The intentional inability of any branch to wield absolute power has led to tensions between the executive and the legislative branches. The problem with the book is that for some chapters it reads like a history or constitutional textbook, while in others it is a chatty and bright summary of each president.  There are interesting facts and explanations of events here, one just has to wade through a lot of jargon to get there. I did learn a  fair amount but much of the material was fairly basic and should be part on the normal process for any educated citizen. The bottom line for me is that the impotence of any branch is really a process designed from scratch by the founding fathers with the express intent of ensuring that a single branch or individual could rule the country. Pretty clever really.