A couple of weeks ago I blogged about how John Dickerson described Dwight D. Eisenhower as a “life hacker” in an early chapter of his new book, The Hardest Job in the World: The American Presidency. Yesterday I finished the book, and I’d recommend it to anyone who is interested in the nature of the U.S. presidency or the overall state of American governance.
As the title suggests, Dickerson asserts that the American presidency has become really hard — so hard, in fact, that no one person can do it well. The modern American president is not only the chief executive of the Unites States and its commander-in-chief, as the authors of the Constitution envisioned, but also the country’s empathizer-in-chief, its communicator-in-chief, and the buck-stops-here individual that the electorate holds responsible for virtually everything.
The presidency was always a formidable job, Dickerson writes, but it has become increasingly so in modern times as the power and effectiveness of Congress, which the founders conceived of as a co-equal branch of government, has diminished. This is largely a function of increased partisanship, which makes it politically dangerous for any member of Congress to cooperate or compromise with members of the other party.
But the fact that the presidency has become a Herculean accountability is not the only thesis of Dickerson’s book. He also asserts that the criteria by which we select our presidents, and the process by which we make that selection, are truly terrible. The qualities required to win a presidential campaign, he suggests, are increasingly diverging from the qualities we need in a president.
In what other chief-executive role would a lack of experience be an advantage in applying for the job? Dickerson suggests that one of the most important predictors of success in the White House is a deep understanding of how Washington works, but as we have seen repeatedly over the last fifty years, presidential candidates tout not being a “Washington insider” as a key qualification for office.
Another important quality in a president is humility. Presidents need to know their own limits and delegate to those whose abilities complement their own, recognize that what they believe may not always be right and listen to advisors with opposing opinions, and be capable of changing their views as new information comes to light.
A key problem is that those and a number of other qualities essential for being a good president are actually liabilities for a candidate for president. Presidential candidates need to promise the moon and paint themselves as the one person who can solve all the nation’s problems and grant all the wishes of their base.
As you might imagine, in making a case for the disconnect between electoral and presidential effectiveness, our current president is Exhibit A. Dickerson’s book is not primarily about the Trump presidency, but he is not shy about pointing out how vividly Trump exemplifies the dysfunction of our current approach to choosing a president and the inability of our system of governance to counter executive incompetence and malfeasance.
Near the end of every review of any book that describes some entrenched shortcoming of American society, the reviewer inevitably asserts that the book does a better job of describing the problem than of suggesting solutions. That’s undoubtedly true but strikes me as unfair. By definition, intractable problems defy easy solutions.
Dickerson’s prescriptions for solving the problems of the American presidency are thoughtful and thorough, notwithstanding how daunting it would be to implement them. Many would require that voters adjust their expectations of the president and adopt more enlightened criteria for assessing candidates. Pundits and journalists could be part of the solution too — for example by retiring the expectation that presidents demonstrate meaningful progress toward their goals after only 100 days. We should be satisfied if a president simply manages to get his or her team in place within that time.
If, like me, you have a particular interest in presidential politics and the office of the presidency, I predict you’ll enjoy this book. And if you’ve ever thought “I could do a better job than that guy,” it could provide a humbling reality check.