Feb. 6, 2015
None of this is to say that presidents are not extraordinarily powerful and important. But we need to do a better job putting presidents into context, celebrating them and criticizing them with a full understanding of the constraints that they face and the factors upon which they depend. If we don't, we'll continue to have unrealistic expectations about what the next president will do, and will surely be disillusioned, as we miss what exactly it has taken for the great presidents to succeed.