Speaker 1: He drives a convertible corvette, likes wearing idiot or sunglasses.
Speaker 1: He likes going biking. His favorite treat in the world
Speaker 1: is ice cream. I mean, how damning can a man
Speaker 1: be if his favorite treat is ice cream. Welcome to
Speaker 1: One Day University Talks with the world's most engaging and
Speaker 1: inspiring professors discussing their most popular courses. This podcast is
Speaker 1: your chance to discover some of our top rated lectures
Speaker 1: on your own schedule. I'm Stephen Shragas. In the two
Speaker 1: years since his inauguration, President Joe Biden has had a
Speaker 1: lot on his plate. The COVID nineteen pandemic, threats of
Speaker 1: an economic recession, the war in Ukraine, the Afghanistan withdrawal,
Speaker 1: tensions with China, a divided and antagonistic Congress, not to
Speaker 1: mention controversies surrounding classified documents, and investigations targeting his son.
Speaker 1: It's hard in the moment to assess how well he's
Speaker 1: handling it all beyond just looking at his poll members.
Speaker 1: So we called in an expert. Professor Jeffrey Angel has
Speaker 1: given One Day University Talks on several presidents, from FDR
Speaker 1: to George HW. Bush. He's the founding director of the
Speaker 1: Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University and has
Speaker 1: written several books on American foreign policy. President Biden is
Speaker 1: the oldest sitting American president in history, and as Jeffrey explains,
Speaker 1: that means Biden understands how Washington has changed over the
Speaker 1: last half century. President Biden has one of the longest
Speaker 1: pre presidential records of any man who have ever upheld
Speaker 1: the obal office. There's two aspects of that, of course. First,
Speaker 1: he got started very young, and now he's also very old.
Speaker 1: And he was actually elected Senator at the age of
Speaker 1: twenty nine, before he was even eligible to sit in
Speaker 1: the Senate. Now it happens to be that the election
Speaker 1: was at when he's twenty nine, he turned thirty, which
Speaker 1: is a legal requirement age before the day who was
Speaker 1: supposed to be sworn ant. So there's nothing funny going
Speaker 1: on here. But he's just a remarkably young man and
Speaker 1: he spent all those years in the Senate from that
Speaker 1: time up until two thousand and eight, when Barack Obama
Speaker 1: chose him to be his vice president as an old hand,
Speaker 1: as a Washington expert, as a man who really understood
Speaker 1: how Washington worked. Which of course was useful for President Obama,
Speaker 1: who had only been in the Senate for a few
Speaker 1: years of that time, at least politically, to give the
Speaker 1: impression that he had an experienced hand coming with him.
Speaker 1: It really gives you a real good sense of how
Speaker 1: long President Biden had been there. He had been chair
Speaker 1: of the Judicial Committee, he had been on the Foreign
Speaker 1: Affairs Committee in the Senate for years. He was known
Speaker 1: as somebody who was willing to reach across the aisle, frankly,
Speaker 1: in a way that we don't see much in the
Speaker 1: Senate anymore. You could make a really good accusation against
Speaker 1: Senator or Biden in his last years that he was
Speaker 1: part of the problem that Washington had become too chummy,
Speaker 1: that senators, you know, essentially lived too long and worked
Speaker 1: too long together and had lost the fire in their
Speaker 1: bellies to fight out being issues. Frankly, I think today
Speaker 1: we'd like a little bit less fire in our Senate.
Speaker 1: But he was known during his time as being a
Speaker 1: man who was particularly interested in trying to be collegial
Speaker 1: now that oftentimes backfired. He most famously, was, of course,
Speaker 1: chair of the Judicial Committee when Anita Hill and Clarence
Speaker 1: Thomas had their famous controversy over his actions when Clarence
Speaker 1: Thomas was being reviewed for nomination for the Supreme Court,
Speaker 1: and Biden historically did not come off looking good at
Speaker 1: that point, because you know, he chaired a committee which
Speaker 1: was all men that they were asking inappropriate questions of
Speaker 1: a woman. But all of which is to say that
Speaker 1: gives a hauswle a sense that Biden was very interested
Speaker 1: throughout his career and at that moment in particular of
Speaker 1: trying to be even handed. Let me ask you, you're
Speaker 1: sort of an expert on leadership as well. I've heard
Speaker 1: you speak on that a few different times. Can you
Speaker 1: say something about Biden's leadership style, and while you're at it,
Speaker 1: his overall personality. You know, his overall personality is kind
Speaker 1: of uncle Joe or Grandpa Joe. And effectually it has
Speaker 1: always been that way, even when he was a younger man.
Speaker 1: You know, he speaks as an normal American middle class
Speaker 1: or blue collar worker would in a sense, he's never lost,
Speaker 1: as he would say, the Squinton where he grew up.
Speaker 1: He's never lost Delaware a small state feel where everybody
Speaker 1: knows everybody, and he likes to tell anecdotes. Now oftentimes
Speaker 1: those anecdotes go awry. They always have his entire career.
Speaker 1: One of the fascinating things for me watching Biden now,
Speaker 1: of course, when age is a critical element of how
Speaker 1: we understand his presidency, is how many people have focused
Speaker 1: on the fact that he misspeaks as an old man.
Speaker 1: He always misspoke as a young man for two reasons. First,
Speaker 1: because you know, some people make gaffs. I like to
Speaker 1: challenge all of my friends who like to criticize any
Speaker 1: politician for speaking, to have their words transcribed over the
Speaker 1: course of twenty four hours and see how well they
Speaker 1: stand up. But secondly, also an interesting aspect of President
Speaker 1: Biden's personal life, he actually had a severe stutter as
Speaker 1: a very young man and worked extremely hard hours spun hours,
Speaker 1: spun hours of solo labor to overcome that stutter. So
Speaker 1: every now and then when he has a gaff, one
Speaker 1: can still see that he is a person who has
Speaker 1: to think about forming words in a way perhaps a
Speaker 1: someway without a stutter does not, so it shows the
Speaker 1: sign of his perseverance. You know, he also likes to
Speaker 1: be fun. He drives a convertible corvette, likes wearing aviat
Speaker 1: or sunglasses. He likes going biking. His favorite treat in
Speaker 1: the world is ice cream. I mean, you know how
Speaker 1: damning can a man be if his favorite treat is
Speaker 1: ice cream. Let me ask you, Jeff, We're now two
Speaker 1: years into his presidency. How would you sum up the
Speaker 1: Biden presidency in just two or three sentences? Remarkably significant,
Speaker 1: remarkably accomplished, remarkably misunderstood. I think President Biden first and foremost,
Speaker 1: his main goal throughout his campaign was to win. Now,
Speaker 1: that's what most campaigns are about, but he took it
Speaker 1: as a personal challenge, and there's a lot of hubris
Speaker 1: in this as a personal challenge to defeat Donald Trump,
Speaker 1: who he saw as an existential threat to the nation.
Speaker 1: I mean, most people run for president and if their
Speaker 1: opponent wins, they say, well, galli, I guess we're going
Speaker 1: to be out of power for four years. Very rarely
Speaker 1: doesn't man run for president and say if I lose,
Speaker 1: we're going to lose democracy. That was what President Biden
Speaker 1: said on the campaign trail. So just his winning alone,
Speaker 1: in a sense, could give him the sense of accomplishment
Speaker 1: that I saved the nation, or at least postponed the
Speaker 1: death of democracy for four years. That's his view of things,
Speaker 1: to be sure, But I think we also need to
Speaker 1: remember that President Biden has accomplished a remarkable out I
Speaker 1: would put his legislative accomplishments up against almost anyone's since
Speaker 1: Franklin Roosevelt or Lyndon Johnson for the first two years
Speaker 1: of his presidency. We're not going to see anything like
Speaker 1: that for the second two years, of course, because now
Speaker 1: the House of Representatives is controlled by the opposing party.
Speaker 1: But if you think about the accomplishments in terms of
Speaker 1: the Build Back Better Plan, infrastructure, reworking healthcare, yet again,
Speaker 1: they are remarkable. But one critical thing is that Minden's misunderstood,
Speaker 1: and I think he's misunderstood for two particular reasons. First,
Speaker 1: because we have a particularly bifurcated and siloed media environment
Speaker 1: at this point in American history, where people essentially only
Speaker 1: listen to the news that they signed up to here,
Speaker 1: and so people only know the information that they get.
Speaker 1: And this story that the administration told, and this is
Speaker 1: the most important point, the story that the administration told
Speaker 1: threats first two years was actually one of inability to
Speaker 1: accomplish things. Because they were trying to accomplish things that
Speaker 1: were really big legislatively, and that we're in constant negotiation
Speaker 1: and getting watered down, so that you know, President Biden
Speaker 1: wanted an infrastructure bill that was several trillion dollars larger
Speaker 1: than what he actually got. So the narrative for the
Speaker 1: American people was that for months and months and months,
Speaker 1: you've been trying to pass something and now you've got
Speaker 1: something really small. Well, the truth is it's one of
Speaker 1: the biggest bills in history. So it's really an interesting
Speaker 1: way in which, you know, if we had just put
Speaker 1: Americans into a time capsule and not had to have
Speaker 1: them watch and listen to the sausage making in the
Speaker 1: Senate with Senator Mansion and Senator Cinema and others blocking
Speaker 1: legislation despite being Democrats, if we had managed to put
Speaker 1: people on a time capsule on the day he was
Speaker 1: inaugurated and then fast forward to today and then show
Speaker 1: them the record, they would say, my god, that man
Speaker 1: must have an approval rating of seventy five percent. But
Speaker 1: the truth is half Americans are never going to like
Speaker 1: him anyway at this point, and the other half has
Speaker 1: been saying, boy, you didn't get as much as you
Speaker 1: thought you wanted. Then let me ask this, put aside
Speaker 1: his accomplishments, what do you think have been his biggest missteps?
Speaker 1: There's no doubt that his biggest misstep was Afghanistan and
Speaker 1: the withdrawal from Afghastan. And I want to put a
Speaker 1: big asterisk and caveat around that, especially as you mentioned
Speaker 1: before as somebody who studies and teaches leadership, one of
Speaker 1: the things that is critical for people to understand about
Speaker 1: leadership is leaders don't do things. Leaders tell other people
Speaker 1: to do things. They said direction was the president's most
Speaker 1: powerful weapon. It's actually his telephone, being able to tell
Speaker 1: other people what to do and convince other people what
Speaker 1: to do. And the mission in the withdrawal from Afghanistan,
Speaker 1: which of course began as an American odyssey in two
Speaker 1: thousand and one, the longest running more in American history,
Speaker 1: which President Biden had wanted to draw down and advised
Speaker 1: the drawing down of more than the Obama administration did
Speaker 1: when he was vice president. That final withdrawal went badly.
Speaker 1: It was chaos. There were American lives that were lost,
Speaker 1: There are many Afghan lives that were lost. It did
Speaker 1: not look good on television. Now again, President Biden wasn't
Speaker 1: in Afghanistan checking people into the airport and checking their bags.
Speaker 1: But as the commander in chief, he is responsible for
Speaker 1: everything that happened, and that is I think an important
Speaker 1: thing to note about Biden as opposed to other leaders
Speaker 1: that we've had recently in the White House that when
Speaker 1: something went wrong on his watch, and Afghanistan went very wrong,
Speaker 1: Biden said, I am the commander in chief. I gave
Speaker 1: the orders. It's my responsibility. Blame me, even though he
Speaker 1: actually was in some ways let down by the people
Speaker 1: who had to initiate and engage his plans half a
Speaker 1: world away. Now, let get how want to be careful here.
Speaker 1: I'm not criticizing the military for the difficulties of its
Speaker 1: draw in Afghanistan because I couldn't do it. It's a
Speaker 1: tough job. They did a remarkable job, but it was
Speaker 1: not as smooth as they or the President wanted. Biden
Speaker 1: delivered his State of the Union address not too long ago,
Speaker 1: and it was very contentious. Republicans were yelling at him
Speaker 1: from the seats, and he interrupted his own speech to respond,
Speaker 1: I means Connress doesn't vote well. I'm glad to see you,
Speaker 1: not I tell you I enjoy conversion. Biden campaigned on
Speaker 1: being able to work across the aisle with Republicans. Has
Speaker 1: that happened? What's going on? It's funny and sad at
Speaker 1: the same time. My daughter is fourteen years old and
Speaker 1: she writes for her student newspaper. She's a much better
Speaker 1: writer than I am, by the way, and she has
Speaker 1: is writing an article on the incivility of congress in
Speaker 1: particularly at the State of the Union, and she came
Speaker 1: to me and said, I've just discovered that there was
Speaker 1: a case of a congressman from South Carolina who yelled
Speaker 1: Julie at President Obama back in his earlier days, and
Speaker 1: that congressman was sanctioned for the inappropriate nature of what
Speaker 1: he did. Flash forward, of course to President Biden's most
Speaker 1: recent State of the Union address and a congress person
Speaker 1: standing up been yelling Ulie. Happened every minute and a half.
Speaker 1: So we've certainly seen a degradation of civility. I think
Speaker 1: one of the things that Biden did that was very
Speaker 1: important in his Stay of the Union, especially going off script,
Speaker 1: was to make the point that he's trying for some
Speaker 1: former bipartisanship stand up and show them will not cut
Speaker 1: our security. We will not cut Medicare benefits blong in
Speaker 1: the American people. They earned it. If anyone tries to
Speaker 1: cut over security, which apparently no one's gonna do. If
Speaker 1: anyone tries, it's trut Medicare, I'll stop them. I'll betoing.
Speaker 1: This is spontaneous quip. And I think that that's important
Speaker 1: because he even then signaled that he's trying to find
Speaker 1: things that people can agree upon, and this is not
Speaker 1: easy in the political environment in which he lives. After
Speaker 1: the break, why would anyone want to be vice president?
Speaker 1: And how big of an ego does it take to
Speaker 1: be commander in chief? What about is Vice President Kamala Harris?
Speaker 1: Obviously she made history, is the first woman to serve
Speaker 1: as vice president and the first woman of color in
Speaker 1: that role. How would you analyze her time so far
Speaker 1: as VP? Has she made an impact? The first thing
Speaker 1: we need to know about analyzing any vice president is
Speaker 1: that it is quite literally the worst job in America
Speaker 1: or the best job in America. It's not just similar
Speaker 1: to being the backup quarterback on a football team and
Speaker 1: you get paid a lot of money and hopefully nobody
Speaker 1: ever thinks you should play. So Kamala Harris has not
Speaker 1: done much, frankly, to demonstrate leadership in a White House
Speaker 1: that has a strong leader in President Biden. And this
Speaker 1: is particularly interesting because President Biden, of course was vice
Speaker 1: president understood the role for eight years to Obama. But
Speaker 1: I want you to set up the just think about
Speaker 1: the dynamics, if you will, between Biden and Obama and
Speaker 1: Biden and Harris, and I think he reveals a lot
Speaker 1: of Harris's problems. But Biden was brought in as the
Speaker 1: senior hand for Obama, as the experience mentor that he
Speaker 1: could that Obama could turn to for guidance, for wisdom, etc.
Speaker 1: That is not the traditional vice president's role. That was
Speaker 1: the vice president's role for Dick Cheney, that was the
Speaker 1: vice president's role for Biden. But more likely role is
Speaker 1: usually it's a younger person who has brought in to
Speaker 1: kind of invigorate the ticket. That was the case with
Speaker 1: Dan Quail, that was the case certainly with Kamala Harris.
Speaker 1: And I think in all those cases, the vice president
Speaker 1: who is the younger person is frankly seen to be
Speaker 1: appropriately subservient to the president. And that's not a great
Speaker 1: way to increase your political stature. Remember, and this can't
Speaker 1: be overseered enough. President Biden, when he accepted the vice
Speaker 1: presidency nomination in two thousand and eight, gave up any
Speaker 1: dreams of being president. He believed he was going to say,
Speaker 1: spend four hopefully eight years helping an administration, and then
Speaker 1: he was going to retire. And in twenty sixteen seventeen
Speaker 1: he left office and did retire. It's only the existential
Speaker 1: threat that he saw to the nation that was Donald Trump,
Speaker 1: that made him get back into the race to run
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty. Kamala Harris obviously has political aspirations, and
Speaker 1: that puts her in an extraordinarily difficult position. So I
Speaker 1: think she would be disappointed if we had put her
Speaker 1: in a similar time capsule and had her pop up
Speaker 1: and look at her popularity ratings two years after inauguration,
Speaker 1: she'd be disappointed with where they were. But I don't
Speaker 1: think she should be surprised. Let me push back on
Speaker 1: that a little bit, though, Jeff. I've heard people say
Speaker 1: Joe Biden wanted to be president from the time he
Speaker 1: was three years old and spent a lifetime trying to
Speaker 1: get there, and then it looked like he lost out.
Speaker 1: But a set of circumstances arose and he could run.
Speaker 1: In twenty twenty, there were other people who could have
Speaker 1: been elected president and made Donald Trump an ex president.
Speaker 1: He didn't have to run, He wasn't the only person,
Speaker 1: but he did. Is it possible his political aspirations are
Speaker 1: just so strong he couldn't let go of them. You know,
Speaker 1: two things can be true at the same time. Let's
Speaker 1: remember we're talking about a person becoming president. I have
Speaker 1: argued elsewhere, I suspect argued to the end of my
Speaker 1: days that all presidents are sociobaths, or at the very
Speaker 1: least psychologically unusual in the sense that imagine the ego
Speaker 1: it takes to be a leader of a country of
Speaker 1: three hundred and fifty odd million people, and you got
Speaker 1: to look in the mirror every morning and say, there
Speaker 1: is no one else among those three hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: million who can do the job I can. That's an
Speaker 1: unusual edo who lost stress in the word unusual. And
Speaker 1: by the way, I should mention that person also by
Speaker 1: running for office, gains the power to destroy all of humanity. Well, again,
Speaker 1: not the average thing a person wants. So we should
Speaker 1: not be surprised that when President Biden perceived the nation
Speaker 1: in danger. He said, I'm the only one that can
Speaker 1: save it. At that point, of course, he was former
Speaker 1: Vice President Biden. When he saw a problem. We should
Speaker 1: not be surprised that man of that ego and that
Speaker 1: aspiration would say I am the one to solve the problem.
Speaker 1: At the same time, I fully believe and I am
Speaker 1: quite confident in the fact that had it not been
Speaker 1: for the Trump presidency, Biden would not have run in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty. He realized Hillary Clan had the backing of
Speaker 1: more Democrats, including President Obama. But he could have pushed
Speaker 1: back and said I'm sorry, I'm running anyway. He didn't.
Speaker 1: So that tells me if there had to be something
Speaker 1: else that occurred for him to want to jump into
Speaker 1: the race. Well, I don't know if he's a sociopath,
Speaker 1: but if he is, he's the oldest sitting presidential sociopath
Speaker 1: in American history. Has that age issue hurt presidency? Oh?
Speaker 1: And definitely. How do you think Americans view him? I
Speaker 1: think as an old man because here's the thing, he's
Speaker 1: an old man. He is going to be the oldest
Speaker 1: president in history. And then when he's going to run
Speaker 1: as the oldest candidate for reelection in American history, and
Speaker 1: agism maybe the last acceptable form of stereotyping and large
Speaker 1: scale criticism that Americans are allowed. But they do seem
Speaker 1: to take advantage of that when talking about President Biden.
Speaker 1: I think there is no question in my mind that
Speaker 1: if President Biden were fifty three and had accomplished the
Speaker 1: same there would be no talk anywhere within the Democratic
Speaker 1: Party of challenging him or perhaps that he should step down.
Speaker 1: Why would He's got an incredible record. Now then, I
Speaker 1: know this is speculative, but let's say he does run
Speaker 1: and he does win. Let's say he is reelected. What
Speaker 1: would a second term for Joe Biden looked like? Disappointing
Speaker 1: only in the sense that almost every president second term
Speaker 1: is disappointing. You know, even Ronald Reagan, who had great
Speaker 1: accomplished in trying to tamp down the tensions of the
Speaker 1: Cold War and some argue move US towards a initial
Speaker 1: steps towards a post Cold War world, was sucked down
Speaker 1: and almost impeached because of Iran Contra. There's a reason
Speaker 1: that presidents in their second term modern presidence particular increasingly
Speaker 1: focus on foreign affairs. It's because they have come to
Speaker 1: the realization that domestic politics are really hard and they've
Speaker 1: likely burned almost all their political capital even by the
Speaker 1: time they're reelected, especially since most are never going to
Speaker 1: run again. So consequently, whatever President Biden wants for his
Speaker 1: second term is going to be harder to achieve, more
Speaker 1: likely than it was in his first term. So I
Speaker 1: would tamp down expectations, which is not to say that
Speaker 1: one should not vote or vote for Biden because he
Speaker 1: is going to be less than he promises. Every president
Speaker 1: is less than they promise, but he is not going to,
Speaker 1: i would imagine, achieve more than he aspires to. Will
Speaker 1: there ever be a presidential leader again on the scale
Speaker 1: of Washington or Lincoln or Fdr. I'm talking about someone
Speaker 1: who belongs on Mount Rushmore. You and I should pray
Speaker 1: every night that it does not. And I'll tell you why,
Speaker 1: because whenever presidential historians or people on bar stools start
Speaker 1: arguing about who is who were the greatest presidents, those
Speaker 1: three that you mentioned are always at the top. And
Speaker 1: you can have a fair argument over who's one, who's two,
Speaker 1: who's three, but nobody ever disputes that those are the three. Well,
Speaker 1: what do those three have in common. The thing those
Speaker 1: three have in common is that those are the only
Speaker 1: three times their presidencies in American history, the only three
Speaker 1: I would argue where the existential crisis face to nation,
Speaker 1: as to say, where the very existence of the United States,
Speaker 1: whether it was going to continue as a country, was
Speaker 1: in doubt. Obviously at the beginning, George Washington had that
Speaker 1: both during revolution and then of course during his presidency.
Speaker 1: Can we get this new thing up in Roland? During
Speaker 1: the Civil War certainly a moment of existential crisis. If
Speaker 1: Lincoln loses the Civil War, well then we don't have
Speaker 1: the United States, certainly as we know it. And then
Speaker 1: FDR faced the third greatest crisis in American history, not
Speaker 1: where we're two, by the way, which was the Great Depression.
Speaker 1: The Great Depression was so bad when he assumed office
Speaker 1: that he was not uncommon for people to question the
Speaker 1: very validity of the concept of democracy. And I could
Speaker 1: speak for hours and hours and hours on that which
Speaker 1: you don't want me to do, all of which is
Speaker 1: to say, to be a truly great president requires a
Speaker 1: great crisis. And I would rather have mediocre presidents and
Speaker 1: small crises going forward. The rest of my life. All right,
Speaker 1: I have one more question for you, Jeff. Another professor
Speaker 1: is a friend of yours, Jeremy Surrey. He's asserted a
Speaker 1: few times that the presidency has grown into a job
Speaker 1: that is just too big for any one person. Do
Speaker 1: you agree with that? I don't, actually, but I agree
Speaker 1: with everything that Jeremy says up until his solution, which
Speaker 1: is to say, yeah, the presidence, he's grown too big.
Speaker 1: You know what, the country's grown too big. You know what,
Speaker 1: My life has grown too big. Your life is grown
Speaker 1: to big. Every generation you can find people saying, boy,
Speaker 1: the world is moving faster than I remember, and you
Speaker 1: know what, this time it's actually going that way, and
Speaker 1: it's going to get worse in the future. I can't
Speaker 1: keep it with my inbox. Neither can most people I know,
Speaker 1: so the President Nited States certainly can't. But that doesn't
Speaker 1: mean the solution is to diminish the presidency. That doesn't
Speaker 1: mean that the solution is to have co presidence or
Speaker 1: a triumvirate. I will tell you one of the problems
Speaker 1: that has developed over the course of the twentieth century,
Speaker 1: which we are living with today is the balance and
Speaker 1: struggle of power that was established by the Constitution's authors.
Speaker 1: It's not a balance of power. Member, It's always supposed
Speaker 1: to be a struggle of power. That each branch of
Speaker 1: the government is coequal and should be trying to get
Speaker 1: more power, and by doing so is supposed to check
Speaker 1: each other. That's out of whack, and that has been
Speaker 1: out of whack for most of the twentieth century. The
Speaker 1: presidency has become by far the dominant figure in American government.
Speaker 1: One solution to the problem that Jeremy rightly identifies, or
Speaker 1: the presidency being too big, would be for Congress to
Speaker 1: take back more of its role as a leader in
Speaker 1: the country. Now there's problems with that. You know, there's
Speaker 1: a recent Supreme Court case that we've got haven't seen
Speaker 1: fully how it's going to play out. That happened in
Speaker 1: the last term where the Supreme Court agreed that there
Speaker 1: has been too many watering this down dramatically, but too
Speaker 1: many times Congress has basically passed the law to say, hey,
Speaker 1: executive branch, fix this problem. And then the executive branch
Speaker 1: obviously has a lot of authority to fix the problem.
Speaker 1: And then when the executive branch changes parties the problem
Speaker 1: solutions get completely different. And Congress used to write more
Speaker 1: specific language about what it actually wanted, not just solved
Speaker 1: the problem, but here's how to do it. Well, got
Speaker 1: to be careful what you wish for, because we're going
Speaker 1: to get now a case where the executive branch has
Speaker 1: been diminished by the Supreme Court and Congress is in
Speaker 1: theory supposed to write more accurate legislation. Again, that's not
Speaker 1: something I'm betting my kid's future on. So the presidency
Speaker 1: has grown too large. Granted I agree with jeremy solutions.
Speaker 1: Congress could act more mature. Am I waiting for that? No? Well,
Speaker 1: I think it's appropriate to end with a problem with
Speaker 1: no solution. So thank you, Jeff. I really appreciate it,
Speaker 1: and it's really great to talk to you again. I
Speaker 1: so enjoy seeing you and talk to you. Stephen. Thank
Speaker 1: you very much for asking me. Thanks for joining us
Speaker 1: here at One Day University. Sign up at our website
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Speaker 1: there you can watch SMU Professor Jeff Angles lectures on
Speaker 1: other presidents, as well as his talks on the Cold War,
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Speaker 1: final season, the greatest baseball player of all time had
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