The President is at the center of almost every major policy enacted by the government. But how each president chooses to exercise that power and utilize their office is very different. This course provides an opportunity to view the president through the prism of contemporary affairs by focusing on what the nation’s various chief executives have encountered in the modern era. It will begin with the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt by discussing the creation of the institutionalized presidency that would expand into a full bureaucracy and policymaking and advising apparatus. It then proceeds to focus on key policy decisions made by Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, Bush II and Barack Obama. Both a Political Science and Public Policy course, it stresses the central policy role played by the president in most areas of government and how each administration has faced its own set of challenges. This course will combine lectures with student presentations and discussion.