ABSTRACT
In January 1993, Bill Clinton—who had been a successful governor of Arkansas but was an outsider to Washington politics and little known before the presidential campaign—began his administration with an ambitious set of campaign pledges and an economy creeping toward recovery. The Clinton presidency proved to be one of the most fascinating roller-coaster rides in history. The persistence or recurrence of crises in presidential leadership can be attributed to a variety of factors, but it is clear that institutionally the presidency is a troubled and troubling office. When the modern presidency rose out of the ashes of the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt embodied a president of power, leadership, and ideas. Power became more centralized, expectations focused on the presidency, the road to power ran directly to the White House. The dilemma, sometimes referred to as "Madison's Curse," refers to the difficulty presidents have governing and leading in a separation of powers system.
