Why Presidents Fail and How They Can Succeed Again

From the botched attempt to rescue the U.S. diplomats held hostage by Iran in 1980 under President Jimmy Carter and the missed intelligence on Al Qaeda before 9/11 under George W. Bush to, most recently, the computer meltdown that marked the arrival of health care reform under Barack Obama, the American presidency has often been a profile in failure. In [this book], Elaine Kamarck surveys presidential failures to understand why Americans have lost faith in their leaders--and how they can get it back. Kamarck, a White House insider and Harvard academic, argues that presidents today spend too much time talking and not enough time governing. They have not balanced three components of leadership that must be exercised to bring about good results: policy, communication, and implementation. Instead, presidents have allowed themselves to become more and more distant from the federal bureaucracy that is supposed to implement policy. After decades of "imperial" and "rhetorical" presidencies, we are in need of a "managerial" president. Kamarck explains the difficulties of governing in our modern political landscape, and offers examples and recommendations of how our next presidents can not only recreate faith in leadership but also run a competent, successful administration. -- Inside jacket flap.