Government 1540, "The American Presidency"

Roger Porter is obsessed with lists.

The professor of the ultra-popular Government 1540, “The American Presidency,” structures his one-and-a-half hour lectures around them. The three sources of a president’s bargaining power. The five levels of political appointees. The three approaches to presidential decision making.

If you take this class, you’ll feel sort of like a president. You can skip the 150+ pages of reading assigned each week and read Porter’s lecture handouts, which bulletpoint his lists. That makes this class easy. One teaching fellow says about 90 percent of students receive As or Bs (an essay question on the 2002 final: Outline three approaches to the study of the presidency).

The problem, though, is that “The American Presidency” is almost totally bereft of substantial content. Porter says his class is not about presidents, but rather about the structure of the presidency (Don’t expect to learn anything at all about the lives or accomplishments of any of the presidents). That’s okay. But since he handles everything in such an outline-ish manner, you retain very little and all the lectures blend together.

Each of them starts with one of his trademark stories about his adventures in D.C. (Porter served on the White House staffs of Ford, Reagan and Bush I). The tales are warm, fuzzy and often nauseating. He can talk for half an hour about how George Bush once let him borrow a polo shirt.

The way the lottery for this class is handled could also make you want to throw up. Porter and Head TF Carlos Diaz both hail from Dunster House (Porter is the housemaster and Diaz is the acting senior tutor). Students they know are almost guaranteed to get a spot.

No worries, though. If you don’t make the list, you’ll have won the lottery.