What makes a president a good (or bad) leader?

As Americans celebrates the country's founding, we examine the presidency. How is a president’s leadership measured over time, and how do cultural moments change our historical perception? We offer insight from C-SPAN's Presidential Historians Survey.

Thursday, July 1, 2021
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It’s almost the Fourth of Julyweekend in the United States, which inspires reflection about the nation’s founding and the evolution of its highest office — the American presidency.

The team behind the“Can He Do That?” podcast, often finds itself asking questions like: How will a president’s performance be viewed in the eyes of history? And how do social and cultural moments affect the lens through which we assess our former chief executives?

It turns out, that the team at C-SPAN also ponders questions like this. And they’ve asked 142 historians and presidential experts to help answer those questions.

On Wednesday, C-SPAN released its fourth Historians Survey of Presidential Leadership. The survey asks experts to rank the country’s 44 former presidents on 10 leadership qualities, including things like public persuasion skills, crisis leadership and moral authority.

This is the first year that the rankings include former president Donald Trump. And the findings — about him and other presidents — are at times unexpected. On this holiday episode of the podcast, we dive into those survey results.
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What makes a president a good (or bad) leader?

As Americans celebrates the country's founding, we examine the presidency. How is a president’s leadership measured over time, and how do cultural moments change our historical perception? We offer insight from C-SPAN's Presidential Historians Survey.

Thursday, July 1, 2021
Loading...
It’s almost the Fourth of Julyweekend in the United States, which inspires reflection about the nation’s founding and the evolution of its highest office — the American presidency.

The team behind the“Can He Do That?” podcast, often finds itself asking questions like: How will a president’s performance be viewed in the eyes of history? And how do social and cultural moments affect the lens through which we assess our former chief executives?

It turns out, that the team at C-SPAN also ponders questions like this. And they’ve asked 142 historians and presidential experts to help answer those questions.

On Wednesday, C-SPAN released its fourth Historians Survey of Presidential Leadership. The survey asks experts to rank the country’s 44 former presidents on 10 leadership qualities, including things like public persuasion skills, crisis leadership and moral authority.

This is the first year that the rankings include former president Donald Trump. And the findings — about him and other presidents — are at times unexpected. On this holiday episode of the podcast, we dive into those survey results.
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The Biden administration is supporting a bill that would end the sentencing disparity in crack and powder cocaine offenses. But that disparity exists largely because of bills President Biden spearheaded in 80s and 90s. How much has Biden evolved?

Thursday, June 24, 2021
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On this episode, Post Reports host Martine Powers talks to two Post reporters who reported on chaos in the early days of the pandemic including details about how sick President Trump was and his proposal to send infected Americans to Guantánamo.

Thursday, July 8, 2021
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