Here's an Ezra Klein post which touches on a perennial subject regarding presidential power, we tend to assume they have more - and can do more - than they actually can:
Here’s the problem with being president: Everyone thinks that if you want to get anything done, you need to lead the public. As the presidential scholar Richard Neustadt famously wrote, “presidential power is the power to persuade.” And persuasion, as Washington understands it, means taking strong positions, giving speeches, getting out on the campaign trail and forcefully making your case.
But you know that every time you do that, you make it impossible for members of the other party to support you. Maybe you’ve seen this graph, and maybe you haven’t. But you know full well that presidents polarize. That you polarize. If you take a strong position, the other side will immediately take the opposite position. And in the American political system, you need the other side.
This is what I’ve come to think of as the Paradox of Presidential Leadership . . .
I strongly recommend that 2302 students read this post thoroughly. This is an important point regarding presidential leadership and power.
