Taft
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William Howard Taft
The only man to serve as president and chief justice, who approached every decision in constitutional terms, defending the Founders’ vision against new populist threats to American democracy William Howard Taft never wanted to be president and yearned instead to serve as chief justice of the United States. But despite his ambivalence about politics, the former federal judge found success in the executive branch as governor of the Philippines and secretary of war, and he won a resounding victory in the presidential election of 1908 as Theodore Roosevelt’s handpicked successor. In this provocative assessment, Jeffrey Rosen reveals Taft’s crucial role in shaping how America balances populism against the rule of law. Taft approached each decision as president by asking whether it comported with the Constitution, seeking to put Roosevelt’s activist executive orders on firm legal grounds. But unlike Roosevelt, who thought the president could do anything the Constitution didn’t forbid, Taft insisted he could do only what the Constitution explicitly allowed. This led to a dramatic breach with Roosevelt in the historic election of 1912, which Taft viewed as a crusade to defend the Constitution against the demagogic populism of Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. Nine years later, Taft achieved his lifelong dream when President Warren Harding appointed him chief justice, and during his years on the Court he promoted consensus among the justices and transformed the judiciary into a modern, fully equal branch. Though he had chafed in the White House as a judicial president, he thrived as a presidential chief justice.
Taft 2012
HE'S BACK. AND HE'S THE BIGGEST THING IN POLITICS. He is the perfect presidential candidate. Conservatives love his hard-hitting Republican résumé. Liberals love his peaceful, progressive practicality. The media can’t get enough of his larger-than-life personality. And all the American people love that he’s an honest, hard-working man who tells it like it is. There’s just one problem. He is William Howard Taft . . . and he was already president a hundred years ago. So what on earth is he doing alive and well and considering a running mate in 2012? A most extraordinary satire, Jason Heller’s debut novel follows the strange new life of a presidential Rip Van Winkle: a man who never even wanted the White House in the first place, yet finds himself hurtling toward it once more—this time, through the media-fueled madness of 21st-century America.
William Howard Taft
Author: Donald F. Anderson
language: en
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Release Date: 2019-06-30
How a dedicated conservative perceived and used the powers of the presidency is here treated with authority, objectivity, and a dash of wit. The personal papers of William Howard Taft cast important new light on his aims and performance as chief executive. Making full use of the papers, Professor Anderson corrects previous studies of Taft that are either uncritical or unduly harsh, and offers instead a balanced and fair assessment. Taking a topical rather than a chronological approach to the Taft years, the author analyzes his accomplishments as party leader, administrator, legislator, leader of public opinion, and diplomat. The history of Taft's presidency, he concludes, illustrates many of the inherent strengths and weaknesses of a system of government that is reliant upon the will of the people for action and ultimate success. Comparing Taft with his eloquent and dynamic predecessor, Theodore Roosevelt, Anderson contrasts both their views of presidential power and their political styles. Finally, he places Taft in a larger historical context—as an apostle of constitutional democracy who valued the rule of law more than majority rule.