Politics of the Presidency - Tapa blanda

- the 2010 midterm election and preparation for the 2012 election;

- Obama's relations with the Republican House;

- the appointments of Sotomayor and Kagan to the Supreme Court;

- Obama's use of new media;

- such major policies as the stimulus bill, financial regulation and the debt ceiling, health care reform, and the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," among others;

- U.S. withdrawal from Iraq and the build-up in Afghanistan, the killing of Osama bin Laden, the ban on enhanced interrogation techniques, the START treaty, and reactions to the Arab Spring.

Joseph A. Pika is the James R. Soles professor emeritus of political science and international relations at the University of Delaware. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin and taught previously at SUNY at Buffalo. He is coauthor with Jason D. Mycoff of Conflict & Compromise: Presidential and Congressional Leadership, 2001–2006 and coauthor with John Anthony Maltese and H. Phillips Shively of Government Matters: American Democracy in Context. He served for seven years on the Delaware State Board of Education, four years as president.

John Anthony Maltese is the Albert B. Saye professor and associate dean of the  University of Georgia’s School of Public and International Affairs. He holds a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of The Selling of Supreme Court Nominees and Spin Control: The White House Office of Communications and the Management of Presidential News, and coauthor with Joseph A. Pika and H. Phillips Shively of Government Matters: American Democracy in Context. He is a Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor and was named the Georgia Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). Professor Maltese also writes extensively about classical music, for which he won a Grammy Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.