Showing 1451 - 1460 of 4695 Items
Date: 2010-04-27
Creator: James 'Jim' R Sasser
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
James R. “Jim” Sasser was born in Memphis, Tennessee, on September 30, 1936. A graduate of Vanderbilt University, he was awarded a law degree in 1961, admitted to the Tennessee bar, and became active in the Democratic Party; he managed Albert Gore Sr.’s unsuccessful 1970 campaign. In 1976 he sought election and won a seat in the U.S. Senate; he was reelected to two further terms, serving until 1995. He first met George Mitchell in 1972 when they were both working on Ed Muskie’s presidential primary campaign. He worked with Senator Mitchell on the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) and the Senate Budget Committee, which Sasser chaired. In 1995, President Clinton appointed him ambassador to China, where he served until 1999.
Summary
The interview includes discussion of: Budget Committee work; 1990 budget summit; DSCC 1986 (Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee); Democratic National Committee; and the 1972 Muskie presidential primary campaign.
Date: 2009-09-29
Creator: Paul Sarbanes
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Paul Sarbanes was born on February 3, 1933 in Salisbury, Maryland. He attended Princeton University and continued his studies at Balliol College of the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, then attended Harvard Law School. He served as a Democrat from Maryland in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1971 to 1977 and in the U.S. Senate from 1977 to 2007. He was the first Greek American senator and notably co-sponsored the Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002, which strengthened corporate governance and created a federal oversight board for the accounting industry.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: George Mitchell’s personality; winning back the Senate majority in 1986; the Senate Majority Leader race of 1989; George Mitchell’s departure from the Senate; partisanship; and an anecdote about George Mitchell and Senator John Warner during an “old-style” filibuster.
Date: 2014-10-16
Creator: Sarah DeWitt
Access: Open access
Date: 2014-08-28
Creator: Tyneshia Wright
Access: Open access
Date: 2014-09-09
Creator: Anonymous
Access: Open access
Date: 2015-01-20
Creator: Anonymous
Access: Open access
Date: 2014-12-15
Creator: John Hawkes
Access: Open access
Date: 2021-01-01
Creator: Ryan Telingator
Access: Open access
- Many Americans believe that the president is an omnipotent figure who can achieve any political or policy objective if they try hard enough. On the contrary, the presidency was intentionally crafted by the Framers of the Constitution to have limited legislative powers to mitigate the risk of despotism. Thus, this paper seeks to answer the question, when is change possible?, to try to bridge the gap between popular belief and Constitutional powers. Three questions guide this research: 1) What conditions are conducive for change? 2) What Constitutional tools help a president facilitate change? And 3) What skills can a president bring to office to help create change? This thesis seeks to answer these questions by reviewing the existing literature on political context, tools, and legislative skills. Case study analyses of the Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan presidencies are then presented to assess their legislative successes and failures, and the factors behind them. Finally, the thesis concludes by evaluating President Joseph Biden’s first 100 days in office and uses the theory and findings from the cases to predict Biden’s ability to affect change. This research reveals that the political context is the most important factor in determining the possibility of change – successful change relies on open policy windows, resilient ideological commitments, and a mandate to stimulate congressional action. Within the constraints of the case studies, Constitutional tools were not important. Legislative skills helped to pass legislation, however, they were not potent enough to overcome a bad political context.
Date: 2018-06-02
Creator: Whitney Sanford
Access: Open access
- In this oral history, Whitney Sanford (Class of 1983) describes her decision to enroll at Bowdoin and her experience with the different aspects of the College’s social scene. She discusses the impact of the liberal arts on her eventual career as a professor at University of Florida and mentions her involvement in Bowdoin’s first women’s rugby team. Sanford also recounts her affiliation with the Theta Delta Chi fraternity, as well as her activity on the women’s field hockey team. She also discusses the impact of the opening of a campus pub on the College’s social structure.
Date: 2018-06-02
Creator: Mariya Ilyas
Access: Open access
- In this oral history, Mariya Ilyas (Class of 2013) discusses transitioning to Bowdoin and the effect her identity as a Pakistani Muslim woman had on her transition. She talks about her on-campus job, favorite professors, and most memorable classes. Ilyas also describes how her pre-orientation trip sparked a lasting interest in public service that manifested itself in a White House internship, Fulbright Scholarship, and career in diplomacy. She also speaks of her role in beginning the Muslim Student Association, and the support that the College provided. In addition, she recounts how her racial and cultural identities sometimes created instances of discomfort on campus.