This book evaluates the nature of modern presidential representation. Presidents since George Washington have often expressed the view that they represent the community at large. Consider, for example, the following remarks by Washington in a letter to the Selectmen of Boston on July 28, 1795: “In every act of my administration, I have sought the happiness of my fellow citizens. My system for the attainment of this object has uniformly been to overlook all personal, local, and partial considerations; to contemplate the United States as one great whole…” (Fitzpatrick 1931). In this letter Washington rejected a role for personal values, local interests, and partisanship in determining presidential behavior and actions. Rather, he believed that presidents should reject these tendencies to reflect the nation as “one great whole.”

Modern presidents have commonly expressed similar beliefs about the nature of presidential representation, especially during election seasons and early in their administrations. However, consider the following excerpt from an oral history interview with George W. Bush on November 12, 2008: “I would like to be…remembered as a person who, first and foremost, did not sell his soul in order to accommodate the political process. I came to Washington with a set of values, and I'm leaving with the same set of values. And I darn sure wasn't going to sacrifice those values…” (Koch 2008). In this statement Bush tacitly admitted that his personal values and partisanship drove many of his decisions as president.