Thesis--Purdue University. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 185-190).

Thesis (M.A.)--San Jose State University, 1989. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--Miami University, Dept. of History, 2003. / Title from first page of PDF document. Document formatted into pages; contains vi, 55 p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 51-55).

When the Judiciary Committee initiated its impeachment inquiry of Richard Nixon for his complicity in Watergate, it was the first time that the House of Representatives had commenced such a proceeding against a president since Andrew Johnson in 1868. Johnson’s impeachment and subsequent Senate acquittal was widely regarded as an example of Congress run amok, its partisanship so blatant and its failure so grand that many Americans assumed that presidential impeachment had become obsolete. But impeachment, by its nature, is political, and each Congress defines the bounds of high crimes and misdemeanors in light of the current political climate. For the House in October 1973, Nixon’s Watergate scandal threatened to breach those limits. From the outset, Judiciary Chairman Peter Rodino recognized that if his Committee were to recommend impeaching President Nixon without bipartisan support, the American public would interpret it as another Johnson-like fiasco, and a threat to the constitutional system of government. To thwart suspicion that the Democratic majority would impeach Nixon exclusively for its own political gain, Rodino preached fairness to the President, even as Nixon refused to comply with the Committee’s investigation. Despite Rodino’s assurances, however, his procedural proposals—designed in consultation with the Committee’s Special Counsel, John Doar—did not always seem fair enough to many Republicans. At the same time, many Democrats believed that Rodino and Doar had already accorded Nixon too many rights, which encroached upon the House’s constitutionally guaranteed “sole power of impeachment.” Ultimately, Rodino conceded that he could not marshal a bipartisan majority without making compromises with members who expected more fairness than he and Doar had initially offered. Despite pressure from their congressional leadership, constituents, and the White House, seven southern Democrats and moderate Republicans formed a “Fragile Coalition” to vote their conscience in favor of three articles of impeachment. In doing so, they convinced a fearful and cynical American public that impeachment could be just, and in the case of Richard Nixon, necessary. / text

Thesis (M.A.), History--University of Central Oklahoma, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 142-152).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Bowling Green State University, 2008. / Document formatted into pages; contains v, 277 p. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (D.A.)--Illinois State University, 1982. / Title from title page screen, viewed April 7, 2005. Dissertation Committee: Joseph Grabill (chair), Mark Plummer, Charles Gray, Earl Reitan, Hibbert R. Roberts. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 115-121) and abstract. Also available in print.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wisconsin, 1974. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [170]-175).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1974. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis – Shooting the President: Screen Depictions of the American Presidency from John F. Kennedy to Josiah Bartlet – examines the depiction of the presidency in American film and television from 1960 until the present day. In this study I explore the relationships between the presidency and Hollywood, particularly in the context of genre structures. I examine the constructions of specific presidential mythologies based on the real presidencies of Kennedy, Nixon and Clinton and the construction of fictional presidencies in the television series The West Wing. In four sets of case studies, I will chart the changing significance of each president through different genres, looking particularly at how each presidential mythology is affected by the anxieties and fashions of the contemporary political and social world. I also examine the ways in which the appearance of presidentiality is created within each text by various means including set design, the choice of actor, the use of dialogue and the framing of particular characters. The aims of my thesis are to demonstrate how a telegenic style of politics formed during and after the Kennedy presidency can be seen to be both represented and enhanced in genre films and television series. I chart the relationship of this new mediated style of presidency through my case studies as it faces challenges such as Watergate, Clinton’s sex scandals and the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001. Finally, I aim to demonstrate through a close reading of the latter seasons of The West Wing how the American public can be seen to be prepared by its popular media for the success of the first black president, Barack Obama.