The Limits of Power

This perceptive analysis of eight years of Republican leadership (1969-1977) seeks to explain why the ``Myth of the Omnipotent President,'' as Greene dubs it, came to an end. An associate professor of history and communications at Cazenovia College in upstate New York, Greene recounts the familiar Watergate story, then shows how Richard Nixon left the office of President ``infinitely more limited'' than it had been when he was sworn in. He goes on to describe the populace's brief romance with Gerald Ford, which ended abruptly when Ford pardoned Nixon. Greene takes a close and revealing look at the dynamics of this decision, arguing that Ford's mistake was not so much in granting the pardon as in granting it on Nixon's terms. Unable to chart a coherent course for his administration--due partly to a recalcitrant Congress and partly to feuding among members of his staff--Ford lost a close election to Jimmy Carter in 1976, after two years of wielding power and influence that were ``more limited,'' in Greene's view, than those of any other President. (Sept.)