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• The First Postmodern Presidency (from 1992): "The once all-powerful national megaphone of the presidency competes with many amplified voices in a diverse, atomized culture."
  Related:
  Bill Clinton and his consequences (from 2001)
  Soon to be posted here from The Atlantic: "Post-president for life"
• Our remote-control presidency: New York's Michael Wolff intriguing essay on The West Wing, the presidency, and postmodernism.
  Related:
  The Atlantic on West Wing: The Feel-Good Presidency
  Ranking the Movie Presidents: The Atlantic assembles a panel of historians to evaluate presidential characters on popular movies.
• The New Shape of American Politics (from 1987): "After six years in office Ronald Reagan has changed everything about American politics except ideology. … 'Reagan's abilities … have restored a belief that an extraordinary, but mortal, person can give leadership and a sense of direction to the American national government.'"
• No Apparent Motive: With his consistent wryness, P.J. O'Rourke asks, can politicians really be motivated by fame and power? "The average politician has less power than a high school senior-class president and cannot so much as unilaterally decree that the annual House-Senate sock-hop theme will be 'Hula Luau.' … In general Americans regard the politician as a type of celebrity falling somewhere between NPR commentator and soap-opera supporting actress."
• Edmund Ross: My essay on the nineteenth century Senator who, some say, quietly saved the presidency, from NBierma.com.

Other Presidents' Day Links:

• Lincoln's Greatest Speech? Lincoln himself thought his second inaugural was better than his Gettysburg Address.
  Related:Rhetoric of Freedom
• Gregg Easterbrook on the faith of our presidents, from Beliefnet.
  Related from B&C:
  Martin Marty on Mark Noll's America's God
  Mark Noll: The Moral Complexity of the American Revolution
  Barry Alan Shain: One Nation, Under God
• The Atlantic presidents archive, including articles on George H.W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, and Lyndon Johnson.
• PBS's American Experience: The Presidents
• Internet Public Library's Presidents page
• More Presidents links

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From The San Francisco Chronicle:

Soon after James Marshall discovered gold along California's American River in 1848, thousands of miners and entrepreneurs rushed to the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada, hell-bent on striking it rich. … They also made wine—lots of it. Some 100 wineries thrived in the Sierra foothills in the late 1800s. … When the gold ran out, the miners moved on and winemakers closed shop, their departure made more certain by the root louse phylloxera, which destroyed many vineyards in the 1880s. … Today there is once again gold in them thar hills—liquid gold in the form of Zinfandel, Barbera, Syrah, Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon, made by nearly 100 wineries that have sprung up in the Sierra Foothills since the 1960s. Winemakers have found the Foothills to be a hospitable place to make bold, deeply flavored wines that are, for the most part, very good values.

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