Today we are going to start a week of starting specifically prof. Curry today we are going to start a week of starting specifically about the Electoral College, what it is, how it works, why its important, why most political scholars hate the Electoral College. With the book, hopefully you have read most of that if not all of it, you get an argument against the Electoral College but its a useful book because , he lays out all of the common arguments for it as well, which i think is helpful for allowing each person to make up their own mind about what they think about this institution generally speaking. I do a whole week on this one because its how we elect the president , but very few americans understand the process. If you take a course in the american presidency, you should probably walk away understanding how this process works. But also because its really important in how it structures how elections turnout. Just like how we started our discussions of president ial nominations by
Week of starting specifically about the Electoral College, what it is, how it works, why why mostrtant, political scholars hate the Electoral College. Hopefully you have read most of the book so far, if not, all of it. You get an argument against the Electoral College, but its a useful book because he lays out all of the common arguments for think isl, which i helpful for allowing each person to make up their own mind about what they think about this institution generally speaking. I do a whole week on this one elect thes how we president , but very few americans understand the process. Theou take a course in american presidency, you should probably walk away understanding how this process works. But also because its really important in how it structures how elections turnout. We started our discussions of president ial nominations by talking about the history of nominations and taking a relatively deep diving to the process rules of nominations today. We start out president ial nomina
In fact, why most political scholars kind of hate the Electoral College. Its not popular among the Political Science set. Youll get a whiff of George Edwards book which hopefully youve read most of it, if not all of it. You get an argument against the Electoral College. He lays out all the comments for it, which is helpful for allowing each person to sort of make up their mind about what they think about this institution generally speaking. So this is really i do a whole week on this one because its how we elect the president but very few americans understand the full extent of the process. At the very least if you take a course in the american presidency, you should walk away understanding how the process we use to select our chief executive officer works, but also because its also really important in how it structures how elections turn out. Just like how we started our discussion of president ial nominations by talking about the history of nominations processes and taking a relative
Up next on the presidency, a talk about the marital and Political Partnership between james and dolly madison. We hear from the Vice President for museum programs, and curator for montpelier, she discusses their early lives, their marriage, and how Dolley Madisons political skills bolster the career of James Madison. Hello, again. Is the sound good . Ok. Im not going to introduce myself. [laughter] i will just kind of start talking. What i am planning to do today is to talk about james and Dolley Madisons lives before they were james and Dolley Madison. Then consider their partnership and how it worked to both of their great advantage, because of it being such a wonderful partnership. So these are the Gilbert Stuart portraits of james and dolley painted when james was secretary of state. Its actually my favorite portraits of the two of them, i think they capture the sort of sense of personality that i see in them. And they have, i think, in large measure sort of created images that we
Important, and also fun to feature our own amazing staff, to feature their research and just the way things were thinking about currently at montpelier. So, it is my pleasure to introduce our first speaker, emily voss. Emily is the director of education at the robert h. Smith center for the constitution, which is where we are gathered today, in claude moore hall, the home of the robert h. Smith center for the constitution. Emily has been at montpelier for six years. And she is responsible for all of the programming of the center, which involves programs for teachers, programs for police officers, programs for International Groups that are visiting the area. She has an undergraduate degree from Gettysburg College and a masters degree in Museum Studies from the very Prestigious Program in cooperstown, new york. And shes going to talk to us today about madison and the lead up to the constitution. Thank you. All right. I need two seconds to get my powerpoint up because you cant do anything