he houselights in the campus auditorium fall. The audience grows quiet.
A producer initiates the countdown . . . four . . . three . . .two . . . and
at precisely 9 p.m. eastern time the cameras go hot. All at once, seventy million Americans are seeing the same tensionpacked scene unfold in real time: Two commanding figures, both national celebrities loved and hated by millions, stride confidently toward each other from opposite ends of a vast, elaborately retrofitted stage. A white- hot glare beats down from the klieg lights above. A clamorous applause rises from the seats below. Thousands of reporters in a nearby gymnasium sit with their eyes glued to closed-circuit TVs, their twitchy fingers hovering over keyboards, preparing to chronicle every micromoment. The two figures meet in the middle of the stage and shake hands with the menacing intensity of cage fighters entering a match. It is October 2016. The presidential race is in its final, frenetic weeks. And the Republican nominee is about to go head-to-head with the Democratic candidate in the critical first debate of the general election. The stakes are high. Whoever wins the election will take office at a moment of uncommon uncertainty and upheaval in American life tasked with setting the national agenda for the most contentious issues of the era, from racial injustice to religious freedom, from police accountability to privacy rights, from immigration to income inequality. The average age of the Supreme Court justices has now passed seventy, and the next president could plausibly make as many as four new appointments to the bench, on top of thousands of other appointments across the judiciary and executive branches an almost unprecedented opportunity to shape American jurisprudence for decades to come. Abroad, the growing terrorist threat of the Islamic State and the geopolitical bullying of countries like Russia will present the new commander in chief with a host of life-and-death war-andpeace decisions that could have lasting global repercussions. And back home, the outcome of the election will almost certainly make the difference between an Oval Office occupant who celebrates, solidifies, and builds upon President Obamas liberal domestic policies and one who spends the next four years actively working to unspool his legacy. The choice facing the country is stark, its consequences far- reaching and it could all hinge on what happens onstage over the next ninety minutes. Tonight, the eyes of the nation are fixed on those two figures planted behind their podiums. Who does the audience see?
Eight Years vs. Three Weeks – Executive Orders Signed by Barack Obama and Donald Trump: A Review of the Current Presidential Actions as Opposed to the Legacy of the Former President (Including Inaugural Speeches)