Abraham Lincoln, when he was a member of the House of Representatives from the Whig party, supported Zachary Taylor’s 1848 presidential candidacy. This was in part because he thought Taylor would be a weak executive. As David Herbert Donald writes on p. 127 of his 1994 biography Lincoln:
The proper Whig policy ought to be one of “making Presidential elections, and the legislation of the country, distinct matters; so that the people can elect whom they please, and afterwards, legislate just as they please, without any hindrance [from the Chief Executive], save only so much as may guard against infractions of the Constitution, undue haste, and want of consideration.”
Lincoln would change his tune when he became president himself. There is also more to successful executive restraint than this. And there is need for stricter legislative restraints, too. But on the whole, this is a healthier vision of executive power and the president’s proper role than what we have endured over the last few decades.
Inertia Wins! 