White House Staff

FEARLESS SENATE FORECAST!

• Inside the Obama White House
• Executive Office of the President
• All presidents worry about staff leaks. LBJ did. 
• The Cabinet

Evolution of Campaign Marketing Strategies

It is interesting to see the evolution of presidential candidates' campaigning strategies with the advent of technology.  The link provides images of posters/ flyers as well as TV ads used since the 1960 election. You can view changes in web technologies  - compare Clinton's 1996 website to Obama's 2012 homepage! You can also compare the improvement in Obama's campaign from 2008-2012. Obama e-cards? Nice.

http://www.4president.org/index.htm

Political Communication, Presidential Character

Q&A starts around 8:39


Skowronek and Political Time (Pika 148-149)

President’s Political  Identity

                                                Opposed                                             Affiliated

Prev.                      Vulnerable            Reconstruction (FDR, Reagan)                         Disjunction (Carter)

Est.                                                        

Commitment       Resilient                Preemption (Nixon, Clinton)                             Articulation (Bush 41)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Barber and presidential character (Pika 164-199)

Affect Toward Activity

Positive                                     Negative

Active                    Adaptive   (FDR)                        Compulsive   (RN, LBJ)

Energy

Passive                   Compliant (Taft, Reagan)         Withdrawn (Coolidge, Ike)

Political Communication II

Data:

• Public Appearances 
• Major Speeches 
• Press Conferences

Presidential approval and the limits of the bully pulpit.

The D-Day Speech

Bill Clinton explains "crafted speech":

So what do I use polls for on the issues? What I primarily use polls for is to tell me how to make the argument that's most likely to persuade you that I'm right about what I'm trying to do. ... Okay. I'll give you an example where, according to the polls I have the unpopular position, okay? The Congress passes a repeal of the estate tax, an outright repeal. Now, I can--and I'm going to veto it if it comes to my desk, okay? Now, I can say the following. I can say, "I'm going to veto this because it only helps less than 2 percent of the people and half of the relief goes to one-tenth of one percent of the people, and it's an average $10 million." That is a populist explanation.

I can say, "I'm going to veto it because we only have so much money for tax cuts, and I think it's wrong to do this and say this is our highest priority, when we have done nothing to lower the income taxes of low-income working people with three kids or more or to help people pay for child care or long-term care for their elderly or disabled relatives or to get a tax deduction for college tuition."

Or I could say, "I think there should be estate tax relief." I do, by the way. "I don't care if it does help primarily upper income people. The way so many people have made so much money in the stock markets in the last 8 years, there are a lot of family-owned businesses that people would like to pass down to their family members, that would be burdened by the way the estate tax works, plus which the maximum rate is too high. When it was set, income tax rates were higher, but there was a lot of ways to get out of it. Now the rates are lower, but you have less ways to get out of it. You have to pretty much pay what you owe more." So I could say that.

So it's not fair to totally repeal it. Like even Bill Gates has said, "Why are you going to give me a $40 billion tax break." And he's going to give away his money, and I applaud him and honor him for it.

So I could make either of those three arguments. It's helpful to me to know what you're thinking. I know what I think is right. I'm not going to change what I think is right. But in order to continue to be effective, you have to believe I'm right. So that's kind of what I use polls for.

The Evil Empire Speech

The Press

• The Nixon memo
• The Clinton memo

Fireside Chats 2.0?

President Obama's use of new technology and social media differentiates him from other presidents and sets an interesting precedent for those to follow. Google Hangouts with BO - a modern day version of FDR's Fireside Chats?

http://www.msnbc.com/the-cycle/watch/obama-the-first-social-media-president-132563011874

Presidential Communication I

(Latin translation)



Before the rhetorical presidency

Gettysburg:





FDR Fireside Chats

The Map Speech

FDR also made speeches for newsreels:

• Public Appearances 
• Major Speeches 
• Press Conferences

Clinton and scandal

Presidential Elections IV

Electoral College chess

Alternative allocation methods

Race and the Vote

• 1952-1968
• 1972-2012

The 2012 exit poll

Turnout rates

Romney redux?

Foreign policy