Republicans in Congress and President Obama both have incentives to get things done in the next two years

This week’s midterm elections saw the Republican Party retake the Senate and gain its largest majority in the House in over 60 years. Lori Cox Han writes that the GOP’s success is down to President Obama’s poor approval ratings, anti-incumbency sentiment, low voter turnout, and a poor electoral map for the Democrats. She argues that despite their victory, the Republican Party will still have to work with President Obama, and moderate its Tea Party members who are likely to call for sweeping reforms. Failure to get anything done over the next two years could have ramifications for the Republican Party’s chances of holding on to the Senate in 2016, and for the party’s eventual presidential nominee

New Strategies for an Old Medium: The Weekly Radio Addresses of Reagan and Clinton

While a rich literature exists on presidential communications (including the public/rhetorical presidency and the presidential/press relationship), only recently have presidential scholars begun to analyze weekly radio addresses as an important primary unit of analysis (Rowland and Jones 2002; Sigelman and Whissell 2002a, 2002b). This article analyzes how the use of radio has fit into the overall development of White House communication strategies during the television age, and takes an in-depth look at how Reagan and Clinton used weekly radio addresses to communicate with both the American public and the news media. Specifically, the issues considered here include the strategy development among White House communication advisors (why did the Reagan and Clinton administrations believe this was an important means of communication?), the policies emphasized in the weekly radio addresses (what did the president talk about?), and the frequency of news coverage concerning the weekly radio addresses (does consistent news coverage occur during the 24-hour news cycle following the address, and if so, in which media sources?)

President Hillary Clinton? Nothing is inevitable in the 2016presidential campaign.

Last Sunday, the former Secretary of State, New York Senator, and First Lady, Hillary Clinton, announced that she was running for the Democratic nomination for the 2016 presidential election. Lori Cox Han takes a critical look at the notion, put forward by many, that Clinton’s nomination and win are ‘inevitable’. She argues that her name recognition is an asset, but also a liability given the risk of ‘Clinton fatigue’ among Democratic voters. She writes that Clinton not only faces trust issues, but she also has yet to articulate why she is running, which could be problematic given the left wing of her party’s preference for others such as Senator Elizabeth Warren

The President Over the Public: The Plebiscitary Presidency at Center Stage

In this chapter, I will address the question of the usefulness of the public presidency in the current political environment (that is, can a president’s communication strategy make a difference in terms of what he achieves), as well as the constitutional danger, if any, posed by a president’s attempt at public leadership. Has the public presidency, and its focus on the public aspects of the office, thrown the constitutional balance of power between the three branches out of balance? Does the president really gain political power within the constitutional framework of our government if he is a skilled and effective communicator? Or have we just been duped into thinking that an image of strong presidential leadership on our television screens equates success in the arenas of domestic and foreign policymaking? Finally, I offer a brief assessment of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush and their respective efforts at public leadership, and argue that our definition of what constitutes a “good communicator” may be permanently altered due to Bush’s reelection in 2004.https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/polisci_books/1003/thumbnail.jp

The Rose Garden Strategy Revisited: How Presidents Use Public Activities

The overall goal of this study was to determine how often, and in which formats, presidents choose to go public, and if differences exist in that pattern during their reelection efforts. This chapter also considers the major developments within the public presidency during the twentieth century, and how those developments contributed to the patterns in public activities that have emerged for Presidents Hoover through Clinton.https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/polisci_books/1004/thumbnail.jp

Off to the (Horse) Races: Media Coverage of the Not-So-Invisible Invisible Primary of 2007

While it may seem obvious to even the casual observer of U.S. politics how important news media coverage is for a presidential candidate in the heat of the primary or general election battle, it is the media attention garnered during the pre-nomination phase of the campaign that can play a crucial role in deciding if the candidate even makes it to the first nominating contest. Often referred to as the invisible primary;\u27 the pre-primary period for the 2008 election occurred earlier and lasted longer than in any previous campaign in modern American history...This chapter will consider two aspects of news media attention during the 2007 invisible primary. First, the role of the news media as the great mentioner was considered by analyzing how often candidates\u27 names were mentioned in news coverage...Second, a more specific analysis will be provided of the four candidates presenting a potential first to U.S. presidential politics-Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama, Bill Richardson, and Mitt Romney-and the news coverage each received during the invisible primary.https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/polisci_books/1002/thumbnail.jp

Public Leadership in the Political Arena

In this chapter, I address the concept of leadership and the Important role that it now in the process at all levels and in various branches of I offer a definition of leadership and the various political that encompass this of governing. The vast scholarly literature that has developed in recent decades on the topic of presidential communications offers an excellent assessment of the contemporary importance of public leadership. I a brief overview of public strategies and how they have evolved over time (particularly in concurrence with technological advances in mass as well as relevant examples\u27 that help us to understand the of public leadership. Finally, I conclude with an assessment of how public leadership specifically has shaped the overall definition of political and how that contributes to the dynamic of the current political environment within American government.https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/polisci_books/1000/thumbnail.jp

A Presidency Upstaged: The Public Leadership of George Bush, Joseph V. Hughes Jr. and Holly O. Hughes

A president who distances himself from stagecraft will find himself upstaged. George H. W. Bush sought to “stay the course” in terms of policy while distancing himself from the public relations strategies employed during the administration of Ronald Reagan, his predecessor. But Bush discovered during his one-term presidency that a strategy of policy continuity coupled with mediocre communication skills “does not make for a strong public image as an effective and active leader in the White House , as author and scholar Lori Cox Han demonstrates in A Presidency Upstaged. Incorporating extensive archival research from the George Bush Presidential Library at Texas A&M University—including documents only recently available through requests made under the Freedom of Information Act—Han thoroughly examines the public presidency of George H. W. Bush. Han analyzes how communication strategies, relationships with the press, and public opinion polling shaped and defined his image as a leader. The research for this study also includes content analysis of press coverage (both print and television) and major public addresses during the Bush administration.https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/polisci_books/1001/thumbnail.jp

Why You Can’t Count On Congress to Rein In a President Trump

Donald Trump has made many promises on the campaign trail about things he will fix (a broken immigration system), change (the way trade deals are negotiated), and build (a wall on the southern border) if elected president. Those who do not support Trump, regardless of political party, comfort themselves with the constitutional reminder that our government includes three co-equal branches designed to protect against the accumulation of too much power in too few hands. Those checks and balances aside, could President Trump accomplish any of his stated objectives through unilateral actions

How the 'ESPN effect' of framing politics as a conflict benefits more combative candidates like Trump and Sanders

For many observers, how we discuss politics is beginning to have more and more common with the rhetoric of sports. In the 2016 election, candidates like Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders adopted a more adversarial style. Lori Cox Han and Brian Calfano examine how a more head-to-head campaign style influences voters, finding that both Trump and Sanders benefit if campaigns ..