VII.                  Presidential Character

1.         Every president brings a different style to the White House, and many are judged by their personalities.

2.         Dwight D. Eisenhower brought an orderly, military style to the White House—sharp, precise, deliberate.

3.         John Kennedy was bold, dashing, suave, and improvising.

4.         Lyndon Johnson was a master strategist who liked to do everything by himself.

5.         Richard Nixon was very intelligent but sometimes ruthless and some times paranoid.

6.         Jimmy Carter was an outsider to Washington who tried to do too much.

7.         Ronald Reagan also an outsider, but being a former movie star, he was dashing and popular and a superb leader and communicator.

8.         George Bush was very hands-on and made personal contacts with people.

9.         Bill Clinton was a very effective speaker who paid attention to many details.

VIII.                 The Power to Persuade

1.         The president’s ceremonial powers do allow him to use his powers of persuasion to accomplish a lot of what he wants to and needs to do, but he must aim his powers of persuasion at his Washington, D.C. audience of fellow politicians and leaders (if they think he looks good and is a good leader, then he is), at party activists and grassroots outside of Washington (so that he at least seems to represent varied interests) and at “the public,” which is the largest and most diverse (and sometimes the most scrutinizing) group of all.

                                                                i.      Presidents are using prepared speeches more and more instead of impromptu remarks because they know that one wrong sentence can spell doom.

2.         Of course, Congress seems to have little obvious incentive to support a president’s popularity, since their seats are secure and they don’t have to fear any party boss that might deny them of power.

                                                                i.      Maybe they can ride on a president’s popularity and get themselves elected because the public like the president and thus his party, but that is not really true.

                                                               ii.      Congressional members do have a sense that it is not wise to oppose the policies of a popular president, and Congressional members seem to rise and fall in groups.

a.         Plus, it seems that popular presidents get their bills passed by Congress more often.

3.         Presidential popularity tends to be the highest right after an election, a period called the “honeymoon” between the public and Congress and the president, but the popularity is bound to drop eventually.

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