Presidential Studies Quarterly articles from December 2006

Presidential Studies Quarterly archives from December 2006

Historical trends in questioning presidents, 1953-2000.
December 1, 2006... The White House press corps has long had a significant bearing on presidential governance. Ever since opinion leadership became important for the chief executive in the early decades of the twentieth century (Kernell 1986), presidents have been...

Polls, elite opinion, and the president: how information and issue saliency affect approval.
December 1, 2006... Presidential approval remains one of the most discussed aspects of American politics among citizens, pundits, and political scientists. For all the research that has been conducted in this area, however, most conclusions are generated from...

Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush: faith, foreign policy, and an evangelical presidential style.
December 1, 2006... "I had a different way of governing... I was a Southerner, a born-again Christian, a Baptist, a newcomer." (Hargrove 1988, 15) --Jimmy Carter "My style, my focus, and many of the issues that I talk about... are reinforced by my...

Featuring the president as free trader: television news coverage of U.S. trade politics.
December 1, 2006... While still a candidate for president, Ronald Reagan publicly stated his symbolic vision of a free trade area across the North American continent "from the Yukon to the Yucatan." Reagan's rhetoric would be realized in successive administrations...

Scheduling the party conventions.(RESEARCH NOTES)
December 1, 2006... In 2004, the Democratic party held its nominating convention in Boston, July 26-29. More than a month later, August 30-September 2, the Republican party renominated President Bush in New York City. Although the Republicans met somewhat later...

Avoiding advice and consent: recess appointments and presidential power.(RESEARCH NOTES)
December 1, 2006... In July 2004, President Bush announced his intention to make twenty appointments during the congressional recess, including a new chairman of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). For FTC chairman, Bush appointed Deborah Majoras. Majoras's...

Conceptualizing and measuring White House staff influence on presidential rhetoric.(RESEARCH NOTES)
December 1, 2006... Presidential rhetoric is hardly an understudied phenomenon in American politics. Since Richard Neustadt (1990) famously defined presidential power as the power to persuade, political scientists have evaluated and analyzed the empirical evidence...

The contemporary presidency: "going local" to reform Social Security.
December 1, 2006... Leading the media, public, and Congress through speeches is at the core of presidential governance. But just as the modern political environment requires presidents to appeal for support through speeches, presidents are increasingly unable to...

Elections: reliability trumps competence: personal attributes in the 2004 presidential election.
December 1, 2006... The reelection of George W. Bush was one of the closest presidential reelection victories in American history. The narrow margin by which the election was decided has led analysts to focus on various explanations for why Bush won. Various...

The law: the president "shall nominate": exclusive or shared constitutional power?
December 1, 2006... On May 23, 2005, a bipartisan group of fourteen senators (known as the Gang of Fourteen) (1) signed an agreement that ended an escalating battle between the Republican and Democratic parties in the Senate. Still in operation, the compromise...

The polls: polarized opinion in the states: partisan differences in approval ratings of governors, senators, and George W. Bush.
December 1, 2006... George W. Bush has provoked the widest partisan differences in popular evaluations of a president's performance ever observed in the nearly seven decades that the surveys have been asking the job approval question. (1) In a new book explaining...

Military Tribunals and Presidential Power: American Revolution to the War on Terrorism.(Book review)
December 1, 2006... Military Tribunals and Presidential Power: American Revolution to the War on Terrorism. By Louis Fisher. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2005. 279 pp. As new revelations continue to slowly emerge about the Bush administration's...

Executive Secrets: Covert Action and the Presidency.(Book review)
December 1, 2006... Executive Secrets: Covert Action and the Presidency. By William J. Daugherty. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2004. 328 pp. This is a fascinating book and one that attempts to strip away some of the myths involving CIA covert...

Hamilton, Adams, Jefferson: The Politics of Enlightenment and the American Founding.(Book review)
December 1, 2006... Hamilton, Adams, Jefferson: The Politics of Enlightenment and the American Founding. By Darren Staloff. New York: Hill and Wang, 2005. 419 pp. This beautifully written book should be required reading in all undergraduate courses in...

Lincoln's Defense of Politics: The Public Man and His Opponents in the Crisis over Slavery.(Book review)
December 1, 2006... Lincoln's Defense of Politics: The Public Man and His Opponents in the Crisis over Slavery. By Thomas E. Schneider. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2006. 224 pp. In his book-length essay, The Legacy of the Civil War, Robert Penn...

Louis Johnson and the Arming of America: The Roosevelt and Truman Years.(Book review)
December 1, 2006... Louis Johnson and the Arming of America, the Roosevelt and Truman Years. By Keith D. McFarland and David L. Roll. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005. 435 pp. Authors Keith McFarland, president of Texas A&M University-Commerce, and...

Lou Henry Hoover: Activist First Lady.(Book review)
December 1, 2006... Lou Henry Hoover: Activist First Lady. By Nancy Beck Young. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2004. 238 pp. Serving as first lady between the popular Grace Coolidge and the groundbreaking Eleanor Roosevelt, Lou Henry Hoover often is...

Nancy Reagan: On the White House Stage.(Book review)
December 1, 2006... Nancy Reagan: On the White House Stage. By James G. Benze, Jr. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2005. 216 pp. James G. Benze, Jr. provides an efficient, insightful, and thought-provoking examination of Nancy Reagan's contributions as...

Private Lives/Public Consequences: Personality and Politics in Modern America.(Book review)
December 1, 2006... Private Lives/Public Consequences: Personality and Politics in Modern America. By William H. Chafe. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005. 420 pp. What explains the success of those leaders who had a profound impact on modern...

Political Keywords: Using Language That Uses Us.(Book review)
December 1, 2006... Political Keywords: Using Language that Uses Us. By Roderick P. Hart, Sharon E. Jarvis, William P. Jennings, and Deborah Smith-Howell. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. 279 pp. This book takes a fresh look at the meaning of politics...