Winner, 2008 Richard E. Neustadt Award, Presidency Research Group organized section of the American Political Science Association Political scientists are rarely able to study presidents from inside the White House while presidents are governing, campaigning, and delivering thousands of speeches. It’s even rarer to find one who manages to get officials such as political adviser Karl Rove or presidential counselor Dan Bartlett to discuss their strategies while those strategies are under construction. But that is exactly what Martha Joynt Kumar pulls off in her fascinating new book, which draws on her first-hand reporting, interviewing, and original scholarship to produce analyses of the media and communications operations of the past four administrations, including chapters on George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Kumar describes how today’s White House communications and media operations can be at once in flux and remarkably stable over time. She describes how the presidential Press Office that was once manned by a single presidential advisor evolved into a multilayered communications machine that employs hundreds of people, what modern presidents seek to accomplish through their operations, and how presidents measure what they get for their considerable efforts. Laced throughout with in-depth statistics, historical insights, and you-are-there interviews with key White House staffers and journalists, this indispensable and comprehensive dissection of presidential communications operations will be key reading for scholars of the White House researching the presidency, political communications, journalism, and any other discipline where how and when one speaks is at least as important as what one says.

This book traces the evolution of White House news management during America’s changing media environment over the past two decades. Comparing and contrasting the communication strategies of Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump, it demonstrates the difficulty that all presidents have in controlling their messages despite a seemingly endless array of new media outlets and the great advantages of the office. That difficulty is compounded by new media’s amplification of presidential character traits for good or ill. Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube notwithstanding, presidential power still resides in the "power to persuade," and that task remains a steep challenge. More than ever, presidential character matters, and the media presidents now employ report on the messenger as much as the message. The book also looks at the media strategies of candidates during the 2016 presidential campaign, puts presidential media use in global context, and covers the early phase of the Trump administration, the first true Twitter presidency.

Especially coming out of the landmark presidential elections of 2008 and 2016, the study of the American presidency--both as a political institution and of those who have held the office--is one of the most fascinating and dynamic fields of study within American government. New Directions in the American Presidency takes a current look at the various issues facing the contemporary presidency and provides a "state of the art" overview of current trends in the field of presidency research. This volume of original chapters by leading presidential scholars is designed to include all the essential topics covered in an undergraduate-level presidency course or a graduate-level seminar while also bringing together key disciplinary debates and treatment of important current real-world developments. Each chapter is written with students in mind so that it remains accessible, interesting, and engaging. New to the Second Edition New key chapters on presidents and political parties and presidential leadership (essential following the 2016 presidential election). A fresh approach to the President and the Constitution, and the President and domestic policymaking, are provided by new authors for these foundational chapters. All chapters have been revised with updates coming out the 2016 election, especially in relation to presidential campaign politics, media, and the Supreme Court.

White House expert Lauren A. Wright identifies, explains, and measures the impact of the expanding role of presidential spouses in the White House and presidential campaign communications strategy, with a focus on the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations. More than any other time in history, the First Lady now bears responsibilities tantamount to those of any high-ranking cabinet member. This fascinating book documents the growing presence of the president's wife in the communications strategies of the last three administrations, explaining why their involvement in a campaign has been critical to its survival. The book explores how the First Lady serves to persuade public opinion, make personal appeals to the public on behalf of the president, and promote initiatives that serve as uncontroversial frames for controversial policies. The author delves into political discussions about what makes presidents and presidential candidates likable, what draws public support to their agendas, and why spouses appear to be more effective in these arenas than other surrogates or even the presidents themselves. The content features dozens of interviews with former White House staff and communications strategists; in-depth analysis of almost 1,700 public speeches made by Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush, and Michelle Obama; and surveys testing the effect of public relations strategies involving spouses on political opinion.

President Ronald Reagan taught James Rosebush to be an impactful speaker. Now he's going to teach you. Public speaking isn't easy. Just ask anyone who's ever blown a sales pitch, failed a class, or fumbled their way through a presentation because they froze up or couldn't find the right words. No wonder more than 75 percent of people in the United States suffer from Glossophobia, the fear of speaking in front of crowds. Luckily, public speaking isn't some innate ability. It's a skill. And given the right amount of time, energy, and perseverance, anyone can learn how it's done. In Winning Your Audience, James Rosebush draws on several decades of experience working with presidents, politicians, and business leaders to write his own manual for delivering a message with confidence. He looks back on the lessons he learned travelling the world with President Ronald Reagan, whom he served under for five years in the White House, and lays out the keys to "the Reagan speech template": Question, Inform, Inspire, Ask. Rosebush also studies some of the great political orators of our time. Vital lessons from the likes of Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and President Donald Trump are distilled down to a few simple rules. Among them are:· Be authentic· Know yourself· Practice and rehearse...and then do it again · Don't care what your mother thinks of you No matter what kind of speeches, toasts, or presentations you have to give, this book can help. Use it like a textbook. Write in the margins. Tear out pages. Winning Your Audience can make even the most timid speakers among us into a genuine leaders. Read it now and learn how to win your audience.

“A Washington insider draws on decades of experience to deliver a blistering critique of the state of American government” (Kirkus Reviews) in an authoritative scrutiny of the forces that run our society and a call to fix our democracy before it’s too late. If you’ve been watching the news and worrying that our democracy no longer works, this book, “a cri de coeur from one of our wisest Americans” (Michael Beschloss, Presidential Historian), will help you understand why you’re right. There is colossal concentration of power in the Presidency. Congress is crippled by partisanship and hostage to special interest money. The Supreme Court and many lower federal courts are riven by politics. Add politically fractured and fragile media, feckless campaign finance laws, rampant income and education inequality, and multicultural divisions, and it’s no wonder our leaders can’t agree on anything or muster a solid majority of Americans behind them. With decades at the top in government, law, and business, Joseph A. Califano, Jr. has the capacity to be party-neutral in his evaluation and the perspective to see the big picture of our democracy. Using revealing anecdotes featuring every modern president and actions of both parties, he makes the urgent case that while we do not need to agree on all aspects of politics, we do need to trust each other and be worthy of that trust. He shows how, as engaged citizens, we can bring back systems of government that promote fairness and protect our freedom. “It’s hard to argue with [Califano’s] analysis” (The New York Times Book Review) that the longer we wait to fix these problems, the more dangerous our situation will become.

This book explores presidential power through an analysis of the ways that U.S. presidents attempt to manage scandals. While presidents routinely stonewall to block or limit investigations into their alleged transgressions or, in some cases, cooperate with investigators, this book proposes the existence of a third way of responding to scandals—a “backfire” or the creation of a counter-scandal to try to extinguish the original scandal. The existence of possible backfires is surveyed through case studies of the major scandals that impacted the Nixon, Reagan, Clinton, and Trump administrations. The development of this form of scandal response has meaningful implications concerning the growth of presidential power and its impacts on the functioning of the U.S. political system and the quality of American democracy. Changes in partisanship, the media environment, and the public’s view of the presidency and government are topics covered in the book’s explanation of the trends in scandal responses.