Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T18:48:20.575Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Narrowcasting the Obama Presidency

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 December 2013

Andrew Rudalevige*
Affiliation:
Bowdoin College

Extract

In the United States we like to ‘rate’ a President,” Richard Neustadt observed. “We measure him as ‘weak’ or ‘strong’ and call what we are measuring his ‘leadership.’ We do not wait until a man is dead; we rate him from the moment he takes office.” Half a century later, that habit has been amplified and accelerated by an unending news cycle and the outsized demand for commentary across the online world. The polarizing figure of Barack Hussein Obama has been catnip here: Observers from all spaces on the spectra of partisanship and sanity began weighing in on the Obama presidency long before he actually took office in January 2009.

Type
Review Essay
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baker, Peter. 2010. “Education of a President.” New York Times Magazine, October 12.Google Scholar
Baldwin, James. 1985. The Price of the Ticket. New York: St Martin's.Google Scholar
Beckmann, Matthew. 2010. Pushing the Agenda: Presidential Leadership in U.S. Lawmaking, 1953–2004. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Canes-Wrone, Brandice. 2005. Who Leads Whom? Presidents, Policy, and the Public. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Dickinson, Matthew J. 2013. “The Presidency and Congress.” In The Presidency and the Political System, 10th ed., ed. Nelson, Michael.Washington, DC: CQ Press.Google Scholar
Dowd, Maureen. 2013. “No Bully in the Pulpit.” New York Times, 2 April.Google Scholar
Edwards, George C. III. 2006. On Deaf Ears: The Limits of the Bully Pulpit. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Edwards, George C. III. 2009. The Strategic President. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Gerstein, Josh, and Gavin, Patrick. 2010. “Why Reporters Are Down on President Obama” Politico. (http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0410/36454.html), Accessed October 25, 2013.Google Scholar
Hart, John. 1995. The Presidential Branch, 2nd ed. Chatham, NJ: Chatham House.Google Scholar
Hindman, Matthew. 2009. The Myth of Digital Democracy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Howell, William, and Pevehouse, Jon. 2007. While Dangers Gather: Congressional Checks on Presidential War Powers. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Krauthammer, Charles. 2012. “Obama's Intention Has Always Been to Reverse the Ideological Course.” Portland Press Herald, 2 November.Google Scholar
Lewis, David E. 2008. The Politics of Presidential Appointments: Political Control and Bureaucratic Performance. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maraniss, David. 2012. Barack Obama: The Story. New York: Simon & Schuster.Google Scholar
Mettler, Suzanne. 2011. The Submerged State: How Invisible Government Policies Undermine American Democracy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neustadt, Richard E. 1960. Presidential Power. New York: Wiley and Sons.Google Scholar
Nyhan, Brendan, McGhee, Eric, Sides, John, Masket, Seth, and Greene, Steven. 2012. “One Vote out of Step? The Effects of Salient Roll Call Votes in the 2010 Election.” American Politics Research 40 (September): 844–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Obama, Barack. 2006. The Audacity of Hope. New York: Crown.Google Scholar
Obama, Barack. 2013. “Remarks by the President at Morehouse College Commencement Ceremony.” Office of the White House Press Office, May 19. (http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/05/19/remarks-president-morehouse-college-commencement-ceremony), Accessed October 25, 2013.Google Scholar
Remnick, David. 2010. The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
Rottinghaus, Brandon. 2010. The Provisional Pulpit: Modern Presidential Leadership of Public Opinion. College Station: Texas A&M Press.Google Scholar
Rudalevige, Andrew. 2005. “The Executive Branch and the Legislative Process.” In The Executive Branch, ed. Aberbach, Joel D. and Peterson, Mark A.. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rudalevige, Andrew. 2010. “Bureaucratic Control and the Future of Presidential Power.” White House Studies 10(1): 5168.Google Scholar
Skowronek, Stephen. 1993. The Politics Presidents Make. Cambridge, MA: Harvard/Belknap Press.Google Scholar
Tien, Charles, Nadeau, Richard, and Lewis-Beck, Michael S.. 2012. “Obama and 2012: Still a Racial Cost to Pay?PS: Political Science and Politics 45 (October): 591–95.Google Scholar
Tulis, Jeffrey K. 1988. The Rhetorical Presidency. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Weatherford, M. Stephen. 2012. “Economic Crisis and Political Change.” In The Obama Presidency: Appraisals and Prospects, ed. Rockman, Bert, Rudalevige, Andrew, and Campbell, Colin. Washington, DC: Sage/CQ.Google Scholar
Wilentz, Sean. 2008. The Age of Reagan: A History, 1974–2008. New York: Harper.Google Scholar