The Bully Pulpit, Presidential Speeches, and the Shaping of Public Policy

Description

Issue framing is the way that people, especially politicians, get other people to view a particular problem or issue. By framing the issue in a particular way, the goal is to get people to think about the issue, to believe that an action is required and, most importantly, to believe that a particular action (the one being proposed by the framer) is the right one. The use of language and imagery is an essential part of issue framing and has been an integral part of the presidency since our nation's founding, but it has become particularly important since Theodore Roosevelt began to take his message directly to the people. This work examines a selected speech delivered by every president from Roosevelt through Barack Obama to show how language has been instrumental in directing policy. Each chapter will examine the situation or background for the problem, include a transcript of the speech the president delivered, and conclude with an analysis of the speech in terms of the particular frame that the speech utilized and the eventual outcome, or policy direction, inspired by the speech. --Zachary Smith, Northern Arizona University Contents Introduction 1 Theodore Roosevelt 2 William Howard Taft and the Conservation of the Republican Party in 1912 3 Woodrow Wilson 4 Warren G. Harding 5 Calvin Coolidge 6 Herbert Clark Hoover 7 Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Inauguration of the New Deal 8 Harry S. Truman 9 Dwight Eisenhower 10 John F. Kennedy 11 Lyndon Baines Johnson 12 Richard Nixon and American Indian Policy 13 Gerald Ford 14 Jimmy Carter 15 Ronald Reagan and American Drug Policy 16 George H. W. Bush and the Persian Gulf War 17 Bill Clinton 18 George W. Bush 19 Barack Obama and Hate Crime Legislation Bibliography Index About the Editors and Contributors