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The purpose of this paper is to systematically explore the religious rhetoric of recent U.S. President’s (Jimmy Carter through George W. Bush). Considerable effort has been spent reporting the religious rhetoric of Ronald Regan and George W. Bush. In response to this it has been noted that practically all U.S. Presidents have used religious rhetoric at various occasions (Dionne 2003). While the topic of the religious rhetoric of presidents has sparked this debate, to date no one has performed a systematic evaluation of the religious rhetoric of presidents. This paper will provide a more complete evaluation of the phenomenon of presidential use of religious rhetoric. It examines how presidents differ in this realm. It also will display the palpable difference in the use of religious rhetoric among the presidents. Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, have used more religious language, as a total of all their spoken words, compared to other recent presidents. That fact is interesting, but what is more interesting is how the content of their religious rhetoric has differed from other presidents. A second goal of this paper was to see if the rhetoric differed between presidents of different parties. Questions answered by this paper are: Do Republicans use more religious language, as a percent of total language, than Democrats? And, is there an ideological/theological difference between the parties in the use of religious rhetoric? A primary accomplishment of the paper was the creation of a coding mechanism to help try to categorize religious language on a liberal/conservative spectrum. To do this, three dichotomies and were created. These dichotomies separate theological emphases into categories that could be considered liberal or conservative. The dichotomies are: (1) specific theological constructions / universal principles; (2) other-worldly focus / this-worldly focus; (3) good v. evil & universal sin / sin as the absence of good. The former sections of the dichotomies are considered conservative and the latter are considered liberal. The presidential speeches coded for this paper will be: the party nominee’s acceptance speech at the party’s nominating convention, the new president’s inauguration speech, and all of his State of the Union addresses. One advantage of using these speeches is that they are uniform. Another advantage is that if significant differences in the religious rhetoric used by presidents exist, those differences are more likely to be observed by examining speeches given on standard occasions of public ritual. By exposing the differences among the presidents and between the presidents of different parties, this paper will help scholars investigate such things as: differences in the worldviews of political elites, partisan ideology and its manifestation in political communication, and religious belief structures and the effect of such structures on political communication. My hope for this paper is that it will help lead towards an investigation into the reciprocal relationship between presidential rhetoric and American political culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of the internet in political campaigns has certainly received a great deal of attention in the 2008 presidential election. However, there is little work demonstrating whether the increased use of the internet as an information gathering tool has served to alter the way that potential voters develop political attitudes. Specifically, this paper attempts to evaluate those younger voters that are attempting to use the internet to find political information via blogs, online news outlets, or even social networking sites. The paper uses the 2006 National Election Studies dataset in order to determine whether younger voters that relied more heavily on the internet were more likely to develop a negative opinion of President George W. Bush than those who used more conventional forms of media (such as television, radio, or print news). The findings demonstrate that there is a statistically significant negative relationship between the amount of internet usage and approval of President Bush for individuals under the age of 31. For individuals over the age of 31 there is no statistically significant relationship. Additionally, the other forms of media usage are not correlated with attitudes toward President Bush regardless of age. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first three post Cold War presidents, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush occupied the Oval Office during times of international transformation. All faced dangers and sometimes used force to achieve their objectives and this paper investigates the relationship between personality characteristics, especially conceptual complexity, and willingness to choice force instead of other policy options. The project relies on Margaret Hermann’s leadership trait analysis and at-a-distance measures. The paper compares scores of seven explanatory variables, e.g., conceptual complexity, distrust of others, etc., on leadership and world orientation for George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush against the scores for every American president since Harry Truman. The comparative analysis helps demonstrate the role of individual of individual level traits in creating and implementing foreign policy. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

President George W. Bush’s Management Agenda (PMA) for federal agencies has placed greater attention on improving performance and obtaining results. This paper examines the results of three different efforts to assess federal agencies' organizational attributes. The OMB Scorecard, the PART, and the BPTW survey all provide the public with valuable resources of agency performance and organizational orientation. Utilizing different methodological approaches, this papers attempts to answer three interrelated questions based on the results of those three assessment systems: (1) How do agency performance results differ when using top-down versus bottom-up assessment systems? (2) Are federal agencies and employees clustered and segmented by their performance patterns and orientation based on the three performance assessment systems? That is, what types of BPTW-PART-Scorecard groups or clusters will exist in federal agencies? And, finally (3) What are the strengths and weaknesses of each assessment system based on the results of (1) and (2)? The paper concludes by proposing a more integrated performance assessment system in U.S. federal agencies. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How to deal with terrorism was the campaign issue of the 2004 presidential election. This paper examines the comparisons and differences between the Reagan and George W. Bush coalitions in their use of the politics of fear. Reagan was able to create a broad coalition using fear of communism. Demography also helped. George W. Bush has also used the politics of fear, but with less success. He won in 2004, but his victory was far from broad and the demography of the U.S. electorate has changed radically from the Reagan era. Thus, the politics of fear, while potent, is not comparable to the Cold War era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2000-2004 Bush administration has been a politically demanding four years, with hotly contested national and international issues. This paper surveys George W. Bush's term as it is directly relevant to the outcome of the 2004 election. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes that terror alerts keep the public's attention on foreign affairs and off of domestic issues, which is favorable to the president?s approval ratings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper applies the theory of the Unitary Executive to the current Bush administration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European deep seated unease with Washington is a serious issue for political actors, analysts and citizens alike, in both sides of the Atlantic. During the presidency of George W. Bush, European agreement with US foreign policy has declined dramatically. Public opinion polls concur that less than 15 percent of the European population supported the reelection of President George W. Bush. The widespread mistrust and strong negative sentiments for the Bush-administration begs the question: Does the image of a politician affect the way citizens evaluate news about policy proposals? In this paper we evaluate the impact of the image of George W. Bush and Nelson Mandela on the way European citizens understand policy issues as they appear in the news media. This research project draws on the literature of media effects, persuasion and information processing. When people are exposed to information from the mass media, they do not evaluate it in an unbiased manner. Instead they use simplified cues or shortcuts based on pre-existing preferences, which affect the way they understand the news. To examine how clearly citizens differentiate their attitudes about the personality of political actors from the policies they support, we analyze data from two experimental studies. We take actual policy proposals as they appear in the news, vary the name of the candidate supporting the proposal, and measure participants' reactions to the informational content of the articles, their approval of the proposed policy, and their evaluation of the candidates. We find that European citizens disapprove a policy promoted by George Bush driven mainly by their strong negative emotional response to this candidate. On the other hand they support a policy that carries the Mandela trademark. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paper will describe court decisions citing Bush v. Gore as authority [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

President Bush has created a White Office for Faith Based and Community Initiatives. During the last three years, President Bush has used the power of executive order to establish faith based initiatives programs in more than half of the executive departments and funnelled millions of dollars into the faith based projects. This paper explores what previous presidents have done with regard to funding religious organizations for social service activities and how President Bush has used the power of the administrative presidency to facilitate faith based initiatives in the absence of legislative authority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Bush administration central raison d’etre has revolved around the War on Terrorism with the aim of taking the battle to them. While this provides great latitude for the president in executing foreign policy, it ignores campaign promises which promised to fundamentally reduce military deployments. Beyond this, it compromises short-term security needs cited in a series of studies beginning with the Hart-Rudman Commission in 2001. This and subsequent studies have emphasized the need for utilizing the unique nature of the National Guard at home to improve entry security, and other needs suited to their dual-role and ability to act with police powers. However, Bush administration requirements to fill gaping voids in military might for both Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom minimizes these needs. Further, long-term damage is likely being done as indeterminate service lengths and the vagaries of limited warfare negatively impact long-term retention and recruitment for the reserve component. America’s militia, most recently referred to as the National Guard of the United States, represents a unique blend of responsibilities that cut across the spectrum of governmental entities within our federal system. Historically, they have provided the backbone of defense for this nation’s citizens. The advent of terrorism on a massive scale within US borders now demands further responsibility in this vein yet other responsibilities militate against it. Federal, or more accurately, central government responsibilities overseas on the auspices of the “War on Terrorism” draw critical emphasis and resources away from homeland security. These shortfalls have yet to be made up through other means. Increasingly greater demands place additional strain not only on the military components within the reserve. It also negatively impacts the many civilian first responder operations because a inordinate number of police, fire, medical, and emergency management personnel have reserve commitments. This impact on state and local governments further limits anti-terrorist efforts as well as normal emergency management problems. Current testimony, legislation, government studies, military assessments, and state/local reporting will be integrated in this paper to present the current state of unreadiness at all levels caused by excessive use of USC Article 32 in calling reserve components -- particularly the National Guard -- to overseas duty. Further, I expect to draw upon my own service -- 16 years active-duty military, State Department, and White House (Bush 41, Clinton, Bush 43) -- culminating in more than a year in Afghanistan and the Middle East to emphasize the growing nature of this problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

George W. Bush enjoyed an historic rally effect, in the aftermath of 9/11 that is widely regarded as the basis for public and elite support for the U.S. invasion of Iraq. This paper applies the affective intelligence model of political judgment to explore the impact of attitudes toward Bush upon support for the pending invasion, as of late February 2003. Three hypotheses are examined: first, that enthusiasm (E) for Bush was associated with receptivity to pro-war rhetoric and support for hawkish policies; second, that anxiety (A) about Bush was related with receptivity to anti-war rhetoric and support for dovish policy options; and third, that emotional responses to Bush on these dimensions interacted to yield four distinct orientations – Hawk (high E, low A), Dove (low E, high A), Ambivalent (high E, high A), and Apathetic (low E, low A) In the pretest phase of a quasi-experimental design, 157 undergraduate respondents were recruited from three locations. They completed questionnaires in late Feb. 2003, including items for evaluating: approval of presidential job performance, affective responses to Bush, four Iraq policy options (ranging from no use of force through unilateral invasion), and 16 items evaluating pro-war and anti-war rhetoric. Findings regarding attitudes towards George W. Bush include: the expected two dimensional structure of emotional responses to Bush, that emotional enthusiasm for Bush played a critical role in overall approval ratings of the president and was far more important than domain specific performance ratings, and that anxiousness played little role in presidential approval. With respect to the pending war, findings are that: (1) enthusiasm for Bush was strongly associated with hawkish attitudes, (2) that anxiousness about Bush, even among his supporters and those who approved of the invasion options, was associated with receptivity to anti-war rhetoric (e.g. concerns about the costs of war), and (3) that enthusiasm and anxiousness interacted in their effects on attitudes in a manner consistent with the hypotheses. These results hold with controls for the effects of ideology, partisan identification and gender. A principal finding is that feelings of anxiousness about Bush, regardless of partisan or ideological agreement, were significantly and substantially associated with consideration of arguments and policy options in opposition to unilateral invasion of Iraq. Unbridled enthusiasm, on the other hand, was associated with rejection of concerns about American casualties, Iraqi civilian deaths, domestic economic costs, or destabilization of the Middle East. These findings support the affective intelligence proposition that anxiety arousal stimulates attention to alternative choices and reflective political thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite heady approval ratings in the wake of 9/11, the growing domestic criticism in response to Bush Administration policies on the Second Gulf War have belied the truism that presidential popularity rises after a successful military incursion. Internationally, continued opposition to US plans for rebuilding Iraq, rising ill will from Muslim nations, and the surge of terrorism within Iraq reveal that winning the war does not equate with winning the peace. In fact, we argue, the Bush Administration faces a set of public expectations, or paradoxes, that threaten its ability to maneuver politically and raise questions about Bush’s electoral chances in 2004. The paradoxes include the desire for a safe and controlled homeland but with freedom for all; war and military domination without casualties, expense, disruption, or long term timelines; vengeance against terrorists without transgressions against civil rights, instantaneous transformation of despotic societies into modern democracies, and certainty in an uncertain world. Unable to meet these expectations substantively, the Administration has pursued a propaganda (i.e. public relations and public diplomacy) strategy as a way to resolve opinion disjuncture and paradox at home and abroad. In place of the usual tools of foreign policy: building alliances, engaging allies in policy debate, conducting diplomacy, etc., the Bush Administration approach seeks to use symbols, arguments, and rhetoric to conduct foreign policy and thereby “win the peace.” This paper examines the Bush Administration’s approach to “winning the peace” by: (1) Illustrating how the current administration communication strategy corresponds to historical patterns described in propaganda scholarship (2) Discussing the paradoxical expectations that public relations and public diplomacy attempt to resolve based on a content analysis of world/national media coverage on the war and its aftermath, (3) Reviewing and assessing the debate over the use of public diplomacy to “fix” international opinion, also noting the strategies employed by other nations in what has become a global media battle (4) Providing an assessment of possible impacts of the Bush Administration propaganda strategy for both international and domestic politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two aspects of the politics of post-September 11 U.S. foreign policy are addressed. First, the development of an expansive and aggressive Bush Doctrine, including an emphasis on preemptive or preventive war, is traced. Second, the revival of a positive discourse on U.S. empire and hegemony within policy and opinion circles is explored. This paper surveys and categorizes a range of interpretations of these developments, primarily but not exclusively from the political left, that seek to explore elements of continuity and change in the foreign policy approach of the Bush administration. An argument is put forward about the importance of distinctive “policy currents” within U.S. ruling circles, and the distinctive economic, political, and ideological forces to which they give expression. The development of the policy current associated with the Project for a New American Century is explored as an important case in point. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over 20,000 voters cast a ballot for Ralph Nader in the state of Florida in the 2000 U.S. presidential election, a number much larger than the vote differential between Al Gore and George W. Bush. After the election, some activists started a web site called RepententNaderVoter.com, to encourage others like them not cast a ?wasted vote? in the future. While there is a sizeable literature on strategic voting, few studies examine the factors that lead to successful coordination among minor party supporters when their first preference has no chance of winning and the race is close between the major party candidates. Some experimental studies examine election history, poll results, and campaign contributions as possible factors, though they do not look at the more explicit appeals often made by candidates, parties, and interest groups. This paper addresses this gap by using an experimental design which tests for the effects of different elite coordination cues on a pool of third party supporters. The primary hypothesis is that individuals will be more likely to vote strategically given exposure to an explicit coordination cue to abandon their first preference, as opposed to individuals only exposed to pre-election poll results. The experiment also tests for moderators of cues, including the presence of a counter message, the sponsor of the cue, and one?s level of political sophistication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presidential campaign teams expend considerable energy trying to ensure that their candidate projects a positive public image. However, presidential candidates have been known to make mistakes while on the campaign trail. The common perception amongst pundits and political operatives is that these gaffes are damaging to the campaign although there has yet to be an empirical test of this widely held belief. In this paper we test the effect that George W. Bush?s mistakenly public denouncement of New York Times reporter Adam Clymer had on the media and the public. We find that the media covered the gaffe quite intensely with CNN offering the most coverage followed by the major networks and then the major newspapers. Gaffe coverage was, however, short-lived and did not seem to take away from reporting on the issues or the horse-race. Despite the media coverage and the expressed concerns of the Bush campaign, the gaffe appeared to have virtually no impact on the public?s perception of Bush. His average favorability rating and rating on various personal characteristics remained stable after the gaffe. In addition, we find that partisanship, media use patterns and political knowledge did little to moderate the impact of the gaffe on public perceptions of Bush. These results suggest that the perceived effect of a political misstep maybe exaggerated ? political operatives and pundits may be overstating the impact that a gaffe can have on the public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to show that the national aim of North Korea changed from radical independence of Juche to deradical acute survival, thus the solution of the nuclear crisis can be only found through the understanding about the deradicalization of North Korea. .x000d.Some hawkers in U.S insisted the coercive strategy toward North Korea and Bush agreed them at first because they considered the North Korea would collapse before long. But North Korea endured the Bush's hard line and at last North Korea held the nuclear test. .x000d.Now who is winner, Bush or Kim Jongil? It is clear that unipolar superpower failed to prevent North Korea from equipping nuclear weapons. But the leader of North Korea, Kim Jongil got only the half victory because North Korea have experienced economic crisis as ever. .x000d.U.S should understand what is the hope of North Korea and North Korea should learn what is the international society's rule and norm. Thus the U.S's understanding about deradicalization of North Korea can be the first step for the settlement of the Nuclear Crisis of North Korea and the solution can be found within the Six Party Talks. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Second term presidents are in a delicate situation. Reelection for a second term is never far from the mind of the first term president. In their initial four years, presidents plan towards and hope for an additional term for a variety of reasons. An additional term allows more time to shape programs and bring the country more in line with their ideals for governmental organization. Perhaps even more important, a victorious reelection functions as a mandate on the sitting presidents popularity and success. How does speechmaking change across the two terms? This paper examines Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush's speeches by location. It explores significant changes in patterns between the two terms and how George W. Bush has been a unique administration by not conforming to any previously established patterns for either first or second term presidential administration. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In previous research, I have found that the unpopularity of the G.W. Bush administration has tarnished the Republican Party’s image and shifted the balance of popular partisanship in the Democrats’ direction, especially among younger voters. Using both aggregate electoral data and survey data from the massive 2008 Cooperative Congressional Election Study, my paper will explore the consequences of these trendsâ€"as well as of the domestic economy, foreign policy issues, and the presidential contestâ€"for voters’ options and decisions in the 2008 House and Senate elections. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the terrorist attacks of September 11, George W. Bush referred to the events as a “day of fire,” while Tony Blair called them a “revelation.” Both explicitly drew upon an apocalyptic imaginary that emerges from, but is not limited to, the Christian tradition. The apocalyptic imaginary is appealing, as it holds out an opportunity to create the world anew and offers to fulfill deep desires for political creativity. Yet, it is also dangerous, as apocalyptic scenarios are also fantasies of unimaginable violence and retribution. One finds an attempt to negotiate the appeal and dangers of the apocalyptic imaginary in an unlikely place: the work of Niccolo Machiavelli. In this paper, I argue that Machiavelli is drawn in by the apocalyptic imaginary in The Prince, particularly in the book’s ultimate hope for a prophetic figure to usher in a new age for a suffering Florence. Yet, Machiavelli later rejects such apocalyptic solutions in The Discourses and in his poetry. This engagement with the apocalyptic imaginary makes Machiavelli uniquely relevant for critically assessing contemporary uses of apocalyptic rhetoric. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What are the distinctive features of the George W. Bush administration's approach to Washington governance? This paper explores the administration's governing style regarding Congress, the executive branch and federal courts. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines President Bush’s actions on stem cell research within the broader scope of changes in the party system. I provide evidence to show that President Bush's actions on stem cell research had an important impact on the public. I show that in this political confrontation with the public, Congress and the Republican leadership in Congress, President Bush's actions sent a clear signal to the Republican Party, which was picked up by rank-and-file Republicans and was translated into their shared policy preference. I argue that, from a party system perspective, when presidents go public they have an important impact on the public. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this paper is twofold. First, it attempts to explain why dispensationalist Christians have been so successful at influencing recent American foreign policy. Specifically, I connect this success to their ties to Washington neo-conservatives, Bush's personal faith and links to evangelicals, and their broad cultural appeal and grassroots strength. Second, it will demonstrate that the attitudes of dispensationalists towards Israel and Iraq have been in general accordance with the policies pursued by Washington since 2001. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have long debated Southern exceptionalismâ??whether the American South is political distinct from the rest of the nation. In this paper, I argue against Southern exceptionalism. Public opinion in the contemporary South is indistinguishable from public opinion in the other Red States, those that joined the South in voting for George W. Bush in both 2000 and 2004. I present evidence of the similarity of the South and the Red States using a survey of voters in the 2006 election. On measures of party identification, ideology, issue positions, lifestyle and demographic factors, and vote choice, few differences exist between the two regions. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we examine this body of scholarly advice, complement it with observations of the current administration’s transition to office, and inquire whether the events of 9/11 have changed transition politics in any substantively important way. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines President Bush’s approach to federalism in light of certain administration initiatives and proposals. It seeks to determine whether or not President Bush follows a particular principle regarding federalism. In other words, does President Bush have a particular agenda regarding federalism, or are the policies he pursues ad hoc in nature? This paper will review the administration’s proposals in the fields of environmental regulation, tax policy, education policy, criminal justice, and social welfare policy. Additionally, it will compare the current president’s attitude toward federalism with that of President’s Reagan, Bush, and Clinton. This paper will then examine whether or not Bush’s policies return more fiscal responsibility, more decision-making, and more autonomy to the states. It is expected that Bush will seek to continue the process of devolution begun by Reagan and that, due to Republican-majority status in the U.S. Congress; he will have more leeway in doing so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The CCFR/PIPA study of cross-perceptions between public and the foreign policy elite raised as many questions as it answered. Hypotheses to explain high misperceptions and low awareness of political opportunity are proposed and evaluated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the relationships between Electoral College incentives and presidential travel in the U.S. Travel is clearly not driven only by electoral considerations. Presidents, for instance Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, traverse the 50 states and beyond to take policy proposals to the public, to reward or put pressure on legislators, to campaign for candidates of their party, to raise funds, to touch base with supporters in prominent states in the presidential nominating process and to meet with leaders of other countries.

This article argues that women can use their athletic experience to their advantage when running for political office. Women who participate in sports find themselves in a position where they can make the connections that are sometimes limited to them because of the professions they choose or the families they have to raise. Sports can help candidates portray a balance between the feminine and masculine characteristics which are demanded of them because of their gender. This article also provides an analysis of the 2002 Commission on Opportunities in Athletics established by the George W. Bush Administration and its recommendations on the future of Title IX.

This article examines the local and newspaper coverage of U.S. President George W. Bush's domestic travel in 2001. It is inferred the presidential domestic trips generate much more coverage in local newspapers than the national press. The article states that more work on local coverage of presidential domestic trips needs to be done. As presidents may receive more extensive and positive coverage in local newspapers, the coverage does not necessarily translate an increased presidential approval ratings.

Focuses on the developments of U.S. President George W. Bush's efforts toward faith-based initiatives, in terms of the reception of the formal institutions of government. Failure to get the U.S. Congress to enact into law any significant element of Bush's faith-based initiatives; Policy appeal of faith-based programs; Political implications of the faith-based initiative; Comments on the efforts to woo African-American churches and clergy to support the initiative.

This article analyzes a unique new set of data (compiled originally by the Bush White House) using mail written to President Bush from members of Congress during the 101st and 102nd Congresses to explore interbranch lobbying. We argue that this data illuminates the relationship between the president and Congress in a new and informative way. We find that a large portion of the mail which strictly conveys information to the president addresses issues of domestic policy (most frequently environmental policy), and a large proportion of the mail urging specific presidential action concerns matters of foreign policy, confirming theories about Congressional attention to domestic issues and recasting theories about Congressional action and foreign policy. We also find that legislators with more resources are more likely to write the president, meaning that although letter-writing may incur a small cost, that cost is not negligible to legislators. Similarly, Committee Chairs or Party Leaders, who have more power and connection in Congress, are also more likely to write the President than rank and file members. Finally, those Members who are ideologically furthest away from the President tend to write to convey information and urge specific action more frequently than those closer to the President. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our experimental design assesses how various types of information on salient and non-salient issues affects individual’s assessment of the president’s handling of the issue. This experiment complements earlier individual cross-sectional and macro-level findings. It is one section of a broader study on how the issue agenda helps to explain presidential approval. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Content analysis of network television newscasts and of the front pages of the New York Times and the Washington Post during the first year of the presidencies of Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush revealed a heavy focus on the executive branch rather than the legislative and judicial branches. Tone of coverage of the executive branch was consistently less negative than coverage of the legislative branch during the first year of these three presidencies, as was the case in network television coverage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using Abu Ghraib as a case study, this paper examines news media coverage of the Bush administration human rights policy. Presidents perceive themselves, and wish to be perceived, as champions of human rights, especially in the area of foreign policy. However, actions like the abuses at Abu Ghraib show the contrary. Based on a content-analysis of the New York Times and Washington Post’s coverage of Abu Ghraib, this paper will explain why the news media, despite declarations to the contrary, does not deem everything “fit to print” when it comes to the president’s human rights record. This paper argues that a fundamental disconnect exists between the representation and reality of news media coverage of presidents’ human rights policies. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will utilize the Multiple Streams framework developed by John Kingdon as the theoretical means to examine the policy decision to increase the use of private military contract firms in Iraq. By focusing on the administration of President George W. Bush, this paper will attempt to demonstrate the utility of Kingdon’s framework by identifying elements of Kingdon’s three streams (problem, politics, and policy streams) of the policy process. This paper hypothesizes that by identifying the particular elements of each of the three streams of Kingdon’s framework within the Bush Administration, a better understanding can be reached regarding how and why the policy of increased use of private military firms emerged as a viable option after the attacks of 9/11. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the following question: can a policy of engagement help transform nationalist terrorist organizations (NTOs) into legitimate political parties, or will it encourage further violence? Today, for instance, the Bush administration has decided that engagement would only strengthen and embolden Hamas, and consequently has chosen to isolate the Palestinian organization. Though hard-line strategies often seem an appropriate response to NTOs, it is nevertheless important to understand why engagement is sometimes chosen, whether or not it can succeed, and if so, under what conditions this can occur. Building upon my dissertation, this paper will attempt to determine when the U.S. should engage an NTO by examining the effects of engagement on Sinn Fein and the PLO. In the former instance, a long-term policy of conditional engagement contributed to bringing peace to Northern Ireland; in the latter case, significant American engagement only led to renewed and increasingly violent conflict. Extant studies of this subject have two major failings: first, they do not provide a generalizable explanation and second, they overlook the role that third parties can play in convincing an NTO to permanently disarm. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the US has been committed to a strategy of unilateral action when it perceives its fundamental security interests are at stake. There is no question that this strategy, along with the affiliated doctrine of pre-emptive attack, has contributed to tensions with some of America’s closest friends. This paper will examine US security relationships with three key allies â€" the UK, France, and Canada â€" in an attempt to determine how each of these relationships is faring as the US prepares to enter the post-Bush era. The paper will reveal that while each country has faced challenges in its bilateral relationship with the US, these tensions have not dramatically weakened security cooperation, and in fact, in two of the three countries (the UK and France), defence and security ties with the US have strengthened under the Bush administration. Only in Canada has the security relationship diminished, and this is primarily attributable to (Liberal) governments that were determined to maintain significant distance between Ottawa and Washington. Lastly, the paper will argue that the US is well positioned to enhance its security relationships with other allies in the near-term. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional wisdom holds that higher voter turnout benefits the Democratic Party, yet research in political science reaches mixed conclusions on whether election outcomes would change if everybody voted. In this paper, we investigate the ramifications of higher voter turnout for the partisan outcomes of American presidential elections. While non-voters generally tend to be more sympathetic to the Democratic Party, it remains unclear whether increased participation leads to different electoral outcomes. This paper makes a contribution to this debate by incorporating the role of the Electoral College into our understanding of the partisan consequences of voter turnout. Using data from the Current Population Survey and the Voter News Service, we estimate the impact of increased turnout on state-level outcomes in recent presidential elections. The results of these simulations allow us to evaluate both whether higher turnout would alter the outcome in individual states as well as in the Electoral College as a whole. Citrin et al. (2003) apply this method to Senate elections, which are largely uncompetitive, but this approach has not been used to study the frequently more competitive presidential elections. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Anchored deeply in both the empirical and theoretical literature on presidential persuasion, this paper seeks to use President George W. Bush’s presidential rhetoric as support to supplement Neustadt’s basic model of presidential persuasion. Using qualitative exegetical analysis to establish Bush as a “non-deliberative” presidential rhetorician, the paper then shifts to show empirically that even a “non-deliberative” presidential rhetorician is still a rational rhetorician who abides by a new theory of presidential communication. This theory, “the rational electoral rhetorical” model, presumes that presidents will adjust their rhetoric in recognition of the enhanced and sustainable competition they face in the marketplace of ideas during electoral challenges. Therefore, presidents should become more deliberative in their rhetorical articulations. Despite George W. Bush’s shortcomings as a deliberative rhetorician, during electoral challenges he does increase his deliberative rhetoric, thus undermining the prevailing theoretical foundation of presidential rhetoric as promoted by Tulis. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even though over four years have passed since the U.S.-led military coalition put an end to Saddam Hussein's regime, considerable debate and controversy continue to surround President George W. Bush's decision to attack Iraq. Opponents of the war denounce the White House for sacrificing American soldiers in exchange for oil and gas interests. Critics of the preemptive strike fault erroneous American intelligence for embroiling the nation in a disastrous repeat of the Vietnam War. Worse yet, charges of deliberate deception have been levied on senior administration officials accused of orchestrating an invasion that violates the United Nations Charter. The fact that weapons of mass destruction have yet to be found, arguably the foremost reason for sanctioning an attack in the first place, has further incited the frustration, anger, and contempt of those who regard the ongoing war as a serious mishandling of our nation's foreign policy agenda. Unfortunately, because much of the argument against the conflict continues to appeal primarily on an emotional basis, it has been extremely difficult for war critics to sway those who believe with equal resolve that based on the available information at the time the decision to attack Iraq had been the right course of action. This paper explores how a decision theory framework can be employed to make a quantitative assessment of whether or not the U.S. should have attacked Iraq, and it examines a way in which the federal government can quantify how much it should be spending on intelligence efforts that assist in such critical decision- making. By taking a more objective analysis of this deeply polarizing issue, this paper will show how an arguably more convincing-and perhaps even more compelling-case can be made concerning difficult choices facing our government. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the first in a series of papers reporting the final results of the Advocacy and Public Policymaking Project (http://lobby.la.psu.edu). We interviewed 315 policy advocates and government officials centrally involved in a random sample of 98 issues reflecting the full range of policy activities of the federal government during the last two years of the Clinton Administration and the first two years of the Bush Administration. In this paper we focus on the structure of policy conflict. Each of our 98 issues was conceptually multidimensional and understood in such a way by everyone involved. Policy debate surrounding the issues, however, was far more limited.. We map out the structure of policy disagreement across our issues, describing the surprisingly small numbers of distinct perspectives active on each case. Our findings help understand the causes of low-dimensionality in Washington debates. These structural features are broader than institutional design alone, and stem from the nature of the professional and knowledge-based communities surrounding the policies; the continuing nature of debates, which creates a strong status-quo bias; cost issues; and political and gate-keeping efforts. The paper is the first to lay out these dimensional structures and to describe the nature of policy disagreement and political conflict in a random sample of issues. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses recent advances in time series econometrics to reassess rival models of presidential approval. Monthly data for 1978-2004 are employed. Special attention is given to Bush II with analyses focusing on gender and class heterogeneity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyzes the Bush Administration's 2002 National Security Strategy of the United States as a means of highlighting the crucial ideas behind such innovations as "preemption" and "regime change." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will look at the political strategies of organized labor during the Bush administration. Historically if unofficially, organized labor has been allied with the Democratic Party and the labor movement worked tirelessly to elect Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election. The AFL-CIO and civil rights groups even took their fight for Gore into the post-election day media circus in Florida. Thus, Bush’s victory and the maintenance of Republican control of the House and Senate were devastating blows to the labor movement and its political prospects. The labor movement’s relationship with the Bush administration serves as a case study of how a highly partisan interest group operates when its party is shut out of power. The most immediate impact was to fragment the affiliated unions within the AFL-CIO over strategy on how to interact with the administration. Some unions, such as the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal, Employees (AFSCME), have maintained an arms-length relationship with the administration and have continued to vocally criticize the administration’s policies. Other unions with members concentrated in electoral college swing states such as the Steelworkers and the Teamsters, were initially receptive to Bush’s overtures in order to get administration support on narrow union concerns such as steel tariffs and the federal oversight of the Teamsters. However, repeated missteps by the administration, particularly Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, have gradually pushed most of the affiliates away from cooperation with the administration. The enduring response has been to seek refuge in the protections of the Senate, much as conservative interest groups did in the two years of unified Democratic government at the beginning of the Clinton administration. Under both Democratic and Republican control the Senate with its supermajoritarian requirements has been the institution of last defense against legislation opposed by political minorities such as organized labor. Under Dashcle’s leadership in the Senate going into the 2002 congressional elections, the Democrats stood steadfast with labor against the administration’s Department of Homeland Defense proposal reining in the reach of public employee unions. Although this proposal ultimately passed following the Democrats’ defeat, labor has prevailed in the Senate on a range of other measures including an administration proposal to limit eligibility for overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act. There have been many defeats for labor but the Senate has allowed some victories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout society "war" is a relatively uncontested concept: it is an instance of armed conflict between state actors, typically over the conquest, control, or defense of territory. As the post-9/11 "War on Terror" reveals, however, the idea of war is also sometimes applied to very different phenomena: indeed, in calling the War on Terror a "different kind of war," the Bush Administration acknowledges the distance between this case of official violence and its predecessors but refuses to reject the concept of "war" entirely. Rather than try to close that gap by making definitional arguments about what war "really" is, however, this paper asks: what are the significance and effects of the classification of some forms of violence as "war," as well as by the treatment of the concept of "war" as itself unproblematic and timeless? ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper traces the connections between the AFSC, a Quaker organization, and the development and implementation of the subsistence housing program in the 1930s, and concludes that government reliance on AFSC personnel and expertise in providing housing assistance stands as a precedent and precursor to the faith-based initiatives under President Bush..x000d.President Bush signed an executive order creating “White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.” In 2005 over two billion dollars in social service grants were awarded to faith-based organizations. While the “faith-based initiatives” program is seen as a departure in government policy, it is not unprecedented. In the 1930s President Roosevelt relied on a Quaker organization, American Friends Service Committee, to help develop and implement his subsistence housing program, because of AFSC expertise in aiding the homeless and dispossessed. AFSC projects provided a model for the subsistence housing initiatives, and AFSC executive secretary Clarence Pickett was chosen to administer the Division of Subsistence Homesteads. AFSC involvement in creating the model community of Norvelt, Pennsylvania, (250 homes on 2 to 7 acre lots) provides illustration. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at several instances during the Bush years where prominent satirists -- including Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and Tina Fey -- targeted the mainstream news media, evaluating the comedic barbs as critiques of journalistic failures and assessing the media's response. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines President Bush’s actions on immigration reform within the broader scope of their impact on the party system. Using survey data throughout the Bush presidency, I show that Bush’s political confrontation with the Republican leadership in Congress had a significant effect on the party system. Specifically, by diverging from his party and advocating for an immigration reform that would allow, under certain circumstances, a path to citizenship, President Bush was able to regain Republican control over the issue. This, I argue, had important consequences to the issue alignment at the starting point of the 2008 race. Using this case study, I further engage with the debate on the effect of going public on presidential policy success. I argue that by using the microphones presidents might have limited ability to influence their fellow politicians in Washington; yet, they can influence the political debate and demonstrate party leadership, which can serve as an important political tool in the long run. They can, using Woodrow Wilson’s words, “control their party ideals and principles” for years to come. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]