Summary Of Going Public By Samuel Kernell

Israel Tefera

Posc 514

Dr. Spitzer

November 26, 2016

How Presidents lead and is it effec? Presidents go to the public in order to advertise their policies. The president can use supporters in order to convince other American citizens and especially the United States Congress to support the policies the president is advocating for. Samuel Kernell supports the idea that "going public" is the best method for the president both for passing the president’s favored piece of legislation as well as preventing pieces of legislation not favorable to the president passing the United States Congress. Kernell explored how the strategy of going public evolved over time as the United States Congress’ partisanship increases and the increasing polarization

He challenged the idea that presidential leadership is the power to persuade. The Strategic President, a book authored by George Edwards claimed that presidents are not capable of creating the circumstances for change through persuading others to approve their policies. Alternately, successful presidents implement changes by recognizing opportunities that are present and coming up with strategies in order to take advantage of them. He believes that there are three extraordinary presidents. Those are Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Ronald Reagan. Edwards acknowledged the excellent rhetorical skills possessed by the aforementioned president. Despite that the American public was not listening to the their plea for help. Under the leadership of the presidents mentioned above, change occur through public opinion. Edwards explored how successful future presidents could be implementing the same technique as the three presidents mentioned by edwards to achieve their policy goals. Turning to Congress, Edwards observed that Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, and Reagan had a productive legislative periods as a result of the fact that these presidents take advantage of and seized on circumstances for passing their agendas through the United States Congress for the duration of these favorable circumstances. According to Edwards,

It shows how presidents deal with the work of former presidents of the United States, place their power within current politics, and use their mandate to implement change. Skowronek studied the presidencies of Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Skowronek's book has enhanced how we understand leadership. Additionally, the book identifies the political issues that presidents face in political time, and the result of working through the issues, and contemplates changes to our political system regards to leadership patterns in comparison to the past. He compared the leadership differences between presidents Andrew Jackson and Franklin Roosevelt and between presidents James Polk and John Kennedy. The book book coined a new theory on the presidential leadership of Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama. Skowronek believes that President Obama’s presidency, at least based on the first two years of his eight years term, will become a transformational one just like the respective presidencies of Presidents Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Reagan. The aforementioned presidents of the United States including the first two years of President Barack Obama succeeded to some point in changing the circumstances of national politics at the time of their respective presidencies. The author is not convinced the kind of leadership possessed by the presidents mentioned above is still a real possibility