Managing the President's Message: The White House Communications Operation

8. Managing the Message

Managing the Message Several presidents have solved the puzzle posed at the beginning of the book calling on chief executives and their staff to figure out ways to reach the public regularly and activate support for their initiatives and goals through independent news organizations. Though the press is not part of the government, presidents and their White House communications staff have developed ways of using the press to carry the chief executive’s messages to the general public and to particular groups they want to target. But it is not easy to establish an effective communications system and, once created, to maintain its success. As we saw with Presidents Clinton and Bush, creating an effective system requires the right people, resources, and strategies to advocate for the president, to explain his policies, to defend his actions and ideas, and to coordinate publicity inside and outside of the government. Since the end of World War II, eleven presidents who have served full first terms have been reelected. Presidents Eisenhower, Nixon, Reagan, Clinton, and George W. Bush represented different political views and parties, but did have one thing in common: at some point during their first term in office, all of them developed effective communications operations . In each case, the president and his staff understood the importance of helping others realize what their priorities were and how they were achieving them. They also had substantial challenges in their second terms that tested the strength of those operations. Two of the remaining seven presidents who served full first terms sought a second one and lost. What Republican George H. W. Bush and Democrat Jimmy Carter had in common was minimal interest in presidential communications as an integral aspect of their presidency. Neither ever created a communications apparatus capable of integrating policy initiatives with plans to sell them to the Washington community and the public. Even with those presidents who were able to win reelection, 8 284 Managing the President’s Message though, the chief executives and their staffs had difficulty winning the support of the public and members of the Washington community on specific initiatives. In spite of the large numbers of personnel and organizational resources available to them, presidents have difficulty getting their constituents inside and outside of Washington to respond to them in the ways they wish. In summing up this book, there are four areas where we can view trends and developments in the area of White House communications. First are the basic elements of an effective presidential communications operation. There are at least five elements important to the ability of a presidential communications operation to accomplish its goals. Second are the benefits that a good communications operation buys for a president . Third, there are considerable limits to what a White House communications operation can do for a president. And fourth, we can understand the nature of the institution of the presidency by studying its communications operation. The Elements of an Effective Presidential Communications Operation In order to establish a communications operation that advocates, explains , defends, and coordinates on behalf of their president, there are some basic elements related to how effectively it carries out the above four areas. Those elements include what an administration is trying to sell, the communications savvy of the president himself, the organizational components of the communications operation; all are important to the ability of a president and his communications team to perform the basic functions. The organization needs central control, an infrastructure that meets the continuing news needs of reporters, and a communications staff that understands reporters’ routines. Policies with Public Support In his first year in office, President George W. Bush signed into law two of his policy priorities. During the 2000 presidential campaign, Bush spoke about a half dozen issues that formed his legislative priorities. Among them were education reform and tax cuts. During his first year, he won congressional support for his “No Child Left Behind” education reform bill, which featured student testing and performance-based analysis of schools. He also succeeded with his tax reform plan to eliminate the estate tax and to provide tax cuts to people in most income categories. Dur- ing the campaign he discussed both education and tax reform with specific ideas of what he wanted to see enacted by Congress. Both proposals were popular with voters, both before and after the election. It is hard to sell illusions. Good communications operations have to...