The Bully Pulpit, Presidential Speeches, and the Shaping of Public Policy ed. by Jeffrey S. Ashley and Marla J. Jarmer (review)

The editors of The Bully Pulpit have gathered a useful volume about "how presidents use the power of words to promote agendas and shape public policy" (ix). Their intent was to examine how presidents from Theodore Roosevelt to Barack Obama use the power of the bully pulpit. The contributors analyze "carefully constructed speeches" from these presidents to examine how they "push agendas and get their policies enacted" (xiii). To achieve these ends, the contributors followed a template for each chapter that allowed for a consistent and easy-to-follow book that is accessible to all. Each chapter begins with a short background of the issue or problem, followed by a transcript of the speech. Then, the chapter moves to an analysis of the rhetorical tools used to frame the issue, define the problem, and encourage progress on the proposed solution. Every contribution concludes with a discussion of the impact of the speech in the short-term and over time. Contributors from a wide range of academic disciplines maintain theoretical consistency across all 19 chapters, and readers from interdisciplinary backgrounds can approach the book's subject matter and theoretical contributions with ease. The volume also provides a straightforward heuristic for understanding contemporary conversations surrounding presidential rhetoric in communication and presidential studies.

The contributors developed new and insightful contributions to the rise and expansion of the rhetorical powers of the presidency regarding policy issues, public opinion, and party politics. Because one of the most important informal powers of the presidency "is the presidential speech," which allows officeholders to "frame issues, define problems, set agendas, and shape policy in a way offered to no other government official," the authors focused on how each president in the modern era has contributed to the shifting scope of the bully pulpit (ix). Presidents "carry their message to a large number of people in a very short amount of time" and "understand that words are powerful and that language carries meaning," and so the study of their speeches in support of policy agendas continues "a tradition of rhetoric that has been studied for centuries" (ix).

Theodore Roosevelt "established the president's role as an expansive policy leader and agenda-setter" (13). Taft used the bully pulpit effectively to serve the opinions of elites within his party to solidify his stature, even in the face of electoral defeat. Wilson "molded nineteenth century rhetorical practices" into speeches that defined his stance on women's suffrage, while struggling, as many presidents who followed him would also do, to combine inspirational and policy-oriented arguments. Warren Harding found the use of enthymemes like "normalcy" could appeal to disparate and sometimes conflicting audiences by allowing "listeners to project their own view of just what this entails" without providing policy specifics (50). Coolidge and Hoover used logical proof and ethos to push for policy change during their administrations but faced situational and audience barriers that would cause long-term political troubles, even after short-term gains in policy change or public opinion. Franklin Roosevelt used the power of the inaugural to generate momentum for "the greatest burst of legislative activity in the nation's history" (87) by building "a framework for hope during a time of crisis and deprivation" (90). Eisenhower's call for balance in foreign affairs shaped the debates about war for generations by reinforcing a "paradigm that weighted the price of peace against the cost of liberty and prosperity" (112). Kennedy declared his support for the Civil Rights Movement from the bully pulpit, a critical message at a critical moment in the struggle. Johnson used that same pulpit to send more troops to Vietnam by framing the escalating conflict as a modernization project. Nixon combined the American jeremiad with the language of exceptionalism to set forth an agenda that would change American Indian Policy well into...