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43 Presidential Stud. Q. 1 (2013)

handle is hein.journals/pstlssqty43 and id is 1 raw text is: ARTICLES Presidential Position Taking and the Puzzle of Representation MATTHEW ESHBAUGH-SOHA University of North Texas BRANDON ROTTINGHAUS University of Houston A significant debate rages in the literature. Although going public success is a function of mass public support for a policy, presidents respond to partisan liberalism in their public rhetoric. This presents a puzzle: how do presidents reconcile their need to target policies that are popular with the mass public to go public successfully, when they respond primarily to partisan opinion in their speeches? Our comparison of the president's policy proposals from 1989 through 2008 with both centrist andpartisan public opinion reveals that presidents are more partisan than centrist in their policy priorities, which adds weight to the partisan representation side of this debate. The president's representational responsibilities are unique and varied. Because a national constituency elects the president, the centrist model of representation contends that presidents must respond to and lead the entire nation. Woodrow Wilson (1961, 67-68) observed this when he wrote that as political leader of the nation, the president is representative of no constituency but of the whole people. James MacGregor Burns (1973, 106) echoed this perception: the President is custodian of popular safety, national destiny, and the conscience of the people. Consistent with the centrist view of repre- sentation, numerous scholars have found that presidents are highly responsive to changes in national public mood (Erikson, MacKuen, and Stimson 2002; Jacobs 1992; Stimson, Erikson, and MacKuen 1995), respond to the national public concerns about foreign and economic issues (Cohen 1999), and respond to national public preferences conditionally, by issue area, popularity, and the president's electoral cycle (Canes-Wrone and Shotts 2004; Rottinghaus 2006). Matthew Eshbaugh-Soha is associate professor of political science at the University of North Texas, whose research interests include the presidenc, media, and public opinion. He is coauthor of Breaking through the Noise. Brandon Rottinghaus is associate professor and the Senator Don Henderson Endowed Chair at the University of Houston. He is author of The Provisional Pulpit. AUTHORS' NOTE: We thank Paul Collins and an anonymous reviewer for helpful comments. We appreciate Jun-deh Wu's assistance with data collection. Presidential Studies Quarterly 43, no. 1 (March) 1 © 2013 Center for the Study of the Presidency

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