| Abstract: | Considerable attention has been devoted in recent years to theuse of political drama by the president, with the most discretionaryforms of drama—speeches and foreign travel—receivingmuch scrutiny. In fact, there has arisen a conventional wisdomwhich asserts that televised speeches and foreign travel bythe president (1) have increased over time, (2) exert a uniformlypositive impact on public evaluations of the president's performance,and (3) can therefore be used as a strategy for influencingthe president's approval ratings, a vital resource for the modernpresident. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate this conventionalwisdom and thus assess the value of televised speeches and foreigntravel as influences on presidential approval. The paper firstdefines political drama and casts the conventional wisdom inthe form of three propositions. It next develops a researchstrategy for evaluating these propositions in an appropriatemanner. Finally, the paper tests the propositions. The resultscast considerable doubt on the conventional wisdom and leadto the conclusion that the use of political drama is not anall-purpose strategy guaranteed to halt declines or replenishsizable losses of presidential approval. |
