Abstract
In 1972, James David Barber's controversial book, The Presidential Character: Predicting Performance in the White House performed the valuable function of focusing scholarly attention on the relationship between the character and the behavior of political actors. Barber's work is premised on the belief that evidence concerning one's character prior to election has predictive value concerning performance once in office. While the utility of the scholarly and journalistic emphasis on the private personality traits of our presidents remains unclear (George, 1974; Tulis, 1981; Nelson, 1988), it is profitable to study the question of character as a public construction rather than a private artifact, as ethos. Ethos is a particularly useful tool for analyses of the presidency, because the nature of the office is extraordinarily dependent upon the character of the individual occupying it. For most of the electorate, presidential character is first revealed during the presidential campaign.
Journal Title
Iowa Journal of Communication
Volume
26
Issue
1
First Page
3
Last Page
17
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Stuckey, Mary
(1994)
""Home Style" Campaigning: Bill Clinton in the 1992 General Election,"
Iowa Journal of Communication: Vol. 26:
No.
1, Article 3.
Available at:
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/ijc/vol26/iss1/3
Copyright
©1994 Iowa Communication Association
