Predict President Will Ignore Crisis Surrounding His Term

And Focus On Leadership Image

When President Bill Clinton addresses the country next Tuesday we should expect to hear not a word uttered in his State of the Union address regarding his personal crisis, according to Michael L. Mezey, professor of political science at DePaul University. "The State of the Union address is designed for the public and not Congress, and clearly the public wants to hear about Social Security, Medicare and the various other issues in health care and education that the president wants to advance," said Mezey.

"Of course this makes sense for him because his advantage in public opinion polls is based on the public perception that the President is concerned about governing and the Republicans are concerned about scandal, sex, impeachment and politics," he continued.

Meanwhile, DePaul Associate Professor of Marketing Bruce Newman believes that the State of the Union speech is perhaps the most important speech of President Bill Clinton’s career because of its effect on his image.

"From a political marketing point of view, it is a terribly important speech," said Newman. "Everybody will look at the reaction to it and gauge how people feel about the state of affairs in the country and the way the impeachment is going.

"From a strategic point of view, the speech is a key opportunity for the president to continue to reinforce and remanufacture his role as the leader of the free world. It is Clinton’s opportunity to communicate to people that he is doing his job and is quite capable of continuing to perform despite the great pressure he is under. To the extent that he can reinforce in people’s minds a picture of himself as a calm and controlled leader, he continues his permanent marketing campaign, which has been effective for him." That campaign, Newman said, is to keep the two images of Clinton separate—Clinton the man, who has made mistakes in his personal life, and Clinton the president, who has been a successful leader. Newman can be reached at DePaul at 312/362-5186.

Newman is the author of the "Marketing of the President (Sage, 1994) and "The Mass Marketing of Politics: Democracy in an Age of Manufactured Images," (Sage, forthcoming August 1999). He was a communication advisor to senior staff of the Clinton White House during 1995 and 1996.

Mezey served as CNN’s Midwest regional expert during the 1984 presidential election. He is a member of the boards of the Legislative Studies Quarterly and the Journal of Politics, and is well-versed in congressional and presidential processes and public policy-making. Mezey can be reached at DePaul at 773/325-7305.