Analysis And Comparison Of The Presidential Styles Of American Leaders

Presidential Style: Every president has something unique about them, that’s why we vote for who we vote for right? Other than what they are promising to the people, each president makes it clear what they stand for during their campaign. What happens after that? What happens when they become elected and are out of their “honeymoon” phase of presidency? Its time to start making those promises realities Mr. President. Think about the last four U.S. presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump…How are they getting support for their ideas?

Let's first take a look at former president Bill Clinton, who reigned from 1993 - 2001. President Clinton is better known for his odium before, during, and after his role of president, yet historically he is the third youngest president of the U.S., as well as one of only two U.S. presidents to ever be impeached. However, even though he had a lot of publicity extracurricular activities, his style as chief of state could be described as “going public”. President Clinton announced his ideas to the public to persuade the legislature to agree. The public agreeing gives legislature more incentive to pass bills, as we know the president can’t just make something a law, all parties have to concur.

Bill Clinton was pushing to endorse a health care reform act that in designed would provide universal coverage to Americans, however the bill never came to pass as it was more of a political disaster despite the good intention. Yet, during Clinton`s presidency, his “greatest accomplishment in his two terms as president was leading the nation to a period of strong economic prosperity. While Clinton was in office, the nation enjoyed the lowest unemployment rates in decades.” (“Bill Clinton.”) This speaks volumes as this is a reflection of America as one. Clinton did do some great things for the American population as president and aided in bills being passed to enhance the lives of this countries’ people. He gave many speeches to promote his intentions to the public to allow them to get on board with his ideas leading legislature to be more in his favor for specific bills to be passed.

President George W. Bush who held his presidential power from 2001 - 2009 had little choice in being a “public vs. negotiator” style president. Just a few short months after his inauguration, America had its first ever terrorist attack on American soil. September 11th, 2001 faced president Bush and the American people with many first to come. As any good leader, he reacted with swift force to defend America and show a strong retaliation. This made no time for negotiations or bargaining between legislatures. Due to the nature of the situation at hand America was probably the most united it had ever been, thus most, if not all parties were in agreeance of what needed to be done. President Bush wasted no time making speeches following the events of 9/11, nor did he waste time to show up in New York letting those affected most know that he was a concerned leader there to help.

Bush gave what is known as the bullhorn speech “I can hear you, the rest of the world hears you, and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon!”(96 )Although President Bush passed many laws while in his term, most of what he promised to do during his campaign he made true as president, the tragic events of 9/11 were the pin point of concern during his terms. Keeping the American people in the know about these issues was key. It wasn’t hard to get most of America to support him being that this was, as mentioned before, probably the most united that America had ever been. The people of America and the president were pissed, they put differences aside, and became one to help each other in the time of true need.

Moving on to America`s next chief of state following President George W. Bush is president Barack Obama. President Obama served two terms from 2009 - 2017 as America`s first African American president. Obama had more public celebrity endorsements such as Jay -Z Bruce Springsteen and Katy Perry who gave free concerts in favor of his campaigning, than any other president at the time. These “going public” events helped persuade voters. President Obama seemed to only negotiate due to the fact that he had to, never because he wanted to, and at times it showed. For instance, when he took his argument of gun control to the people, in hopes to help persuade legislature. This particular topic America will always be 50/50 on in my book, mostly because I’m from the South and everyone has multiple guns in their home. So the topic of gun control will always be one that the people, the president, and the legislature will always have to duke it out over.

Finally, we have America`s current President Donald Trump, who was inaugurated in 2017. Donald Trump is most definitely a “going public” style president. President Trump is what you could call “in with the times”, he has social media that he uses just like 99% of the American population, but he needs to stop posting on twitter! For example, President Trump turned to twitter in one instance tweeting “If Chicago doesn't fix the horrible 'carnage' going on, 228 shootings in 2017 with 42 killings (up 24% from 2016), I will send in the Feds” (Lomas, Natasha) During presidential reign I do not believe that any president should be using their social media accounts, although this is an expeditious and vast way to get the word to the people, it is also the quickest way to receive unwanted publicity and criticism for the most simplest of post.

The people want to hear a promising speech with motives and outcome variances rather than a social media post. Prior to becoming the president, Donald Trump was and still is a multi billionaire with multiple businesses. Wait a minute, wouldn’t this make him great at negotiating? Not exactly. Donald Trump as a businessman has a “my way or no way” negotiation style. This style followed him once becoming President Donald Trump. In some ways his business arrogance of negotiation style great, in others it hurts the American people. He must remember as president, he is not negotiating a business deal, rather he is negotiating the lifestyle and future of the American population.

As is goes without saying, we all know that every president has endless hours of negotiating to do. That is par for the course you could say, although it doesn’t mean the president`s skill in this particular area is satisfactory. We see that more commonly the presidents reach out to the public through some type of media, to get them to agree with their ideas, thus winning overt get the legislature to agree with those same ideas. After all, it is easier to pass bills within the legislative branches when you have the nation agreeing with you, than it would be to change the minds of individual members of the legislature.