On Deaf Ears

The typical legislative strategy for recent presidents has been to move Congress by winning public support.  George Edwards analyzes hundreds of public opinion polls and finds that this strategy usually fails.  He explains why presidents are frequently unable to move public opinion and suggests they use other means to achieve legislative success. That presidents use the ‘bully pulpit’ to exert influence in Washington is a truism of American Politics. What Edwards finds in this remarkable book is that the truism isn’t true that presidents―even those at the top of their form―persistently fail to move public sentiment in preferred directions.