Open AccessThe Failure of Legislative Leadership: A Retrospective Study of Crafting the State of the Unions in the George H. W. Bush White House
Author(s) -
Iwona Świątczak-Wasilewska
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
res rhetorica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.101
H-Index - 1
ISSN - 2392-3113
DOI - 10.29107/rr2020.2.6
Subject(s) - george (robot) , legislature , white (mutation) , state (computer science) , political science , public administration , balance (ability) , law , management , sociology , art , art history , psychology , economics , biochemistry , chemistry , algorithm , computer science , gene , neuroscience
The analysis of the archival documents illustrates that speechwriting in the George H. W. Bush White House was decentralized and responsibility for crafting Bush Senior’s State of the Unions (SOTUs) was diffused among a team of different writers each year. George H. W. Bush would not use his SOTUs as an opportunity to assert his legislative leadership. The preferred structure of Bush Senior’s SOTU was a thematic, not a programmatic speech. The study concludes that a speechwriting process that fails to balance the ceremonial and deliberative aspects of the SOTU undermines the president’s opportunity to assert his legislative leadership.