Ronald Reagan's Presidency: The Impact of an Alcoholic Parent

Ronald Reagan enjoyed a successful political career. Nevertheless, his political life was affected dramatically by the fact that he was the son of an alcoholic parent. Alcoholic parents leave deep marks on their children's lives, even after those children become adults. As president of the United States, Reagan clearly demonstrated these marks. He was aloof and distant, was often a disengaged leader, showed inordinate loyalty to associates even when such loyalty became problematic, was prone to live in a world of make‐believe, married compulsive women, and craved approval and applause. Each of these behavioral characteristics was part of the psychological legacy left to this president by his long‐dead alcoholic father. Some of them damaged his presidency greatly; others, however, may well have assisted it.     

Telling It Slant: Gender Roles,Power, and Narrative Style in the First Ladies' Autobiographies

This article examines the first ladies' autobiographies as works that reveal their author-subjects' perspectives and interpretations. Attention is focused on the White House years and, more specifically, on the author-subjects' depiction of their performance of the gender-based roles attributed to the first ladyship. Consistent patterns are identified in the autobiographers' narrative styles, with a slant (persuasive) narrative style predominating and a direct (argumentative) narrative style typically reserved to countering critics. The implications of this interpretation, for the individual first ladies and for the institution of the first ladyship, are profound.     

Leadership Image-Building: After Clinton and Watergate

Leadership images are built collectively by leaders and their relevantconstituencies—elected officials, the news media, and the public. The process of buildingleadership image rests on prior expectations about the leader, policy outputs, the course ofevents, and the disposition of political resources. In building images of leadership, each of thethree constituencies puts more weight on some aspects of image-building than on others: Thepublic sees the president primarily in terms of his previous behavior, the media view thepresident through the lens of immediate events, and other elected officials focus on politicalresources. One of the president's most important resources is his public image. It can helphim to maintain the loyalty of other officials, which in turn contributes to balanced newscoverage, even in times of crisis. President Clinton was able to preserve his public image throughthe impeachment debacle in large part because of low public expectations about his personalmoral behavior and satisfaction with his economic leadership. Conversely, President Nixon wasforced to resign because of high public expectations about his personal probity anddisappointment with his management of the economy.