Barack Obama Quotes
There is probably a perverse pride in my administration... that we were going to do the right thing, even if short-term it was unpopular. And I think anybody who's occupied this office has to remember that success is determined by an intersection in policy and politics and that you can't be neglecting of marketing and P.R. and public opinion.
Obama, Barack. Interview by Jonathan Chait. "5 Days That Shaped a Presidency." New York Magazine, 2 Oct. 2016.
He and his Prime Minister, John Majors, had become so unpopular, that they were forced to resign by their own Conservative Party and never had to be voted out of office.
Explaining why the President didn't have more press conferences:
Mencken was a brilliant and funny but pompous snob who had little respect for the average person.
Canes-Wrone developed Conditional Pandering Theory. The very popular Presidents do not have to engage in pandering. The unpopular presidents will not be helped much so they have little to gain by using this technique which is personally distasteful to almost all politicians. It is the middle of the road Presidents who tend to make the biggest use of policy pandering.
Barack Hussein Obama II is an American politician and attorney who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the United States. He previously served as a U.S. senator from Illinois from 2005 to 2008 and as an Illinois state senator from 1997 to 2004.
