Obama in Action - III
An American Presidency Project Exclusive Analysis
February 25, 2009
SANTA BARBARA —On Tuesday February 24 President Obama addressed a Joint Session of Congress on his plans and priorities for the nation. (The invitation to address Congress was extended on February 10). In the speech, Obama outlined a sweeping programmatic agenda and pledged that “we will rebuild; we will recover.”
 It is instructive to contrast the content of Obama’s speech to Bill Clinton’s first speech (1993) on administration goals. Clinton sounded remarkably similar themes—but he did so in a much different economic context and after a more narrow electoral victory.
Obama’s Going Public Style
After 37 days in office, Obama’s administration continues to be the leader in use of unilateral powers of the presidency (30 actions vs. an average of 14.5 for the comparison group). Obama’s “going public” strategy has also been distinctive. Obama has been among the slowest of our group of “change presidents” to use his “bully pulpit” to address the nation as a whole about his priorities. This is clear in the adjacent chart .
However, Obama has been very active in participating in public events at which he makes “remarks.” Obama recorded more such events in the first five weeks of his presidency than any presidents in our comparison group. He’s also done more events outside Washington, D.C. than the others.
Foreign Relations
On February 19, the 30th day in office, Obama had his first meeting with a foreign head of government, the Canadian Prime Minister; in Canada. About half of our comparison group met with foreign leaders before their 30th day in office . However, Obama almost equaled George W. Bush’s record of only 27 days in office before visiting a foreign country as president.
Five out of the nine presidents we are studying, met first, as did Obama, with the Canadian PM (also Ike, JFK, Clinton, Bush). Other “first meetings” have been with the Mexican President (Carter), Jamaican PM (Reagan), UK PM (FDR).
On his 34th day in office, Richard Nixon began a week-long European tour that took him to five different capitols. Reagan visited Canada on his 49th day in office.
Missing from the White House Website.
The White House website continues to underreport Obama’s activity and to post information, including with the Federal Register, with a substantial delay. There is also inconsistency. NARA has published one Obama “signing statement” but several others that are contemporaneous have only been released as WH press releases.
©The American Presidency Project
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