American Politics Today - Essentials (3rd Ed)

THE PRESIDENT’S JOB DESCRIPTION| 309

selection. This process begins when a presidential candidate captures the party’s
nomination. For example, soon after Barack Obama became the presumptive
Democratic Party nominee by amassing a majority of convention delegates, some
of his senior aides and advisers took on leadership positions in the Democratic
Party organization.^37
The president’s connection to the party refl ects their intertwined interests.
The president needs support from his party members in Congress to enact legisla-
tion, and the party and its candidates need the president to compile a record of pol-
icy achievements that refl ect well on the party and to help raise the funds needed
for the next election. Therefore, party leaders generally defer to a presidential can-
didate’s (or a president’s) staffi ng requests, and most presidents and presidential
candidates take time to meet with national party leaders and the congressional
leadership from their party to plan legislative strategies, make joint campaign
appearances, and raise funds for the party’s candidates.
When presidential approval ratings drop to low levels, most members of Congress
see no political advantage in campaigning with the president or supporting his pro-
posals, and they may become increasingly reluctant to comply with his requests. In
the 2010 elections, for example, Democratic incumbents in many districts believed
that campaigning with President Obama would reduce their chances of re- election,

Source: Approval data from the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, University of Connecticut, “Data
Access: Presidential Approval,” http://webapps.ropercenter.uconn.edu/CFIDE/roper/presidential/webroot/
presidential_rating.cfm (accessed 10/26/12).

PRESIDENTIAL POPULARITY AND RE-ELECTION

This fi gure shows the pre-election year average approval ratings for recent presidents
who ran for re-election. It shows that a president’s chances of winning re-election are
related to his popularity. At what level of approval would you say that an incumbent
president is likely to be re-elected?

FIGURE » 10.1

Percent approval

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100%

Johnson (1964)

Nixon (1972)Ford (1976)Carter (1980)Reagan (1984)G. H. W. BushClinton (1996)

(1992)

G. W. Bush (2004)

Obama (2012)

Re-elected

Defeated