Presidents influence party perception

Previous work has demonstrated presidents have a powerful influence on their party's popularity, reputation for competence, perceived ideological leanings, and attractiveness as an object of personal identification. This article extends the analysis by examining (1) how presidents shape popular opinions of congressional parties and leaders, (2) bow evaluations of the president's handling of specific policy areas affecs his party's reputation for effectiveness in handing these domains, (3) bow presidents affect perceptions of sheir party's sympathy for ordinary people, (4) bow presidents influence generic preferences for House candidates and party control of Congress as measured in surveys between elections, and (5) how presidents affect the partisan leanings of the generation thas comes of political age during their administrations. The evidence confirms thas popular reactions to presidents have both immediate and longer-term consequences for how his party and, to a lesser extent, the rival party are regarded by the American people.

The president is his party's dominant public face. His words and actions articulate and define his party's current principles and objectives. Judgments about his competence in managing domestic and foreign affairs inform assessments of his party's competence in such matters. The components of a president's supporting coalition, and the interests he favors while governing, help to define the party's constituent social base and thus appeal as an object of individual identification. People's affective reactions to the president, whatever their source, inevitably color their feelings about the other politicians in his coalition. Every president thus shapes public attitudes toward his party as well as beliefs about who and what it stands for and how well it governs when in office, insofar as the party label represents a brand name, the president bears prime responsibility for the brand's current image and status. Jacobson 2012, 684)