This education resource guide is designed to augment the content included in Part VI of the NCBLA’s anthology Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out. Included on these pages are engaging activities, discussion questions, and recommendations for print and online resources regarding most of the content in Part VI of Our White House.

This thesis seeks to determine if there is a relationship between a vice president of the United States governing influence and his involvement in a presidential reelection campaign. The period for this thesis will begin with Richard Nixon'­s vice presidency and end with Al Gore's. To find a connection I will create factors that will examine both governing influence and reelection campaign involvement. / Master of Arts

This education resource guide is designed to augment the content included in Part III of the NCBLA’s anthology Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out. Included on these pages are engaging activities and discussion questions regarding some of the articles and stories in Part III of Our White House.

Framing analyses have been among the most popular areas of research for scholars in political communication. Similarly, minimum wage legislation has been a popular topic for researchers in labor economics. However, few studies have used framing analysis to investigate the issue of minimum wage. This exploratory quantitative content analysis coded 45 variables in 236 lengthy press documents spanning 84 years of Democratic presidential administrations. More specifically, this study explored presence of generic frames, stakeholders, and ideological identities employed by Democratic presidential administrations since 1933. Results found that Democratic presidential administrations have been generally consistent in framing minimum wage policy. However, ideological discrepancies in Democratic presidents' actual framing practice were detected: a deepening pro-fairness attitude in specific frames and a growing pro-business empathy in stakeholder presence. The study concluded that framing minimum wage policy has become increasingly expressive: partisan identities transcend ideological positions. Democratic administrations generally maintain a single approach when highlighting minimum wage increase and endorse the Fair Labor Standards Act, albeit using different and even conflicting framing practices over time. To sustain the findings, this study suggests an equivalent study on Republican presidential administrations and their framing of minimum wage policy. / Master of Arts / Framing analyses have been among the most popular areas of research for scholars in political communication. Similarly, minimum wage legislation has been a popular topic for researchers in labor economics. However, few studies have used framing analysis to investigate the issue of minimum wage. This exploratory quantitative content analysis coded 45 variables in 236 lengthy press documents spanning 84 years of Democratic presidential administrations. More specifically, this study explored presence of generic frames, stakeholders, and ideological identities employed by Democratic presidential administrations since 1933. Results found that Democratic presidential administrations have been generally consistent in framing minimum wage policy. However, ideological discrepancies in Democratic presidents’ actual framing practice were detected: a deepening pro-fairness attitude in specific frames and a growing pro-business empathy in stakeholder presence. The study concluded that framing minimum wage policy has become increasingly expressive: partisan identities transcend ideological positions. Democratic administrations generally maintain a single approach when highlighting minimum wage increase and endorse the Fair Labor Standards Act, albeit using different and even conflicting framing practices over time. To sustain the findings, this study suggests an equivalent study on Republican presidential administrations and their framing of minimum wage policy

Thesis advisor: Patrick Maney / Among American First Ladies, one presidential wife in particular consistently ranks among one of the most influential women to hold the office. Eleanor Roosevelt’s precedent-setting tenure in the White House established a lasting legacy that influenced many of the women who followed her. Two of these First Ladies, Betty Ford and Rosalynn Carter, are often overlooked in comparative studies of Eleanor Roosevelt with other presidential wives. Scholars typically highlight Hillary Rodham Clinton or Lady Bird Johnson, neglecting the First Ladyships of Ford and Carter. These two women, however, both pointed to Eleanor Roosevelt as an inspiration for their approach to the office. Both Betty Ford and Rosalynn Carter incorporated three main components of Eleanor Roosevelt’s impressive legacy into their tenures as First Lady of the United States: an ever-expanding public role, increased independence, and launching initiatives concerned with social welfare to improve the lives of their fellow Americans. All of these actions can be traced back to Roosevelt’s innovative First Ladyship and their appearance in the successive Ford and Carter administrations highlight the interconnectedness of all three First Ladies and their considerable impact on their country both during and after their time in the White House. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2012. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: College Honors Program. / Discipline: History.

Excerpt: In the White House, Margaret Truman constantly heard floors popping, doors knocking, and drapes sidling back and forth.

Excerpt: Having grown-up in a cabin in upstate New York with only a Bible, hymnal, and almanac as reading material, President Millard Fillmore was the type of person who would give his life for a book – and he almost did.

This paper attempts to provide an answer to the question of why the White House Tribal Nations Conferences (2009-2011) are happening by offering two hypothesis-- the first being the growing American Indian political power, while the other looks at whether the Conferences are simply symbolic politics--as potential answers. An in depth analysis of the Conferences and the purported accomplishments from the summits are analyzed in order to gain a deeper understanding of the Conferences themselves. Lastly, an interview with a tribal leader is presented to provide another framework in which to view the Conferences.

Drawing on social movement literature, my thesis examines if news media, NGO, business and government engagement of the BP Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico is affected by issue or event complexity, visuality, or issue build-up. To engage this, data from English language newspaper articles in the US, Canada, and the UK, press releases by Greenpeace and Sierra Club, press releases by BP, ExxonMobil, and Shell as well as press releases by the White House are analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative methods. I find that as an issue or event’s casual narrative becomes less complicated and as it becomes easier to portray visually its engagement by social and political actors increases. I also find that issue engagement is influenced by whether or not social and political actors signal an issue or an event’s importance to others.

This paper attempts to analyze the challenges facing the organization of the modern White House staff and their domestic and foreign policymaking processes. It acknowledges that while the president does exercise influence over his or her staff through personal management style, it find that it has also developed institutional traits since the establishment of the Executive Office of the President (EOP). These traits include the increasing trend towards internal and external forms of centralization in the White House staff over policymaking authority and direction. The effects from these traits often exacerbate inherent bureaucratic infighting and hamper substantive policymaking. Furthermore, the rise of political partisanship, along with changes in the media landscape due to technological advances, has shifted the political and policymaking environment in the 21st century. By assessing this environmental shift, this paper finds that it is now more difficult for presidents and their White House staffs to think critically and expansively about domestic and foreign policy issues. This paper argues that given these developments, it is more necessary than ever for White House staffs to be organized in a way that promotes a wide range of policy advice and options for the president and an honest broker to coordinate them. This paper argues that such an organization can be achieved through the application of Alexander George’s theory of multiple advocacy. It assesses George’s theory and the history of its application within both the operations of the White House policy councils and the functions of key aides, the White House Chief of Staff (COS) and the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (APNSA). Through this assessment, it concludes that a White House staff organized around the principles of multiple advocacy and honest brokerage is not only the best way to foster substantive domestic and foreign policymaking, but also that the principles can still be applied successfully in the 21st century environment.