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Article: Spinner in Chief: How Presidents Sell Their Policies and Themselves.(Book review)
- Article from:
- Presidential Studies Quarterly
- Article date:
- December 1, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 Center for the Study of the Presidency. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Spinner in Chief: How Presidents Sell Their Policies and Themselves. By Stephen J. Farnsworth. Boulder, CO: Paradigm, 2009. 189 pp.
When does a civil war become a civil war? When is torture properly called torture? Not until the president says so, and, in the George W. Bush administration on those counts, preferably never. According to Stephen Farnsworth, it all depends on how well a president can sell or spin the story (p. 44).
But is it spin--or salesmanship, public relations, or self-delusion? Is it all or none of these?
Presidents sell themselves--to get elected and reelected, to promote their policies, and to correct (cover up?) their ...