Inaugural addresses reflect presidential motives rather than speechwriter voices

Evidence

When formal prepared speeches are scored, it is natural to ask whether the results reflect the motives of the president or those of the speechwriters. There are, however, several reasons for believing that this is not an important problem. First, any good speechwriter knows how to produce words and images that feel appropriate and comfortable to the presidential client. Second, before a speech as important as the first inaugural address, presidents spend a good deal of time reviewing and changing the text, paying special attention to the kinds of images that are coded in the motive-scoring systems. For example, the various drafts of President Kennedy’s inaugural address show insertions and deletions of storable imagery, in Kennedy’s own handwriting. Many speeches in the Eisenhower Library archives show the same. Thus, although the words may have originated from many sources, in the end an inaugural address probably says almost exactly what the president wants it to say. The final justification of these scores, of course, is their validity in terms of predicting presidential actions and outcomes, as shown in this article and in other studies using the scores. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 1369

Categorization

• QUESTION: The ‘almost exactly what the president wants’ claim rests on Kennedy and Eisenhower archival evidence; worth asking how well it generalizes to other presidencies.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 1369