ABSTRACT
On his fourth day in office, President Barack Obama delivered his first radio address to the nation. His remarks focused on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, legislation that Obama hoped Congress would pass quickly in order to stem the economic downturn. Despite the fact that the news media and many politicians commonly referred to the legislation as a “stimulus package,” Obama did not use the word stimulus once in his 806-word address. Democratic pollsters had indicated that the public was more willing to support an economic recovery package than an economic stimulus. Their research also indicated that the public was more supportive of the legislation when told about how the money would be spent than about the total amount of spending (Brown 2009). Not surprisingly, Obama’s speech framed the legislation in a favorable way by focusing almost entirely on the programs that the spending would support, without ever mentioning the total size of the bill.
