ABSTRACT
To some extent, the tools of the political campaign can be applied to the needs of leadership once in office. Lyndon Johnson, for example, monitored the television networks with a bank of three sets that he had installed in the Oval Office, and patrolled the corridors of the White House with the latest public opinion polls bulging from his pockets. George Bush’s advisers indicated their intention to monitor the president’s performance through the reactions of focus groups like the one they used in Paramus. The era of the permanent campaign is upon the politicians. The transference of the assumptions and practices of the campaign into the conduct of high public office that is so much a part of the contemporary political scene carries both challenge and temptation. In addition to gaining publicity, newsmaking is a means that politicians can use to develop support for their programs—a device for mobilizing public opinion.
