President Clinton's Strategies for Communications in the 1998 TabaccoDebate

II NTRODUCTION The modern political process in the United States is a war of debates conducted through the media. The media has become a battleground for political actors who want to appeal to the public and to promote their agendas, to compete for attention and approval, and to attack and to defend themselves. The press itself intervenes in political debates since it shifts the focus of attention, determines the relative priorities of the issues in a national debate, or suggests to its audience the very nature of the matter concerned. As the political parties are losing their ability to control policy debates, and because of the current, rapid delivery of news through an increasing number of media outlets, this modern “war” necessitates sophisticated skills in communications and strategies on the part of the political actors. The politicians are often assisted by political consultants and communications experts, or their campaigns are managed by a “war room,” as was the case in the 1992 Clinton presidential campaign. 1 Political communications strategies, their concepts and technologies, are typically applied in campaigns, but they have now become prevalent even in daily political performances, most notably in President Bill