ireside” chat, or run a propaganda or slandering campaign in order to bring public opinion over his bill into favor. Another factor in the president’s mobilization of support for a program in congress is presidential patronage.Presidential patronage as defined by the president now in office, giving his best supporters or contributors key positions in office. In order for the president to be able to rally support quickly and efficiently from the public, having people in offices or positions of influence over many people is very favorable. As these people who being given patronage jobs for their support of the president, will feel obligated to show support. Not only can the people the president appointed to office show their support but they can rally their “underlings” in office for their support also. This is a very favorable way for the president to gain momentum with his bill, because these people are basically guaranteed votes and need only to show their strength to congress to support this idea. Mixed into the patronage idea are the contributors necessary for most of the funds behind a campaign. The president has the advantage here, because he can appoint these contributors to honorary positions. Therefore threatening the individual congressmen with the thought of losing a valuable contributor for their own campaigns for office (if they go against the president and his now loyal campaign contributors.) The president having both control over public opinion and influence with his patron appointments, runs into trouble with congress when iron triangles are faced. The iron triangle basically depicts the actions of president being judged by congress, who then are judged by the interest groups. The problem with this situation is that congress may propose something that the interest groups support, but be shot down in turn by the president. The opposite holds true when the president and congress are hamm...
