Robert Teeter

“While the President leads his potential adversaries in almost every state, his support is soft. He is seen as honest, sincere, just, and friendly but gets mediocre or relatively poor ratings being competent strong, intelligent, and a forceful leader.”

“The President has not created any Ford constituency, unique from that of any Republican President. The one exception to this is that he does show unique strength with young voters for a Republican.”

“There needs to be a planned series of speeches, interviews, etc., over the next two or three months by administration officials and other public figures talking about President Ford, what he is trying to do and what he has accomplished.”

“Most of the things that need to be said about the President are things he can't say himself.”

“It is my belief that it is not the fact that he traveled as much as he did during the past few months as much as what he said and how he said it that hurt him.”

“There are not enough people out talking about the President positively.”

“Whatever he does should be seen as working at the Presidency and if he goes to Colorado for Christmas, it should be for a minimum amount of time, the family tradition and family get-together aspect emphasized, and it be seen as a working vacation.”

“As the society has gotten larger and more complex, individuals have lost their ability to influence any of the institutions that affect their lives.”

“We have for the past year and undoubtedly will be for the next year, dealing with an electorate that is more alienated and more cynical than at any point in modern time.”

“People feel that decisions about their jobs, the way their children are educated, how their church functions, and products they buy are made by someone and some place so distant that they can't find anybody to talk to that has any influence over them.”

“Research has shown that the perceived style of leadership is by far the most important thing to most voters in evaluating officeholders and candidates.”

“This has resulted in more and more people becoming inner-directed and having as their only goal, getting as much as they can get out of the system and putting as little into it as possible.”

“We need a little more 'Hail to the Chief.'”

“Another cause for the increase in alienation and cynicism is a feeling that too many policy decisions that affect individuals have been taken out of any system that has accountability or that they can influence.”

“While only about half of the voters feel they know very much about Reagan or what he stands for, the Republicans who do have a very positive perception of him.”

“Also the fact that anything he does is seen and heard by the entire country, not just his actual audience or those who live in the region he happens to be in.”

“Every person has only so much attention to give, and politics and government takes up only a fraction of what it did 25 years ago.”

“The President, the Administration and the campaign need a theme. I am concerned that the President is seen as a tactician without an overall strategy of his plan for the country.”

“This person should not be directly connected with the President Ford Committee nor should he be seen as a member of the liberal wing of the Republican Party. He should be someone like Laird or Rogers Morton.”

“While these attitudes are more visible when directed at government, there is ample evidence that many working people distrust their own union as much as they do the corporation they work for.”