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Spring 2006

Rhetoric and Representation in American Politics

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Unit Two -- Classical Rhetoric and Political Advertising

    Plato and Aristotle Links

  • "Plato on Rhetoric" and "Aristotle on Rhetoric," on the left-hand menu of the American Rhetoric website.

    George Lakoff and Frank Luntz

  • Lakoff's idea of "framing," presented in "Don't Think of an Elephant" and critiqued in "The Framing Wars," a Sunday NYT cover story on Lakoff's ideas.

  • Background on George Lakoff's book, "Don't Think of an Elephant", which is based on Lakoff's longer work, "Moral Politics," should you decide to go back to the source of his thinking.

  • Republican strategist Frank Luntz's "memo," which prompted much controversy when it was leaked during the 2004 election, is available to download in two parts -- Part I and Part II (Note: the pdf files are quite large.)

  • To see Luntz in action, check out this recent PBS Frontline program that featured him.

    • Consider carefully the dialogue between Lakoff and Luntz. What is valuable about their rhetorical strategies? Are they onto something useful in political rhetoric or do their ideas merely perpetuate the problem of sound-byte thinking? If you were a speech writer, would you implement their methods? Why or why not?

Unit One -- Presidential Rhetoric

    Hurricane Katrina Rhetoric

    Feel free to browse the background on the White House site:

  • Official White House news releases, speeches, and photo gallery on hurricanes

    • The following sources complement the news analysis, "The Politics of Katrina," distributed in class:

  • President Struggles to Regain His Pre-Hurricane Swagger, Washington Post, September 24, 2005.

  • President Discusses War on Terror and Hurricane Preparation, September 22, 2005.

  • Kerry Speech at Brown University, September 19, 2005.

  • This Modern World, blog. Read August 24, 2005, "Down the River" entry.

    • Inaugural Addresses

    In our first week of class we discussed your conceptions of political rhetoric in the recent election. What were some of the more memorable rhetorical moments for you? Why do you think you remember them? What impact did they have on the American electorate's perceptions of the candidates?

  • How do such concepts apply to John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address from January 20, 1961 (requires Real Player)?

    • The following links will take you to full-text transcripts and video clips of President Bush's 2005 Inaugural Address and State of Union speech to understand the differences between statements of pure ideology and of policy:

  • George W. Bush 2005 Inaugural Address transcript

  • 2005 Inaugural Address video (Real)

  • 2005 State of the Union transcript

  • 2005 State of the Union video links (Real or Windows Media)

  • NPR analysis of President Bush's use of the word "freedom" in his inaugural speech and a discussion of the historical use and evolution of "freedom" and "liberty" in our American political rhetoric (Real or Windows Media).

  • Listen to a discussion of the President's use of the word freedom between Orlando Patterson and Prof. Richard Epstein of the Univ. of Chicago on the January 26 WBUR radio program On Point (Real, Windows Media, Quicktime).

  • Prior to the "On Point" presentation, Patterson published an OpEd, The Speech Misheard Round the World, which appeared in the New York Times on January 22, 2005. The article further explains Patterson's thoughts on the trope of freedom in the Second Inaugural Address.

  • President Bush's March 16, 2005 press conference.

  • Slate, 3/18/2005. Control the Narrative, Control the White House. Robert Reich offers advice to the Democrats. Bidisha Banerjee's previews an upcoming piece in the New Republic, March 28 and April 4 issues, in which, "Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich claims that 'conservative Republicans have mastered the art of the political narrative and, in doing so, exiled Democrats from politics itself." He believes in 'four stories that Americans had always heard and that made sense of the world they knew': the triumphant individual, the benevolent community, the mob at the gates, the rot at the top. Arguing that Kerry lost the election because he was unable to tap into these narratives, while Bush's war on terror "powerfully revived the Mob at the Gates tale," Reich insists that Democrats have to regain control over these stories."

Political Films

  • Fahrenheit 9/11
  • The official website for the film.

  • Dave Kopel's "59 Deceits."

  • Daily Kos's "Debunking 59 Deceits" (Part 1) and Part 8 (links to parts 2-7 are on each of these pages). There are other sites that question Kopel's 59 Deceits, but this one seems to be the most thorough (and thoroughly motivated). You might browse for rebuttals to the Daily Kos's take.

  • Sample review of Fahrenheit 9/11. You may want to browse for others, but here's what Fox had to say at the film's release.

The Internet and Political Rhetoric

General Resources for Political Rhetoric and Current Politics

Online Collections of Campaign Ads

  • The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials 1952-2004, "an innovative online exhibition presenting more than 250 television commercials from every election year beginning in 1952, when the first campaign ads aired, and including ads from this year's campaign. Visitors can watch nearly four hours of TV commercials and explore the expanding world of Web-based political advertising. The site includes a searchable database and features commentary, historical background, election results, and navigation organized by both year and theme."

  • A new website, p2p-politics.org, uses peer-to-peer (P2P) technology to promote political discourse. On the site you can view a variety of political ads from the 2004 campaign, including candidates' official ads as well as non-professional ads from MoveOn and others. The site also allows users to send political ads to friends using peer-to-peer technology, comment on the messages, and upload their own clips.

2004 Debate Resources


Campaign 2004 News Articles and Op-Ed's

Weblogs in the 2004 Campaign and Election

Democracy, Voting and Districting Issues; the Electoral College; and Election 2000

  • November 20, 2004, Nicholas Kristof, New York Times op-ed, "No More Sham Elections," offering thoughts on electoral reform.


  • Harvard Civil Rights Project Report on Election 2000: "Democracy Spoiled: National,
    State, and County Disparities in Disfranchisement Through Uncounted Ballots"


  • Executive Summary


  • Full Report
  • "In the 2000 presidential election, African Americans made up only 16% of the voting population in Florida but cast 54% of the ballots rejected in automatic machine counts ("machine-rejected ballots"). Across the state, automatic machines rejected 14.4% of the ballots cast by African Americans, but only 1.6% of the ballots cast by others."


  • From Spencer Overton, A Place at the Table: Bush v. Gore Through the Lens of Race, 29 Florida State Law Review 469 (2001)
  • Collection of articles and other materials relating to the 2000 Florida election and subsequent investigations, hearings, and lawsuits


  • American Library Association/Federal Documents Task Force -- A large compendium of links to sites related to voting and elections


  • U.S. Bureau of Census Voting and Registration data


  • Links to articles from the 2001 and 2002 American Political Science Association conference relating to race, ethnicity, and politics.


  • 10/30/03 Washington Post article on differences among black voters


Early Historical Sites and Materials --
Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Early Democracy

  • National Archives (NARA) "Charters of Freedom" Page
    -- Declaration, Constitution, Bill of Rights


  • National Archives (NARA) searchable archive database of over 50 million historical documents. The Archives describes this Access to Archival Databases (AAD) as providing "Online access to a selection of nearly 50 million historic electronic records created by more than 20 federal agencies on a wide range of topics; the ability to search for records with the specific information that you seek; important contextual information to help you understand the records better, including code lists, explanatory notes from NARA archivists, and for some series or files in AAD, related documents.


  • The Avalon Project at Yale Law School: The American Constitution, A Documentary Record


  • Bill of Rights Institute: Extensive collection of links to various founding documents

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