In an effort to bring closure to the 2000 presidential election, Al Gore and George W. Bush adapted the traditional themes of victory and concession speeches to the extraordinary circumstances of the 2000 campaign. They amplified the more salient of the traditional themes—declaring victory or defeat, calling for national unity, and praising American democracy. The unconventional election result required the speakers to make artful reinterpretations of the theme on American democracy. At the same time, the speakers truncated the remaining traditional themes for victory and concession speeches—affirming the candidate's campaign, assuming a postcampaign role, and thanking supporters. Both speeches included religious references in a greater degree than has normally been the case in such addresses. In addition, the candidates created settings for their speeches that served their political and rhetorical purposes.
Given the controversies related to race, gender, and age that characterized the 2008 campaign, and the uniquely historic outcome of the presidential election, one might expect deviations from rhetorical conventions associated with the concession and victory statements that marked the end of the campaign. This essay examines issues related to the race, gender, and age of Barack Obama, John McCain, and Sarah Palin that were manifest during the campaign and the ways McCain and Obama addressed those controversial issues in their respective concession and victory speeches. The candidates’ speeches maintained continuity with the generic aspects of concession and victory speeches. Within those generic constraints, McCain and Obama primarily addressed aspects of race. McCain implicitly addressed contemporary and continuing issues related to gender, whereas Obama did not, but neither candidate addressed issues related to age.
Following the October 1986 U.S.-Soviet summit in Reykjavík, Iceland, news media in the United States characterized the Reagan-Gorbachev meeting as a failure because President Ronald Reagan refused to compromise on his commitment to the development of a Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). This essay examines Reagan’s rhetoric of public diplomacy surrounding the Reykjavík Summit and suggests an alternative characterization. Reagan used SDI to prod Mikhail Gorbachev toward liberalization and democratization of the Soviet Union, particularly in the area of human rights.
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