This thesis examines the factors affecting the outcome of the 1948 presidential election. The factors which will be take up are not a complete list of all those influences on the election but will be those which appeared most frequently in writings on the subject and those which, in the writer's opinion, exerted the strongest influence. By combining specific studies of the tree large pivotal states, with the investigation of general factors affecting the election, it is believed that certain rather definite conclusions can be drawn concerning what happened in the country as a whole.

This study seeks to determine, through content analysis, whether there was evidence in news magazines during the 1980 presidential campaign to support the claim that Anderson was a "media-created candidate." Studying weekly issues of Time, Newsweek, and U. S. News & World Report from April 28, 1980 through November 3, 1980, it was found that (a) Anderson received 17 per cent of the total campaign coverage, compared to Reagan's 42 per cent and Carter's 37 per cent, and (b) overall, Anderson's coverage was mildly negative in all magazines. The study concludes that rather than "creating" Anderson, news magazines may have undercut his viability by restricting the length and number of stories about him.

The purpose of this study was to describe and analyze George McGovern's rhetorical strategies during the three-week period known as the "Eagleton Affair." First, the thesis describes the communications related to the selection of Thomas Eagleton as McGovern's running mate in 1972. Second, it analyzes the communications related to the disclosure of Eagleton's past medical history. Third, it explains McGovern's vacillating rhetorical strategies and the communications which led to Eagleton's withdrawal from the Democratic ticket. The results of this study show that McGovern's rhetoric reflected indecisiveness, inconsistency, and impulsiveness. The rhetorical errors greatly damaged his credibility as a serious presidential contender.

The purpose of this thesis is to reveal the slanderous rhetoric of the Federalist and Republican parties during the American presidential election of 1800. Both parties relied on newspapers, pamphlets, sermons, and songs to influence public opinion; however, newspapers were the most effective means of swaying the voters. Although the Federalists, led by John Adams and Alexander Hamilton, had almost twice as many partisan newspapers to disseminate their propaganda, the Republicans, under the leadership of Thomas Jefferson, had a much larger number of journals that were substantially more dogmatic in their denunciations. This advantage, coupled with internal Federalist crises, enabled the Republicans to be victorious at the polls. This study proves that the campaign of 1800 was one of the most libelous and rancorous in United States history.

From the television advertisements made by presidential candidates from 1952 to 1976, this study analyzed the 131 advertisements that contained women. The analysis used the following descriptors: Number of Women's Roles, Age, Occupation, Marital Status, Locale, Concerns, and Status Relative to the Candidate. The results indicate that women are most likely to be shown as physically present although not speaking, in the 18 to 30 age group, belonging to a non-business atmosphere yet outside the home, and of an unknown marital status, and will not be shown in the same frame as the candidate. Womens' images in these advertisements were most commonly associated with issues involving the cost of living, taxes, pro-Nixon, and social security.

Despite analysts' predictions and assertions prior to the 2016 presidential election, the Hispanic vote did not prove decisive. Donald Trump's victory elucidates a new electoral calculus, one that will be ruled simultaneously by changing demographics and the backlash against such change. While Hispanic voters largely supported Hillary Clinton, structural and individual impediments hinder their access to the voting booth and their turnout on election day. This thesis explores the reasons why the Hispanic electorate did not prove decisive in the 2016 presidential election. It further illuminates the changing Electoral College map, in which the Midwest and the Rustbelt are determined by an older white electorate and the South and Southwest are determined by an influx of minorities and immigrants, namely the Hispanic electorate. The 2016 presidential election illustrates the demographic changes and subsequent backlash that will persist over the next decade. A growing Hispanic population and electorate will eventually alter the political calculus of national and state elections, but turnout among white voters will continue to prove decisive in the near future. White backlash and transactional voting (e.g. economic, religious) clearly clinched Trump's success in crucial swing states, ultimately securing his Electoral College win. A review of polling prior to the 2016 election, as well as case studies of economic transactional and Hispanic Trump voters, demonstrates the breakdown across party and state lines that ensured Trump's Electoral College victory, despite a large and expanding Hispanic electorate. While it will continue to grow exponentially, it is unlikely that the Hispanic electorate will prove decisive as soon as the 2020 presidential election, but it will inevitably determine national and state elections within the next decade.

This thesis takes a conversation-analytic approach examining the pragmatic functions of the linguistic marker "first (off/of all)" in second-pair-part (i.e., responsive) position relative to questions. Using data from question-answer sequences in the 2015-2016 U.S. Presidential Republican primary debates, I propose six claims regarding the composition, position, and action of what is referred to as the practice of "First"-prefacing. Analysis reveals that "First"-prefacing projects the displacement of a response (conforming or non-conforming) to a question. In projecting the displacement of a response, "First"-prefacing does two things: (1) it projects that the unit(s) of talk to come immediately next will be something other than a response, and thus this "first" matter should not be heard as being designedly "responsive" to the question; and (2) it claims that a conditionally relevant response to the question is forthcoming after the "first" matter is resolved. Debaters largely used "First"-prefacing to temporarily "get out from under" a question's conditional relevancies in order to "reach back" beyond the question and perform actions more properly sequentially fitted to earlier portions of the debate (e.g., defend themselves, make additional comments, counter-criticize other debaters). The more general function of "First"-prefacing as a misplacement marker is discussed, and its existence in ordinary conversation is briefly demonstrated.

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American politics from 1832 to 1848 underwent a profound transformation. Whereas in the early years of the republic politics had been based on deference and elitism, by the early 1830's a definite change in the political arena had occurred. With the coming of the "Age of Jackson, " the political rules and styles of the older era began to change. The politics of deference began to give way to the politics of "availability." Because this study is a discussion, examination, and analysis of Webster's and Clay's "appeal to reason, " the sources most heavily consulted were the published and microfilmed correspondence, speeches, and papers of these two statesmen. Other personal papers, correspondence, memoirs, and biographies of other central personalities of the middle period, both protagonists and antagonists, were used in order to place Webster and Clay in proper historical perspective. This dissertation is organized chronologically, and it traces and analyzes the evolution of the candidacies of Webster and Clay for the presidency from the early 1830's through the four presidential elections from 1836 to 1848. Each chapter includes an examination of Clay's and Webster's attempts to secure the Whig nomination and gain the presidency through forceful appeals to the voters' sense of logic and reason. Each chapter also includes a discussion and analysis of why these two men always failed.

The purpose of this research was to determine the aural and visual issues present in televised political campaign advertising of the 1972 Presidential election year. Content analysis was the method employed to determine these issues. The campaign commercials of George McGovern and Richard Nixon were the subject of the analysis. The issues coded were Social Welfare, Natural Resources, Labor, Management, Civil Rights, Economy, Foreign Affairs, Vietnam, Government, Public Order, Defense, Republicans, and Democrats. The results show that the campaigns used issues appearing in network news coverage, the percentage of time each campaign spent on the issues, and that the aural content was supported by the visual images in the commercials.