This thesis has examined the 1940 pre-convention speeches of Wendell Willkie. The primary objective of the study was to discover and examine some of the chief rhetorical strategies employed by Willkie in his attempt to overcome serious rhetorical problems, to gain the Republican party nomination, and to achieve national prominence. The study traced Willkie'e personal and political development, discussed the major issues of the campaign, and focused on Willkie's major persuasive strategies.The analysis of the strategies of 'attack' and 'unity and principle' revealed that Willkie was competent in his choice and development of issues, effective in reducing the significance of his rhetorical problems, and successful in his attempt to gain national prominence in a short period of time. One might conclude that Willkie's rhetorical choices reflected an understanding of and an adaptation to the rhetorical climate and audience in 1940.

This study concerned the political thought of Garry Wills. His books Nixon Agonistes (1969), and Confessions of a Conservative (1979), and the article "The Order of Convenience" (1961) were all analyzed. A common theme in Wills's thought is the rejection of individualism. He also finds fault in the liberal orthodoxies that serve as a governing orthodoxies in the United States. In place of liberal individual Wills suggests the Convenient State, a entity based on “loved things held in common." The potential inadequacy of the Convenient State is presented in light of the economic, racial, class, and ethnic divisions that trouble the United States. / Department of Political Science

The purpose of this dissertation was to investigate and chronicle the career of conservative Republican Senator, Homer E. Capehart who served Indiana during the administrations of Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and John Fitzgerald Kennedy.While the dissertation examined the long political career of the Indiana Senator, special emphasis was placed upon Capehart's contribution as a "cold warrior" to the formation of American foreign policy from World War II to 1962.Most of the information collected on the Senate career of Capehart came from the following sources: (1) Interviews conducted with the former Senator and numerous individuals, both friend and foe, who were personally involved in Capehart's turbulent political career; (2) Correspondence conducted with several individuals who had direct knowledge of Capehart's career; (3) Many newspaper and magazine articles reporting the Senator's statements, senatorial and public performance during his three terms; (4) Books concerning political topics in which Capehart had a direct involvement; (5) The Congressional Record and the Congressional Quarterly Almanac,, recording the Senator's public statements and voting records; (6) The extensive collection of private documents and letters of the "Capehart Collection" located in the Indiana State Historical Library; and (7) Valuable information gathered from other Indiana public university libraries, especially Indiana University.The dissertation investigates Senator Capehart's contributions against the background of the Cold War. The paper is organized chronologically. Each chapter deals with a specific interval in Homer Capehart's career. The first chapter details Capehart's early life and subsequent business career. The second chapter investigates Capehart's rise to political power. The third chapter examines the early days of Capehart's Senate tenure under the Truman administration. The fourth chapter chronicles Capehart's political career during the Eisenhower years. The final chapter looks at Capehart's career during the Kennedy administration with special attention directed toward Capehart's involvement in the Cuban missile crisis and his last political campaign.Capehart, the politician businessman, was the personification of the Horatio Alger saga. The former Senator, who was born into a poor Southern Indiana rural environment, had amassed a personal fortune in the jukebox business by his 40th birthday. Politically, life began at 40 for Capehart who then directed his talents and tremendous energy toward establishing a powerful political base from which he eventually secured a seat in the United States Senate.Capehart went to Franklin Roosevelt's Washington as a businessman, and as a vociferous supporter of free enterprise during the final days of World War II. He gained his senatorial reputation as a loyal protege of Senator Robert A. Taft who led the fight against President Truman to deregulate the domestic economy and to prevent the internationalization of the nation's foreign policies. Capehart became a respected member of the conservative Republican Foreign Relations Committee and a powerful member of the Senate Banking Committee during the Eisenhower years. During the Kennedy era, he became a vocal opponent of Democratic "fiscal irresponsibility" and an acknowledged expert on Latin American affairs. Capehart was one of the chief critics of the Kennedy administration's handling of the Cuban missile crisis, a position which not only gave him his greatest national publicity but which, ironically, also contributed mightily to his final political defeat.

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This thesis develops a candidate-centred conception of American presidential nominations. Candidates' choices in nomination politics remain under-theorised. The literature on nominations has tended either to downplay the role of candidates' independent influence or to suggest that the impact of their choices is too idiosyncratic to theorize about. I reject both of these positions; and instead develop the basic elements of a theory in which candidates are the principal agents of change in nomination contests. I argue that candidates make distinct identity, tactical, and management choices, and I show that this simple frame can be used to connect aspirants' varying goals to their choices and actions. In my theory, candidates' prospects remain relatively stable unless a shift occurs in their competitive setting in response to an unexpected event - for instance, a surprising election result. These shifts, or critical junctures, define a candidate's path to his party's presidential nomination. I argue that the rival candidates' choices dominate the development of these critical junctures and, therefore, that candidates' choices are crucial to nomination outcomes. Structural factors, the actions of non-candidates and the effects of exogenous events, account for a minority of critical junctures. In the empirical chapters of this study, I examine the Democratic and Republican nomination contests in selected years before the McGovern-Fraser reforms (1912, 1924, 1932) and in post-reform cases (1972, 1976, 1980) to demonstrate the pervasive influence of candidates' choices in contrasting institutional settings. These cases confirm my basic claim about the centrality of candidates' choices and also suggest significant ways in which candidates' choices have changed between 1912 and 1980.

ix, 99 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / This study examines how the news media and U.S. officials within the Bush administration utilized rhetoric and specific words over others to frame the violence and civil unrest in Iraq following the U.S. invasion. This study incorporates a mixed methods approach to framing analysis. It seeks to advance framing research into the role of the media in presenting dominant frames set forth by powerful political elites. By examining Department of Defense news briefings, this study critiques the officials' framing of the violence and unrest in Iraq. Likewise, through a content analysis of two newspapers' coverage of the Iraq War, it examines the frequency of certain key terms as it attempts to locate the emergence of dominant rhetorical frames, particularly "insurgency." Results reveal that officials framed Iraq's insurgency as part of the war on terror and the insurgency frame emerged in print during the periods of study. / Committee in charge: Prof. John Russial, Chair; Prof. Patricia A Curtin; Prof. Carl Bybee

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