This revised and updated edition remains the only book-length rhetorical analysis of national political debates from 1960 to the present. The contributors, all rhetorical critics, answer important questions about political debating in the United States, including: Why is the press involved in political debates? Why are debates likely to be an enduring part of our presidential campaigns? Why are some candidates successful as debaters while others are not? Chapter authors offer insight into the goals commonly shared by political debaters and the rhetorical strategies most frequently used by national political debaters. By providing an overall analysis of a variety of debate practices, this book demonstrates how debates have become more than just campaign spectacles, but rather complex, calculated political events with significant consequences. Predebate, debate, and postdebate strategies are considered in depth in these microanalyses. Scholars and students of speech communication, particularly those concerned with political communication, will find this volume noteworthy, as will those in the related disciplines of political science, history, and journalism.

This revised and updated edition remains the only book-length rhetorical analysis of national political debates from 1960 to the present. By providing an overall analysis of a variety of debate practices, this book demonstrates how debates have become more than just campaign spectacles, but rather complex, calculated political events with significant consequences.

Introduction by Robert V. FriedenbergThe 1960 Kennedy-Nixon Presidential Debates by Theodore O. Windt Jr.The 1976 Carter-Ford Presidential Debates by Goodwin BerquistThe 1976 Mondale-Dole Vice Presidential Debate by Kevin SauterThe 1980 Reagan-Carter Presidential Debate by Kurt Ritter and David HenryThe 1984 Reagan-Mondale Presidential Debates by Craig Allen Smith and Kathy B. SmithThe 1984 Bush-Ferraro Vice Presidential Debate by Judith S. TrentThe 1988 Bush-Dukakis Presidential Debates by Halford Ross RyanThe 1988 Quayle-Bentsen Vice Presidential Debate by Warren D. DeckerThe 1992 Clinton-Bush-Perot Presidential Debates by Dan F. HahnThe 1992 Gore-Quayle-Stockdale Vice Presidential Debate by L. Patrick DevlinPatterns and Trends in National Political Debates: 1960-1992 by Robert V. FriedenbergSelected Bibliography on Political Camapign DebatingIndex