This volume explores a central political paradox: why American scholars, journalists, and citizens periodically question the viability of their presidential electoral system and yet believe that presidential elections are our best hope for tomorrow.

Preface -- Presidential Campaigning in America -- The Study of Presidential Campaigning: Yesterday's Campaigns and Today's Issues -- Candidate-Generated Images in Presidential Campaigns -- Introduction -- American Self Images and the Presidential Campaign Film, 1964-1992 -- Images of Civic Virtue in the New Political Rhetoric -- Negative Political Ads and American Self Images -- Mass-Mediated Images in Presidential Campaigns -- Introduction -- Shaping a Candidate's Image in the Press -- Coverage of Elections on Evening Television News Shows: 1972-1992 -- What Should Debates Be? Standards of Public Discourse -- Media Influence in Presidential Campaigns: A Caveat -- Images of the Voter-Citizen in Presidential Campaigns -- Introduction -- Campaign Polls and America's Sense of Democratic Consensus -- Voter's Image of Candidates -- Social Groups as Symbols in America's Sense of Democratic Consensus -- American Exceptionalism and the Quadrennial Peak in Optimism -- Money and Politics: In Pursuit of an Ideal -- Presidential Campaigning and American Self Images: Agenda for Tomorrow's Research -- Presidential Campaign Politics at the Crossroads