The Oratory of Dan Quayle

Abstract

This chapter reflects on the oratorical style of Dan Quayle, who served as Vice President to President George H.W. Bush between 1989 and 1993. Prior to his surprise selection on the Republican ticket in 1988, he had been an undistinguished and low profile Representative (1977–81) and Senator (1981–89 ). His lack of experience in dealing with the national media and insufficient advance preparation by the Bush campaign team left Quayle exposed in the summer of 1988. A media ‘feeding frenzy’ surrounding allegations of draft dodging to avoid the Vietnam War and unfounded rumours of extra-marital relations engulfed him. His performances in interviews, press conferences and the vice-presidential debates, as well as his address to the Republican National Convention (between August and October 1988), were lamentable, making him a case study of failure in terms of rhetoric and oratory. The fact that the gaffes kept coming—for example, ‘I made a misstatement and I stand by all my misstatements’ or ‘we don’t want to go back to tomorrow, we want to move forward’—reinforced an impression of him as an intellectual lightweight, and when he incorrectly spelt potato with an added e on the end, he was subjected to a humiliating level of ridicule. Quayle thereby demonstrated the importance of ethos in terms of elite level political rhetoric and oratory. He simply lacked credibility as a political communicator. This meant that any attempt that he made to set the political agenda—such as his comments on family values in his infamous ‘Murphy Brown’ speech in 1992—was invalidated by his reputation. He may have been able to make a connection to and shore up the Republican base via pathos-driven oratory, but he was simply unable to reach out beyond known supporters, and attempts by him to use statistical evidence to back up his positions (i.e. logos) failed to gain traction. So chronic was Quayle’s reputation as a political communicator, the fact that he got through his 1992 Republican National Convention address, and later the vice-presidential debates, without making any gaffes, seemed to be a surprise as expectations were so low.