Abstract
Candidate‐centered U.S. political campaigns increasingly reflect the broader cultural preoccupation with unraveling the tensions between appearance and reality. In a television age, people are suspicious of image making, and campaign discourse necessarily becomes mired in a futile interrogation of candidates. This preoccupation ensures that all candidates will fail to measure up to the standard of the mythical “real”; leader. Under these conditions, ironically, the electorate tends to settle on those candidates who are most comfortable performing a symbolic role. The 1988 presidential campaign in general and the Bentsen‐Quayle vice‐presidential debate in particular illustrate this “grammar of electronic electioneering”; and how it contributes to the acceptance of a symbolic post‐modern presidency.
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