When
working on the Industrial Revolution Writing Workshop assignment, I demonstrated
a growth mindset and was able to improve my self. When put into groups
one, two or three for this assignment I chose group two to be best fitting. I
chose this because I knew I could rely on myself for coming up with a thesis
but I also knew I could use the help of working with my peers to improve
myself. Being placed in the group two actually did end up benefiting me. I was
able to learn from the kids that I worked with and see their ideas on the
subject; which opened my eyes into different ways in answering the one
question. I often have trouble changing my thesis once it’s been made, but
during this assignment I changed my thesis three different times. I think this
shows the growth mindset because I was willing to change my work and admit that
the first product although may seem good, might not always be your best answer.
Using the growth mindset allows you to push yourself and use your talents to
their greatest level. The growth mind set also doesn’t mean you have to be 100
percent correct, sometimes you will be wrong but the ability to be willing to
try again means a lot. Just knowing that you put all your effort in shows that
your trying and will eventually learn or succeed.
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Term 1 Extra Credit (TAN)
Eunice
Lee
TAN
Ms.Shapero
Extra
Credit for Term 1
From
this term, I demonstrated a growth mind-set for the Industrial
Revolution Writing Workshop assignment. This assignment was to create
a thesis based on what we have learned throughout the Industrial
revolution unit and write a body paragraph. Unfortunately, on the day
of the writing work shop, I realized that I had to write a body
paragraph for homework , not only the essay outline. I was
embarrassed by my clumsiness and bewildered because I was confident
after working hard on the outline for homework. While other
classmates were peer-editing each other’s paragraphs, I thought
that I would not be able to get any edit from peer and my essay won’t
improve much. So, after class, I sent my body paragraph to my writing
workshop group members for peer-edit. One of the peer said many of my
evidences that I felt strongly confident in body my paragraph was too
stretched and not directly related to my argument. Although I arrived
in class not completely prepared for the writing workshop and had to
work extra at home, I tried to encourage myself that I can revise my
essay and make it stronger and clear. Also I told myself that I have
enough time to work on it during the weekend as well. First, I tried
to compare the feedbacks from two different peers so that I can make
changes based on the feedbacks that they both gave. Afterwards, the
second draft seemed more clear and had relevant evidences. I usually
hesitate to take out some wordy sentences or analysis because I
thought it makes my analysis more deeper. However, for this essay
assignment, I took a risk to take out sentences that made my argument
unclear and irrelevant to the topic sentence. Additionally, since I
knew that I always struggle with word choices and grammar, I searched
dictionary for more appropriate dictions and corrected the grammars.
After several revisions, I compared my final draft with my first one.
I was able to see improvements in my essay. It was more concise and
clear. Even the words that was unclear in the first draft was
understandable. I also visited social studies lab to make sure my
essay was concise from teacher’s prospective as well. Luckily, Mr.
Getz gave me a feedback that overall my essay has a strong idea and
relevant evidences except for few parts were unclear. My growth
mind-set improved my social study writing skill that I thought about
it in fixed-mind set, believing that I will always have a limited
ability to write social studies essay because of my language barrier.
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
world history extra credit
Evan Megan
Purple
10/31/12
During term one I
demonstrated a growth mindset when transitioning from the Thomas Malthus
paragraph onto larger writing assignments such as the first writing workshop, in
which I made an essay outline about how industrialization spurred new
ideologies about social and political rights. When writing the Thomas Malthus
paragraph, I used writing strategies from last year, such as always making
clear connections between analysis and the thesis. After getting the paragraph
back, you hadn’t written a grade, but instead formative comments, which included making a clear topic sentence. By receiving comments instead of a grade on my
paragraph, my attention became focused on improving my writing, as opposed to
accepting my grade with a fixed mindset. Using a growth mindset, I pursued
improving my writing by targeting specific elements which I had received
comments on, such as topic sentences, during the writing workshop assignment. I
saw a big improvement in the writing workshop assignment from my Thomas Malthus
paragraph because, the growth mindset I had allowed me to focus on improving my
work in specific areas I had received formative comments on.
Modern World History Extra Credit
Blue Block
10/30
Diana Katsikaris
A time when I displayed a growth mindset was during the 1st term was when we were drafting thesis statements as a group for the Communist Manifesto Collective Argument. At first, our thesis statement was all of my group’s idea thrown into one sentence. We were having some difficulties incorporating all of our ideas and making the wording sound correct. Then, we received some feedback from Ms. Shapero where she asked us how and why, and some more questions on our thesis, which helped us to decide what we needed to elaborate and focus on. I demonstrated a growth mindset because instead of giving up and just letting one person in the group come up with the thesis, I tried to include everyone’s ideas, and also played around with wording. I did not have one or 2 drafts of a thesis, but many. There were crossed out words, and many edits on the page. We also talked as a group about how we could express all of our ideas in the best wording possible. The growth mindset helped improve my learning because we worked and negotiated as a group, and continued to play around with wording and ideas to make our thesis statement a finished product of a factual and a judgmental statement.
Term One Extra Credit
During the first term of Modern World History I feel that I have displayed a growth mindset. A couple weeks ago you told us the date of our first test. Knowing that I am usually very bad at taking tests, I freaked out. I also had 3 other tests that week, so I was even more stressed. I had about 3 days before the test and I had many other assessments to prepare for and I became very overwhelmed. The day before the test I was studying all the material and going over it with my mom, having her quiz me. I kept saying “ I cant do this, I am going to fail”. This did not help me because it only put me in negative thinking. I changed “ I can’t do this” and “ I am going to fail” to “ I can do this, this material is hard but if I keep studying I can learn it”. Even though I didn’t do the best I have ever done on the test, I knew that displaying the growth mindset put me in a better mood and a more positive attitude toward tests. This growth mindset improved my learning because it keeps me having an open mind, a positive attitude and becoming less stressed. I will keep changing my fixed mind set, to the growth mindset to help me over the year.
-Natasha Snapper
Modern World History extra credit
Tyler Jung
Purple
10/31/12
10/31/12
This term,
I have demonstrated the growth mindset during the first writing workshop. We
were supposed to write, and peer edit the theses and body paragraph’s of our
classmates. The body paragraph and thesis was about the industrial revolution.
I definitely received some positive feedback, from both my peers and you (Ms.
Shapero). Most of the feedback revolved
on the relevance of my thesis and the analysis in my body paragraphs. I took the feedback into serious
consideration, as I know that in the past I have had difficulties with writing
theses and analysis. I demonstrated the
growth mindset by not giving up on my writing! I’ve been making similar
mistakes since the beginning of 9th grade, yet I have improved
TREMENDOUSLY, although I’m far from a perfect writer. I will continue to work
on this, and hopefully by the end of the year, I’ll improve even more! This
mindset improved my learning, because instead of giving up on my writing, I am
and will continue to try to improve on it as the year progresses.
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Term 1 Extra Credit
Our class did two debates in Political Science, one about the electoral college system and the other about the supreme court's decision on the Citizen's United case allowing for unlimited donations to campaigns. In the first debate, I made the opening statement, arguing in favor for the electoral college system. I'll admit myself that I was a little bit unprepared; I figured that I would be able to state my argument by remembering just a few talking points that I thought of beforehand. As it turns out, I'm not as good at improvising as I'd thought, and according to Ms. Shapero my argument was somewhat disjointed and left many questions unanswered. However, by using Ms. Shapero's feedback, I was able to correct the mistakes I made the last time and improve my argument for the next debate. The next time, I spent much more time preparing my statement, and made sure that it had the cohesiveness that it lacked the first time around. As a result, while I lost the opening statement, I won my part of the debate the next time, as the work I put into it paid off in the end.
These two debates were great learning experiences for me, as I was able to correct the mistakes I made in the first debate and improve my second time around. I demonstrated a growth mindset by listening to the feedback from my teacher and using it to do better on my second attempt. In addition to my lesson about putting more preparation into making a more cohesive argument, I also learned the value of learning from experience and the criticisms of others, and of being open to change to constantly improve and avoid making the same mistakes over again.
These two debates were great learning experiences for me, as I was able to correct the mistakes I made in the first debate and improve my second time around. I demonstrated a growth mindset by listening to the feedback from my teacher and using it to do better on my second attempt. In addition to my lesson about putting more preparation into making a more cohesive argument, I also learned the value of learning from experience and the criticisms of others, and of being open to change to constantly improve and avoid making the same mistakes over again.
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Political Science Extra Credit Blog Post
Andrew Tarbox
Green Block
October 31, 2012
In our political science class, there have been
many experiences that have allowed me to explore a certain issue in great
depth. The most interesting one of these experiences was the presidential campaign
blog post and blog commenting response. During this assignment I examined the
presidential campaign of Jimmy Carter. In his campaign, Jimmy Carter had to
portray trust and a personalized relationship with the American people. Without
these characteristics, the American people would have maintained the distrust
with the government that President Nixon caused after the Watergate scandal. By
having the ability to make blog comments on other case studies, I was able to
see the similarities between Jimmy Carter’s campaign and the Obama and Lincoln
campaigns. They all had to create personal attachment with the American people
after political or economic turmoil. Furthermore, not only was it interesting
to see these similarities, but it was also interesting to see how similar the
campaigns were to Cicero’s campaign for consul. They all used modified versions
of Cicero’s idea of personal attachment. This demonstrates how when one
precedent was set for campaign techniques, other campaigns followed.
While I did not receive direct feedback from
peers on my blog post, their comments on my post gave me options for how I
would improve it. For example, one comment I received was if Carter’s campaign
was modern in message, given its use of vague generalities. I believe that if I
were given the opportunity to make revisions on my blog I would have mentioned
how both Carter and Obama used vague generalities. This would have emphasized how
campaign techniques have remained similar to one another. Through this project,
I also developed a growth mindset. I became more aware of the proper strategies
and techniques candidates should use in different circumstances. For example,
Jimmy Carter needed to capitalize on a personalized relationship with the
American people post Watergate. In addition, continuing off the idea of
appealing to the people under certain circumstances, this experience provided
me with a new perspective on the campaign of Mitt Romney. Often times,
candidates need to appear milder on their stances on issues to appeal to a
greater group of people. For example, while Romney does not fully support some
women’s rights, he needed to make comments such as his “binders full of women”
one to appeal to this broad group of voters and show them that he is fighting
for them. By developing a growth mindset, I was able to connect the Jimmy
Carter campaign with campaigns that happened in the past and are happening now.
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Bush campaign 2000--Liam
Liam DeFazio
10/11/12
Green
The
Bush-Gore election of 2000 did not start off on a particularly exciting note.
The American economy was prospering after the Clinton administration, and there was not a
huge call for change. Gore had previously been Clinton ’s
Vice President, so he appealed to voters, reminding them of the economic
stability that the Clinton
administration had brought. Bush also appealed to Americans in a prosperous
time by offering tax cuts and declaring a message of trust amongst the people,
and that the government would not take much control of people’s money.
One important tip from Cicero that Gore
neglected to use was the idea of using friends to your advantage. Gore had been
Clinton ’s vice president for 8 years, and Cicero would have had him call in favors from Clinton . Clinton even offered his support in
situations where Gore did not accept. This was due to the fact that Clinton had an affair in the White House, which was
obviously looked upon poorly by the American people, and Gore strategists
thought that trying to connect him to Clinton
would actually hurt his chances. Most of the Gore campaign advisers stated that
the Clinton affair
was the single most important factor that cost Gore the White House. Bush was
able to use the Clinton
affair to present himself as a moral, honorable figure that would bring
integrity back to the White House, which enhanced his image.
Another
important factor in this debate was persona. Bush made numerous speaking
mistakes in interviews, such as mispronouncing words, (subliminable) making
grammatical errors (is our children learning?), and saying phrases incorrectly
(families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dreams). These
gaffes later became known as “Bushisms.” However, instead of being upset by the
ridicule he received, Bush embraced these jokes and even engaged in
self-effacing humor, teasing himself. This somewhat falls under what Cicero advised about
“putting on a good show.” Bush was known to have a cheerful, regular-guy
manner, giving reporters nicknames, playfully insulting them, and slapping them
on the back, allowing him to present himself as a down to earth candidate that
made the voter feel good. Gore, on the other hand, often came across as rigid,
and not seeming very likeable. This was actually one of the criticisms that Cicero had against his
brother, and advised him to improve on. Gore admitted that he did not consider
himself a natural politician, and that “the back-slapping political style” is
not his forte. In the debates, it was accepted that Gore had a mastery of the
details of public policy, and was more knowledgeable than Bush, but he came
across as very full of himself and something of a “smarty pants.” He would
often sigh loudly when Bush was speaking, causing him to look rude and
arrogant. Bush had a more laid back manner in these debates, which made him
look better on television. This clip is a perfect example. When asked a
question about a specific bill and what the differences are between him and
Gore, Bush gives a very vague answer to try and make him look better in the
eyes of the people. Gore leaves his podium and walks right up to Bush in an
alpha-male attempt to intimidate his opponent. Bush plays this off by simply
giving Gore a friendly nod, causing the audience to laugh and Gore to look
ridiculous.
This enhances what was first studied after the 1960
televised debate between Kennedy and Nixon, which is that appearances on
television do matter in the voter’s eyes. Although radio listeners of the 1960
debate thought that Nixon seemed stronger and more knowledgeable, television
viewers thought that Kennedy came across as more confident, and as a stronger
candidate. In the 2000 debates, people thought that well Gore seemed more
knowledgeable, Bush came across as more likeable, and thus appeared stronger on
television.
However, as
the election was nearing a close and it was estimated that Gore had a slight
edge, news sources began noticing a shift in Bush’s campaign tactics. Bush
strategists thought that his tactic of appealing to voters to bring back “honor
and integrity” to the White House, and attacking the Clinton administration was not going to be
enough. Bush used Medicare, which at that time was a major issue in which
people often favored the Democratic approach, to launch a smear campaign. He
said that Gore’s Medicare program would lead to extreme government control and
price control over prescription drugs. One tactic that Bush’s chief political
adviser Karl Rove later regretted was letting Bush take a day off 10 days
before the election. He thought that if he added more campaigning in at the
end, Bush could have avoided some narrow defeats in a couple states. This
follows Cicero ’s advice about not leaving Rome , because “there is
no time for vacations in a campaign.”
Where this
election truly became notable was on election day. The results were so close
that the entire election hinged on the delegates from Florida . Bush led Gore by about 1,800 votes
the morning after election day, and Florida
law called for an automatic machine recount of the votes. After this recount,
Bush led Florida
by only 327 votes out of 6 million ballots cast. Florida law allowed Gore to demand a manual
recount of chosen counties, and he picked four counties with widespread
complaint of machine malfunction. The results had to be certified by secretary
of state Katherine Harris seven days after the election. However, three of the
counties were not able to meet this deadline, and Harris rejected their
explanation. Gore filed an injunction against Harris, and the Florida Supreme
Court issued the injunction and said that Harris must give the counties another
12 days to finish their recounts. After this deadline, Harris declared Bush the
winner, even though all of the votes were not counted. Gore appealed to the
Florida Supreme Court, and they ruled that all votes cast but not counted
(because of ineffective voting machines) must be manually recounted. Bush then
appealed this to the US Supreme Court, which decided in a 5-4 ruling that the
Florida’s Supreme Court ruling was unconstitutional as is gave more protection
to some ballots then others, violating the Equal Protection Clause under the
fourteenth amendment. Florida
then had to submit the vote they had at the time, which gave Bush the victory
with 271 delegates to Gore’s 266, although Gore had 48.4% of the popular vote
to Bush’s 47.9%. This Supreme Court decision was criticized, as the five
members of the majority were all conservative, and all of them previously
granted great deference to state courts. Many thought that these justices did
not do their duty to support the US Constitution and state’s rights at all
costs, and cared more about the politics of having a Republican President. It
was reported that when conservative judge Sandra Day O’Connor thought that Gore
had initially won, she was very upset, because she wanted to retire if Bush
became President so she could be replaced by a conservative judge.
The 2000
election proved that Cicero ’s
campaign tips still hold up in the modern day. It is still important to have
powerful friends to help you out, to campaign rigorously, and have a strong,
likeable, persona. Appearing likeable, confident, and relatable on television
was also very important in this campaign. Although it is estimated by Farley’s
law that only 8% of the electorates change their minds during the course of the
campaign, and only 25% of voters are persuadable, and even have a chance of
switching parties, in this close campaign, persuasion was clearly a key
component. People will continue to debate who deserved to win this campaign,
but if Bush did not campaign as he did, he probably would not have even barely
won.
Bibliography
Berke, Richard L. Richard L. Berke to New York Times newsgroup, “Gore and Bush
Strategists Analyze Their Campaigns,” February 12, 2001. Accessed October 10,
2012.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/12/us/gore-and-bush-strategists-analyze-their-campaigns.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm.
Boller, Paul F., Jr. Presidential
Campaigns. 2nd ed. New York City, NY: Oxford Press, 2004.
McBride, Alex. “Bush v. Gore
(2000).” PBS.org. Last modified December 2006. Accessed October 10, 2012.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/future/landmark_bush.html.
Mitchell, Alison. Alison Mitchell to New York Times newsgroup, “THE 2000 CAMPAIGN:
THE STRATEGY; SHIFTING TACTICS, BUSH USES ISSUES TO CONFRONT GORE,” September
16, 2000. Accessed October 10, 2012. http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/16/us/2000-campaign-strategy-shifting-tactics-bush-uses-issues-confront-gore.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm.
Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton: Cultivating the Young Vote
Michael Peckham
In the 1992 presidential election, Bill Clinton and George Bush competed for the oval office, however Clinton used his youth and energy to campaign to the youth and those in seek of change. Bill Clinton was able to win his first presidential election by utilizing many of the lessons taught by Cicero. Clinton was able to become president by appealing to the young people, appearing to be young, exciting, and appearing to focus on their needs (education etc), while at the same time blaming the issues of the modern day family and young person on the republican party, blaming them for unemployment/job loss and poor education/graduation levels.
Clinton appealed to the young people of his time by “being personable and... promoting” himself to the young voters as Cicero advised, appearing on television shows and playing saxophone for millions to watch, talking to young people on MTV (in a later election) and even pushing his way to the cover of the College Edition of Rolling Stone magazine. Clinton made sure to appear to be an energetic, exciting, and likable person, posing a contradiction to the aged Bush Sr. who represented the Republican party. Clinton made himself appear, cool, young and likable to the young people in 1992, helping make a connection to them and capture their votes.
Clinton also made sure to promote himself to the public, and especially to the young people, in his “Plan for Excellence in Education”, making sure to focus on the “gaps in American education” from the previous republican president, his opponent. While at the same time Clinton also made sure to present his experience in the overhauling of education system in Arkansas, and his plan to make the United States offer the best education and jobs for the young people of his time.
Clinton also attacked the republican party, and his opposing candidate, by telling the young people the flaws of the Bush's previous term in office. Clinton reminds the populous the republicans had tried to lower college loans in one of his television ad’s, again reminding the youth of why not to vote for his opponent. Yet again continuing to take the advice of Cicero, he took care to “assure the common people that you have always been on their side”, reminding the young people of his “more than 11 years... on the front lines of the battle to revolutionize, revitalize, and reform education”. By putting to use the power of young people in not only their voting power but their power to use their energy to help capture the presidential office.
As the election eventually turns out, the gap in the young vote, being 13% and the minority vote, helped Clinton seize the election, he took the advice of Cicero and was able to take the office in 1992. Without utilizing the many lessons taught by Cicero, seizing victory in the election would have been extremely difficult and likely impossible.
1992
|
Group
|
Clinton
|
Bush
|
Perot
| |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
All Voters |
Pct.
|
43%
|
37%
|
19%
| |
RACE
|
White
|
87
|
39
|
41
|
21
|
Black
|
8
|
83
|
10
|
7
| |
Hispanic
|
2
|
61
|
25
|
14
| |
Asian
|
1
|
31
|
55
|
15
| |
AGE
|
18-24
|
11
|
46
|
33
|
21
|
25-29
|
10
|
41
|
36
|
23
| |
30-49
|
46
|
41
|
38
|
21
| |
50-64
|
20
|
43
|
39
|
18
| |
65 & over
|
13
|
50
|
39
|
11
| |
PARTY
|
Democrat
|
38
|
77
|
10
|
13
|
Republican
|
35
|
10
|
73
|
17
| |
Independent
|
27
|
38
|
32
|
30
| |
POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
|
Liberal
|
21
|
68
|
14
|
18
|
Moderate
|
49
|
48
|
31
|
21
| |
Conservative
|
30
|
18
|
64
|
18
| |
Bibliography
Bill Clinton. Photograph. allpostersimages.com. July 1992. http://cache2.allpostersimages.com/p/LRG/ 18/1870/9YX8D00Z/posters/seliger-mark-bill-clinton-rolling-stone-no-639-september-1992.jpg. "Bill Clinton Saxophone 1992." Youtube.com. Video file. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTkUeb6zQFA. Clinton, Bill. "The Clinton Plan for Excellence in Education." The Phi Delta Kappan 74, no. 2 (October 1992). "I believe in a place called hope pin." Photograph. Ebay.com. http://i.ebayimg.com/t/ BILL-CLINTON-Campaign-Pin-Political-Pinback-Button-1992-/14/ !Bi-3Obg!Wk~$(KGrHqEH-CEEsZidQOLHBLRlSY)V3!~~_35.JPG. "1992 Bill Clinton Campaign Ads (around October 1992)." Youtube.com. Video file. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoBFL6iwid4. Ropercenter.uconn.edu. http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/elections/how_groups_voted/ voted_92.html#.UHa0mMXA9oF.
1968: Richard Nixon
Sam Phillips
Poli Sci
10/11/2012
After President Lyndon Baines Johnson decided against seeking the Democratic Party's nomination for president in 1968, his Vice President, Hubert Humphrey, received the Party's nomination after a contentious primary centered on the Vietnam War that culminated in large protests at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Vice President Humphrey would face Republican former Vice President Richard Nixon, who had lost the 1960 Presidential election to John F. Kennedy, as well as Alabama Governor George Wallace, running on the American Independent ticket. Though the third party, segregationist, Wallace did gain some foothold around the country, his vice presidential pick of Curtis Lemay, an atomic bomb friendly air force official left many worried about his foreign policy qualifications, and therefore he did not garner enough votes to make significant inroads outside the deep south. Hubert Humphrey ended up close to Nixon in the popular vote, he was unable to shake his connections to Johnson's administration. Nixon ended up winning the electoral college 301 to Humphrey's 191 to Wallace's 45, winning the popular vote 43.4% to Humphrey's 42.7% to Wallace's 13.5%.
Though he lived two millennia ago, the campaign tactics of Cicero are still widely studied and discussed as the tenets of successful campaigning today. Though Cicero wrote of many strategies to gain popularity, one in particular stands out as a particularly meaningful tip in the election of 1968-to come across as a traditionalist and connect with people. In an election dominated by foreign policy and strategies for Vietnam, the largest issue on the homefront was that of the proliferation of protests by college students, African Americans, women, and other groups fighting for civil rights, gender equality, and an end to the war in Vietnam. The chief goal of the various candidates was to come across as a law and order candidate that stood up for ordinary Americans that were not protesting. Nixon named these average people in his nomination speech, "It is another voice, it is a quiet voice in the tumult of the shouting. It is the voice of the great majority of Americans, the forgotten Americans, the non shouters, the non demonstrators. They’re not racists or sick; they’re not guilty of the crime that plagues the land; they are black, they are white; they’re native born and foreign born; they’re young and they’re old." George Wallace ran as an even tougher law and order candidate and was known for his frequent tirades against hippies and his reverence for the working class. Democrat Hubert Humphrey also tried to shake his party's image as the party of protesters and students in a campaign ad entitled "Law and Order Democrat." All three candidates followed Cicero's advice in putting on the face of a traditionalist; however, Humphrey could not do this convincingly enough, and Wallace's support was too regional to prevent Nixon from winning the election.
Richard Nixon was not considered a great campaigner due to his image, as was on display in his run against John F. Kennedy, and it was largely circumstances that allowed Nixon to be elected. Hubert Humphrey was an extremely weak candidate, even inside his own party. It took all the political clout of Lyndon Johnson to get Humphrey nominated over Eugene McCarthy, the more popular choice. Therefore, expectations were low for Humphrey due to the relatively little enthusiasm amongst his own party. On the other hand, George Wallace fired up crowds with his blunt nature, but had a message tailored for the deep south. Even he knew that he was unlikely to win, instead he wished to force an election in the House of Representatives and therefore have some power in the process. However, Humphrey was too weak a candidate to prevent a Nixon majority, therefore Wallace could not be a player. Nixon was clearly the favorite in the 1968 election, and his campaign strategy of being a man of ordinary Americans (whom he would term "The Silent Majority" in his inauguration address) reflected this. He did not need have the theatrics of John F. Kennedy's jingles, rather he needed to ensure that he remain ahead. Therefore, he was quite careful and safe in his strategy.
One such strategy Nixon had for the maintenance of his lead was to attack Democrats for being a party divided that would bring about a divided America. In his campaign ad "Failure" Nixon rips Democrats for not keeping order at their convention and for being divided as a party.
The 1968 campaign was particularly negative due to the nature of the law and order issues being stressed by candidates. In his nomination speech Nixon does not explicitly attack Democrats, but he makes it clear that the alternative to his defense of average Americans is the New Left radicalism of college students. Nixon attempted to smear Democrats as being the party of students, and paint students as the antithesis to American values. Thus, these campaign issues allowed for attacks to become more harsh, as not only policies, but values were at stake. This type of values based policy attack is once again apparent in the modern day as social issues become increasingly important to voters of various demographics.
Bibliography
The American Presidency Project. Accessed October 10, 2012.
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/showelection.php?year=1968.
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/showelection.php?year=1968.
1968 Nixon V. Humphrey. Accessed October 10, 2012. http://www.kennesaw.edu/pols/
3380/pres/1968.html.
3380/pres/1968.html.
Democratic Party. "Law and Order Democrat." The Living Room Candidate. Video file, 1:01.
Accessed October 10, 2012. http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/
1968.
Accessed October 10, 2012. http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/
1968.
Nixon, Richard Milhous. "Acceptance of Nomination." Speech, Republican National
Convention, Miami, FL, August 8, 1968.
Convention, Miami, FL, August 8, 1968.
PBS. "1968 Campaign." PBS. Accessed October 10, 2012. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/
amex/wallace/peopleevents/pande07.html.
amex/wallace/peopleevents/pande07.html.
Republican Party. "Failure." The Living Room Candidate. Video file, 1:01.
Accessed October 10, 2012. http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/
1968.
Accessed October 10, 2012. http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/
1968.
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