Focusing on the positive: Bush, Kerry stay upbeat in acceptance speeches
Keynote speaker Zell Miller far more negative than Barack Obama’s keynote

With less than two months to go before the presidential election, the race for the White House escalates with every passing day. Both candidates addressed the nation with acceptance speeches at their nominating conventions. New analysis by William Benoit, professor of Communication and one of the leading experts on presidential campaigns, found that both Bush and Kerry evenly talked about character and policy and were mainly positive in their statements.

"The two most important events at nomination conventions are the nominee’s acceptance address and the keynote speech given by another member of the party," Benoit said. "Even though network television coverage of these events has declined in recent years, the nominee and other political figures who speak to a national audience at these conventions can have an impact on voters."

Benoit’s analysis of the nominee’s acceptance addresses concluded that both speeches were mostly positive, although Bush’s remarks lead the way with 93 percent being positive, compared to Kerry’s, which were 72 percent positive. Between 1952 and 2000, only 75 percent of the acceptance statements were positive, with incumbents being more positive than the challengers.

The more dramatic difference was during the keynote speeches. Democrat Zell Miller’s address to the Republican Convention was only 29 percent positive, whereas the Democratic keynote speaker, Barack Obama, was 82 percent positive. Historically, Benoit said, keynote speeches usually are split evenly, with 52 percent positive and 48 percent negative.

Benoit also found that 40 percent of Kerry’s remarks were focused on character and 60 percent on policy. Bush stressed character more than Kerry, with 52 percent of his remarks focusing on character and 48 percent focusing on policy. In the case of keynote addresses, the Democratic keynote focused more on character, with 54 percent of Obama’s remarks targeting character and 46 percent policy. The Republican keynote was centered more on policy, with 63 percent of Miller’s remarks focusing on policy and only 37 percent on character.

John McHale, assistant professor at Illinois State University, co-authored and collaborated on this report.

Other information about the 2004 presidential campaign, along with historic contextual information, can be found at Benoit’s Presidential Campaign 2004 Website: http://presidentialcampaign2004.coas.missouri.edu/.

Additional links:

Bill Benoit
Department of Communication
Presidential Campaign 2004

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