<< ' 08 Primary Campaign

Primary 'o8 Announcement Speeches

Politicians begin each campaign season with an announcement of their candidacy. The following data represent the content of all available 2008 announcement speeches (9 Democrats; 11 Republicans).

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Research on 75 candidacy announcement speeches from 1960-2004 (Benoit, Henson, Whalen, & Pier, 2008) found that such speeches have been mostly positive: 78% acclaims, 22% attacks, and 0.3% defenses.  Democrats tended to attack more and acclaim less than Republicans.  These speeches addressed policy and character equally (50%, 50%), although the Democrats discussed policy more (55% to 43%) and character less (45% to 57%) than Republicans.  These historic trends are mirrored in the announcement speeches from the 2008 campaign.

Not surprisingly, as the campaign calendar has crept forward, these speeches were given earlier as time passed (they also became longer over time).

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