ABSTRACT
A complete history of presidential campaigning would present endless parades, songfests, sloganeering, salooning, sun-drenched and torch light rallies, promises and preachments, big lies and little truths, and enough words to disturb even the Valley of Tranquillity. Presidential campaigns have been subjected to multiple and divergent modes of study and commentary. The free-wheeling, display-oriented political campaign has always been a part of the American experience. Public display, various methods for securing voter allegiances, and scurrilous campaigning are deeply embedded characteristics of American electoral culture. The key to comprehending relationships between campaign activities and both American culture and American political practices is to make sense of and take seriously the idea of the "political image." Considerable writing on voter behavior treats election outcomes as the sum of individual-level reactions to the candidates, issues, and parties encountered in the campaign. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
