ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on two types of campaign communication: convention acceptance speeches of Democratic and Republican presidential candidates and the quadrennial platforms of the major parties. The nomination acceptance speech is important because it is the first national speech of the presidential campaign. It provides the newly nominated candidate with an opportunity to rally his party and to address the nation for the first time as its standard-bearer. The themes that a candidate expresses in national addresses are the candidate's priorities for the campaign. Moreover, these national campaign communications are standardized. Walter Mondale's campaign rhetoric moved back arid forth between liberal and conservative themes and reflected the ideological duality that has characterized Democratic campaign rhetoric since 1976. Beginning in 1976, Democratic campaign pledges strayed from the party's traditional reliance on government intervention. The campaign rhetoric of presidential nominees in the United States shifted to the right in the late 1970s and 1980s.
