Abstract
The 2004 presidential campaign is analyzed. The first post-9/11 presidential election was heavily influenced by US foreign policy and Bush’s War on Terror. The influence and effect of the campaign narratives of George W. Bush and John F. Kerry and voters’ response are considered. The influence of four emotional dimensions on voter appraisal of campaign issues and Bush-era government policies are studied. The results suggest that voters’ feelings toward George W. Bush and John F. Kerry were important to the evaluations made about campaign issues covering topics on domestic and international concerns. Voters’ emotions seem to have a more profound effect on policy appraisals than on social issues.
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Appendix: Variable and Analysis Description
Appendix: Variable and Analysis Description
Campaign Issues
Analysis was conducted using survey data from the 2004 American National Election Studies (ANES) time series pre-election sample. The dependent variables were issues that represented the political issues of each party’s agenda in three categories: domestic issues, foreign affairs, and morality politics. Eight issues in total were regressed against three categories of independent variables.
The dependent variables for domestic topics were (1) the economy and (2) domestic security. With regard to foreign affairs, four issues were chosen. Two issues were selected to get at general attitudes of foreign affairs that included (1) evaluation of foreign relations and (2) the War on Terror. Then, more specifically, two variables on (3) the war in Iraq and (4) Afghanistan were selected to measure attitudes on specific military actions. Finally, on the topic of morality politics, two issues were examined: first, same-sex marriage and, second, government-funded abortion.
Emotional Dimensions
The first set of control variables is the ANES measure for emotion: pride, hope, fear, and anger. The second set of control variables is political determinants such as party identification and ideology. The final set of independent variables is the controls for demographic information.
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Yates, H.E. (2016). Mission Accomplished: The Reelection of George W. Bush. In: The Politics of Emotions, Candidates, and Choices. Palgrave Pivot, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-51527-8_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-51527-8_3
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