Resurrecting the Also-Rans: Image Repair Debate Strategies of Democrats Who Voted to Authorize the War in Iraq
Volume 46, Number 2, Spring 2014, pp. 159-178 Davis & Glantz 159 Resurrecting the Also-Rans: Image Repair Debate Strategies of Democrats Who Voted to Authorize the War in Iraq Corey B. Davis & Mark J. Glantz Joseph Biden, Chris Dodd, John Edwards, and Hillary Clinton were unique among 2007-2008 Democratic presidential candidates. They voted October 11, 2002 to authorize U.S. military use in Iraq and, with the exception of Edwards, voted on October 17, 2003 to authorize supplemental appropriations for the war. These votes presented an image problem for the candidates with Democratic primary voters who strongly opposed the war and favored its prompt end. Aside from Clinton, these candidates faded early in the contest. The current study analyzed attempts by Biden, Dodd and Edwards to repair, with voters, their respective images. Edwards’ use of mortification and Biden’s convincing use of transcendence are evaluated as the most effective image repair strategies. Implications for politicians, voters, and political communication scholars also are considered. Principal among these implications is the finding that political debates are an ideal context for the study of apologia. n 2007, Democratic contenders for the 2008 presidential I nomination, four of whom had been in the Senate for the controversial 2002 and 2003 war authorization votes, found themselves responding to accusations of reversing positions or flip- flopping. Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware, Senator Hillary Clinton of New York, Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, and former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina had voted on October 11, 2002 to authorize the use of the U.S.
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