As mentioned above, when the individual variable were paired and compared, the individual correlations break down. An explanation of the apparent discrepancy (that the rank of the verbal scores correlate, but the scores themselves do not) goes back to the nature of political speech.

When looking at the raw numbers, it is easy to read these scores as Governor Bush trying to follow in the general footsteps of his father but not performing as effectively. While this conclusion is possible (and would fit nicely with the speculations from the governor's critics), it assumes that delivering speeches that would attain higher scores are a goal of every presidential candidate. One could argue that our political system is based more on more on the vague foundation of personal image. In that environment, of which rhetorical communication is only one component of many, a candidate may choose to focus his communicative energies on other venues.

Additionally, one even could fathom a presidential candidate reducing the breath or length of his speeches in order to increase his appeal to a different demographic group than candidates historically target. Dramatic differences in speech length (which appear to be present in this case) could negatively impact the variable scoring, as shorter speeches tend to contain fewer distinct topics and longer speeches tend to emphasize key points in varying ways.

As the American population has diversified, Hart (2000) pointed out that the Certainty score has consistently dropped over the course of American elections. However, Hart also points out that the candidates whose campaign voices most closely correlate with the political norm tend to be most successful.

Keeping this in mind, the most likely conclusion to the reported results is that President Bush was a more accomplished speaker than Governor Bush. President Bush appeared to have more to say and spent more time saying it. Although the aggregate results show a strong correlation between the characteristics of the two men's patterns of speech, President Bush scored significantly higher in nearly every category.

This observation is puzzling, as President Bush's campaign was unsuccessful and Governor Bush's campaign was successful. The only logical explanations are that either the results of the campaigns were decided by variables other than just the political voice (such as the media voice or campaign advertisements) or that the differences in environments (i.e., competitors, issues, current events) were different enough to reframe the impact of the candidate's rhetoric.

Certainly there was a difference between the two men's competition in terms of rhetoric. Perhaps the true voice comparison of the two Bushes cannot be measured without providing the context of the impact of their political opponents.

Introduction

Literature Review

Methodology

Results

Discussion

Reference List