The Rhetorical Presidency of George H. W. Bush

The most informative part of this chapter deals with the 1992 Republican National Convention and the assortment of "harsh, embattled" (163) speeches delivered by the likes of Pat Buchanan, Pat Robertson, and Marilyn Quayle, which, juxtaposed with Mary Fisher's oration about treating HIV victims humanely, made for an overall rhetoric "that lauded family values, morals, and inclusions but in reality . . . combined contradictions and exclusion" (165). The conclusions of this book are well grounded in critical and historical analysis and in existing literature.Medhurst's text should also assist scholars from various disciplines as they sort out President George W. Bush's public speeches on such topics as the war on terror, international diplomacy, education, religious conservatism, and economics.