2012 Presidential Campaign

Robert E. Denton, Jr. holds the W. Thomas Rice Chair of Leadership Studies in the Pamplin College of Business and serves as head of the Department of Communication at Virginia Tech.

In his preface to The 2012 Presidential Campaign, Robert E. Denton reflects that he has edited a book on the presidential election for every campaign dating back to 1992. Each of these elections, he argues, was both unique and very much the same as preceding contests. The chapters selected for the 2012 iteration reflect that dialectic—the contributors both explore subject matter that is particular to this cycle and place the election in appropriate historical context. Some of the chapters are exemplary, most are useful, and as a collection the edited volume holds up nicely alongside its predecessors in Denton’s series.

• PrefaceChapter 1: The Presidential Nominating Conventions and the American Dream: Narrative Unity and Political Division. Rachel HollowayChapter 2: Change in the Communication Demands of Spouses in the 2012 Nominating Convention, Gwen BrownChapter 3: Presidential Debates 2012, Ben VothChapter 4: “His to Lose”: Strategic Keys to Challenging the Incumbent in 2012, Craig Allen SmithChapter 5: Political Advertising in the 2012 U.S. Presidential Election, John C. Tedesco & Scott W. DunnChapter 6: “Death by Taxes”: A Post-mortem on Romney’s Tax Return Apologia, Joseph M. Valenzano III & Jason A. EdwardsChapter 7: Presidential Campaigns as Cultural Events: The Convergence of Politics and Popular Culture in Election 2012, Jeffrey P. JonesChapter 8: The New Media Campaign of 2012, John Allen HendricksChapter 9: Explaining the Vote in the Election of 2008: Obama’s Re-election, Henry C. Kenski & Kate M. KenskiIndexAbout the Contributors