Week 1, Day 2: What is Rhetoric and Why Does it Matter?
Week 1, Day 3: The Rise of the Rhetorical Presidency.
Week 2, Day 1: Genres of Presidential Rhetoric.
Week 2, Day 2: Speechwriters and Presidential Communication.
Week 2, Day 3: Class discussion about Obama’s Summer Bus Tour.
Week 3, Day 1: Election of 2008 and Political Advertising
Week 3, Day 2: Discussion about negative advertising and the 2008 election.
Week 4, Day 1: What does “race” have to do with it?
Week 4, Day 2: Election day
Week 4, Day 3: The White House Office of Communication.
Week 5, Day 1: The Inaugural Address Genre.
Week 5, Day 2: Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama’s Inaugural Addresses
Week 5, Day 3: Discussion about FDR’s 1933 Inaugural and the Ascension Address.
Week 6, Day 1: The 2008 Mortgage Crisis
Week 6, Day 2: Discussion about economic presidential address.
Week 6, Day 3: Presidential rhetoric in times of war.
Week 7, Day 1: The Iraq War.
Week 7, Day 2: War, the President, and Public Opinion
Week 7, Day 3: Discussion about Afghanistan.
Week 8, Day 1: The Genre of the State of the Union Address
Week 8, Day 2: Obama’s State of the Union Address
Week 8, Day 3: No Class Today
Week 9, Day 1: The Presidency and the Press
Week 9, Day 2: Presidential Press Conferences
Week 9, Day 3: The Genre of the National Eulogy.
Week 10, Day 1: National Priesthood and National Eulogies
Week 10, Day 2: Obama’s Arizona National Eulogy
Week 10, Day 3: This week in Washington (no slides).
Week 11, Day 1: The Presidency and Public Memory
Week 11, Day 2: Clinton’s Remarks at the FDR Memorial Discussion.
Week 11, Day 3: The White House Correspondents Dinner.
Week 12, Day 1: Obama and the Muslim World
Week 12, Day 2: International Rhetorics of Enemy Creation
Week 12, Day 3: Speeches in Defense of Self
Week 13, Day 1: Discussion about Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize (no slides).
Week 13, Day 2: No class (work on major assignment)
Week 13, Day 3: No class (work on major assignment)
Week 14, Day 1: Future Challenges: The Economy
Week 14, Day 2: Future Challenges: International Relations
Week 14, Day 3: Is it all about the President’s Delivery Style?
Week 15, Day 1: Is it all just public relations?
Week 15, Day 2: The Farewell Address
Week 15, Day 3: Final Day of Class and Closing Lecture
Kirt H. Wilson