Browsing by Subject "Bill Clinton"
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Item Bill Clinton's 1994 European tour : expanding the democratic order in the post-Cold War world.(2012-08-08) Luppes, Amanda M.; Medhurst, Martin J.; Communication Studies.; Baylor University. Dept. of Communication Studies.In 1994, President Bill Clinton made four trips to Europe. In January, he advocated for the expansion of NATO through the Partnership for Peace plan and signed the first nuclear disarmament agreement with former Soviet states. In June, he attended the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Normandy invasion and spoke of the enduring values of the World War II generation. In July, he visited the capitols of three important former Soviet states and spoke about the imperative of reform. Finally, in December, he attended the CSCE summit and gave a capstone speech about democratic expansion. Each trip had a unique set of goals and circumstances, but all served to bolster Clinton’s foreign policy goal of democratic expansion. Clinton’s speeches demonstrate the unique facets of his beliefs about foreign policy and the role of the United States in the post-Cold War world.Item El Sueno Americano, Es Para Todos: An Analysis of the Rhetoric toward Latinos in the Presidential Campaigns of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, 1992-2000(2010-01-14) Campos, Kristina M.This dissertation examined the presidential elections of 1992, 1996 and 2000 for the narrative tools used to persuade Latino voters. Using Walt Fisher's narrative theory, I evaluated the various parts of the American Dream myth, looking specifically at the characters and settings used in the candidate's narrative. Then, I evaluated the values in those narratives through the lens of the Plan of Delano, specifically looking for ways these candidates actually reinforced important Latino values. The new tellings of the American Dream myth valued specific characters- characters that had been blessed by the American Dream. Clinton's 1992 character had to work to gain success, but he was also blessed. George P. Bush (George W. Bush's nephew) was another character blessed by the American Dream. As a first-generation American, he represented the hope that brings many to America; the idea that their children could have opportunities the parents could not. The settings of the American Dream story were also important. These settings varied greatly-from the decrepit and desolate to the fanciful and idyllic-but they represented all the different places where the American Dream is possible. Hope, Arkansas is not a place where much hope seems to exist. But even a community as impoverished as Hope can be the birthplace of a President, because of the amazing ability of the Dream to permeate even the darkest corners of America. The barrios of the Southwest appear to be hopeless, but as Clinton's telling of the myth reminded Latinos, even people growing up in the barrios should have hope-because the American Dream can exist anywhere. These values, these characters, these settings have added to the rich rhetorical history of the American Dream myth. These presidential candidates expanded the places where that hope could reach, and the people who could be blessed by the Dream. All of this culminated in a story that Latinos could relate to, that they shared in and that rhetorically persuaded them to believe in these candidates.Item Negotiating the paradoxes of poverty: presidential rhetoric on welfare from Johnson to Clinton(Texas A&M University, 2005-02-17) Carcasson, MartinThis project examines how Presidents Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton discussed issues of poverty and welfare from Johnson?s declaration of War on Poverty in 1964 to Clinton?s signing of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act in 1996. I argue that there are four critical tensions relevant to the debate concerning contemporary poverty in the United States?politics vs. policy, deserving vs. undeserving, help vs. hinder, and equality vs. freedom?and the key to improving the manner in which the nation confronts the problem of poverty requires understanding and negotiating these tensions. The analysis reveals that the five presidents had a mixed but overall rather poor record in confronting the four paradoxes. In general they tended either to avoid the tensions altogether, or fall to one or the other extreme. That being said, the analysis also reveals that there is considerable common ground concerning some critical issues between all the presidents, whether they were Democrats or Republicans, ideologically moderate or more partisan. Foremost among these are the beliefs that equal opportunity should be the overarching ideal, work should be rewarded well, and those that cannot help themselves should be supported as generously as possible by the government. I conclude that the 1996 law, while based in part on questionable assumptions concerning the condition of the poor, could lead to a significant re-framing of the debate away from the generally unpopular focus on welfare and welfare recipients and toward the working poor and the conditions and difficulties under which they labor, which could potentially lead to other positive transformations beneficial to the American poor.