00000cmm a22000004a 4500 UP-99796217611543035 Buklod 20250505153502.0 m o j ta 250505s2010 xxk go u eng 9780199944163 (eBook) (iLib)UPD-00241005892 OCLC DMLS rda eng DMLUC E 906 A44 2010eb Alexander, Jeffrey C. 1947- author. The performance of politics Obama's victory and the democratic struggle for power Jeffrey C. Alexander. Oxford Oxford University Press 2010. 1 online resource (xiv, 364 pages) illustrations text rdacontent computer rdamedia online resource rdacarrier Contemporary observers of politics in America often reduce democracy to demography. Whatever portion of the vote not explained by the class, gender, race, and religious differences of voters is attributed to the candidates' positions on the issues of the day. But are these the only-or even the main-factors that determine the vote? This book develops a new way of looking at democratic struggles for power, explaining what happened, and why, during the 2008 presidential campaign in the United States. Drawing on vivid examples taken from a range of media coverage, participant observation at a Camp Obama, and interviews with leading political journalists, the book argues that images, emotion, and performance are the central features of the battle for power. While these features have been largely overlooked by pundits, they are, in fact, the primary foci of politicians and their staff. Obama and McCain painstakingly constructed heroic self-images for their campaigns and the successful projections of those images suffused not only each candidate's actual rallies, and not only their media messages, but also the ground game. Money and organization facilitate the ground game, but they do not determine it. Emotion, images, and performance do. Though an untested senator and the underdog in his own party, Obama succeeded in casting himself as the hero-and McCain the anti-hero-and the only candidate fit to lead in challenging times. Illuminating the drama of Obama's celebrity, the effect of Sarah Palin on the race, and the impact of the emerging financial crisis, the book marries the immediacy and excitement of the final months of this historic presidential campaign with a new understanding of how politics work. Electronic reproduction. Oxford Oxford Scholarship Online 2012. Obama, Barack. Presidents United States Election 2008. Electronic books. United States Politics and government 2001-2009. Print version 9780199744466. Available for the University of the Philippines System via Oxford Scholarship Online. Click here to access http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199744466.001.0001 (viewed 22 November 2017) FO UPD DMLS E 906 A44 2010eb Electronic Resource