Unit 7 The Selling of the President

discussion What makes a president?

Part I thesis Expressions to Be Learned: supplant

Part I thesis Questions: What do you learn from what the strategist said?

Part II the impact of television Expressions to Be Learned: clinch swingdictate at home to one’s advantage departure from condense orientation denounce bog sth down detrimental take sb in

Part II the impact of television Paraphrase: Television commercials seem to work best…a large undecided vote. → Television advertising seems to have the greatest effect in elections where the rivals are well-matched or in those where a large number of voters have not decided which side to take.

Paraphrase: It dictates priorities that are different from those of an earlier day. →The intervention of television in the present-day campaign determines what factors the candidate should consider before others, and these priorities of today are different from those of the past.

Paraphrase: All of the recent Presidents…to receive maximum favorable coverage. →All the winning candidates in the presidential election have learnt how to make full use of television, to put on TV shots in the way he can win the most favor of the electorate.

Paraphrase: It can be argued that …departure from earlier years. → We can say that since the 1960 presidential debates we have paid more attention to the candidates themselves than to their policies. This is an orientation very much different from that in early years.

Paraphrase: Once he was President …helped bring him down. → When Nixon was President, television led to his resignation just because the medium disclosed his guilt in the Watergate scandal.

Part II the impact of television Questions for review: 1.What is the most influential medium in an election campaign? Does it work in all the election? 2.Why does the author say “since the 1960 presidential debates we have elected people, not platforms”? 3.What is the difference between print information and television information? 4.What are the effects of television on election?

Part III conclusion Question: How do you understand the sentence “today’s burning issue is tomorrow’s historical footnote”?