James Carville: Guard Dog of the White House :: Essays Papers

James Carville Guard Dog of the White HouseJames Carville has been one of President Clintons most ada human racet supporters throughout the impeachment crisis. Carville is a veteran campaign strategist who headed Clintons campaign in 1992 and has advised him since the campaign. His harsh and sometimes wild criticisms of Clintons opponents have made Carville the rhetorical attack dog of the Democratic Party. The purpose of Carvilles attacks was to rally support for Clinton. Fighting for Clinton was both helpful to Carvilles flight and financially beneficial for him. Carville used a few concise points that he presented in his aggressive partisan style to argue against Clintons critics. The media frequently cover Carvilles attacks because of their brevity and excessiveness. Carville skillfully used the media to his advantage. He plays an active role in personalizing political issues by attacking the character of his opponents. These personal assaults divert trouble away from the issue s themselves. However, questioning the character of those who are often running smear campaigns of their own can bring to light some the faults of Carvilles political adversaries. Kenneth bump off suggested rhetoric could be analyzed using five elements, act, scene, agent, agency, and purpose. Two of these five elements stand out from the rest as most crucial to the speakers rhetoric during the impeachment crisis (Nichols 1963). Agency and purpose were the most important facets of James Carvilles rhetoric. Carvilles purpose was to rally support for President Clinton while advancing his pallbearer and benefiting financially. The agencies he used to accomplish his purpose were several concise complaints against Independent Councilor, Kennith Starr, his aggressive rhetorical assault against Starr, Carvilles image, and the media which Carville used to bring his message to the American public. James Carvilles chief priority has been to defend Bill Clinton since Carville became the chie f campaign strategist for Clintons 1992 presidential campaign. In an interview with Katie Couric on Today, Carville asserts his motives that man Clinton had been good to me, hes good to myfamily, hes good to my country. Hes a friend of mine. He got himself in a jam. I was proud that he called on me to help him, and Im glad that I was able totohelp in some small way (Carville 2/12/99). Carville was entirely dedicated to his cause of defending Clinton. In this interview, he asserted his loyalty and willingness to help the President. Carville emphasized how proud he was to be on the job(p) for his friend (Carville 2/12/99, Carville 1/6/99).