“The Eagleton phenomenon in the 1972 presidential campaign: A case study in the rhetoric of paradox”

Abstract

The Eagleton phenomenon consists of a series of inter‐related responses by the major participants in the Democratic presidential campaign of 1972, resulting in a significant paradox centered on the theme of integrity. The substance and strategy of the rhetoric involved in that paradox is best understood by examining the initial and subsequent exigencies to which the participants responded, the influence of dominant ideas and values derived from personal experience and cultural context, and the way in which initial exigencies were transformed into ultimate perceptions.