- 期刊
2008年美國總統選舉中負面選戰所帶來的影響
Impact of Negative Campaigning on 2008 U.S. Presidential Election
摘要
美國總統選舉半個世紀以來，愈來愈走向負面的攻擊。2008年也不例外，雖然共和黨候選人麥肯和民主黨對手歐巴馬都曾信誓旦旦的表示，他們要打一場不一樣的選戰。 其實，麥肯和歐巴馬都是廣受敬重的政治人物。麥肯素有獨行俠之稱，他為了國家利益，有時不惜違背黨意；而歐巴馬是伊利諾州選出的第一任聯邦參議員，形象清新，他將「改變」作為選戰的主軸，矢志要掃除華盛頓的陋習和積弊。但是他們發現自己在民調落後之後，立刻採取負面攻擊的手段，激烈和誤導的程度，絕不下於過去的候選人。 麥肯陣營首先將歐巴馬描述為虛有其表的名流，把他跟負面消息不斷的小甜甜布蘭妮及芭黎絲希爾頓等名媛相提並論。然後，他們又說他「到處結交恐怖份子」，希望引起選民的恐懼。而歐巴馬陣營，則希望將麥肯跟聲望空前低落的布希總統綁在一起。雙方為了達到目的，不惜在競選廣告中加入誤導、及扭曲性的言詞，讓2008年的總統選舉成為美國歷史上最負面的選戰之一。
並列摘要
U.S. presidential campaigns have become increasingly negative in the past half a century. There was no exception in 2008 despite the fact that both candidates of the two major parties had pledged to run a different campaign. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), a maverick who had sometimes defied his own party for the sake of national interests, and Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), a first-term senator from Illinois who had made ”change” his central theme in a campaign aimed at bringing an end to the old way of doing business in Washington, went negative without hesitation when they found themselves falling behind in opinion polls. The McCain camp first tried to portray Obama as an empty-headed celebrity comparable to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton and, then, as someone who was ”palling around with terrorists.” The Obama camp, on its part, tried to tie McCain to President George W. Bush who was extremely unpopular because of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the financial tsunami. In order to achieve their goals, both camps pulled no punches and peppered their campaign ads with highly misleading statements and distortions, resulting in one of the most nasty presidential campaigns in American history.