"We need a president who will stand up for the rights of hunters, sportsmen and those seeking to protect their homes and their families,"
Being a communications major and specifically studying political and presidential rhetoric quite a bit, this statement worries me. He said we need a president who will stand up for these things, but he never stated that he would be that president. Also, what rights is he talking about? His idea of rights may be different from mine. There is a communication theory called the Social Judgment theory, and it deals specifically with attitudes, beliefs, and values. It theorizes that every person has a latitude of acceptance, non-commitment, and rejection. Your beliefs, attitudes, and values determine how large each of those areas is.
This theory posits that in order to have a statement that falls with in the latitude of acceptance for the most amount of people, you should be ambiguous. I have also studied propaganda and persuasion techniques, and I can see this crap all of the media and with politicians. An example of this theory would be, I say I believe in human rights. Awesome, which ones, and which rights do I think humans should have. What do I believe? I could believe that human should not exist. This statement that Romney made means nothing to me except: "I am trying to get conservatives to vote for me by saying what I think they want to hear."
