Penn State University Libraries - Presidential Campaign Rhetoric

• National Journal — a news magazine dedicated to politics; it also does a good job of analyzing political ads.

• AP Images [Associated Press newspaper photo archive] — a wide range of AP (Associated Press) news photos (and some video) that chronicle both current and historical campaigns

• Vanderbilt Television News Archive — " [...] the world's most extensive and complete archive of television news. We have been recording, preserving and providing access to television news broadcasts of the national networks since August 5, 1968."

• www.4president.us — has a nice collection of political ads and images

• Youtube — has lots of campaign ads, including historical ads — just search for a candidate's name and the year of the election

For more television new sources, try the Libraries' Television News Program Sources research guide

Other Presidential Speeches

For more speeches at other points in the presidency, try the Libraries':

• Historical Speeches research guide

Fact-Checking the Media

The following organizations claim to monitor bias in the media — either from a left- or right-leaning perspective:

• Accurracy in Media — a conservative watchdog group since 1986

• Media Matters for America — a liberal watchdog group

• PolitiFact — from the St. Petersburg Times, this website keeps tabs on all the claims made by candidates and fact-checks and rates the claims from True to "Pants on Fire" lies

With the controversial Supreme Court Decision in Citizen's United v. the FEC, there will be more money spent durng the 2012 campaign cycle than ever before. Here are a few places that will be tracking spending:

• Federal Election Commission (FEC)
  "In 1975, Congress created the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to administer and enforce the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) — the statute that governs the financing of federal elections. The duties of the FEC, which is an independent regulatory agency, are to disclose campaign finance information, to enforce the provisions of the law such as the limits and prohibitions on contributions, and to oversee the public funding of Presidential elections."

• OpenSecrets.org
  "Your guide to the money in elections." By many standards the best of the Web sites, and certainly the most user-friendly guide to money in politics.

• CampaignMoney.com
  "The purpose of campaignmoney.com, a non-partisan website, is to make available in the easiest way possible the names of financial donors to federal political campaigns. These records are a matter of public record provided by the Federal Election Commission. There is no charge for perusing the lists on campaignmoney.com."

• Follow the Money
  "The National Institute on Money in State Politics is the only non-partisan, nonprofit organization revealing the influence of campaign money on state-level elections and public policy in all 50 states.

• Silent Partners: How Political Non-Profits Work the System [Center for Public Integrity]
  This was a study of the money spent by political advocacy groups during the 2000-2006 election cycles. While historical, it provides an interesting window into the influence this money has on the election cycle. This is money that is not controlled under federal campaign finance law.

As campaign season progresses the elections seem more and more like a horse race. Watch the polls go up and down at some of these sites. Look carefully at a broad range of polls and remember that polls are nothing more than a snapshot in time.

• Gallup
  A veteran polling institution that has been tracking elections for over 60 years.

• Real Clear Politics Polls
  A great site because it consolidates polls from a number of sources in one place, making it easy to compare numbers.

• Pollster
  Pollster tracks, aggregates, and analyzes political polls (including presidential, congressional, and gubernatorial races). The site provides links to other polling and survey research groups and resources, and has a very helpful FAQ page that explains how political polling is done. [College and Research Library News, 69 (1), p. 20]

• Fivethirtyeight.com
  For the statistical geek who really wants to understand what the numbers mean, this is the place to go.

• the Libraries' Polls and Surveys research guide — for more information about using polls and surveys in your research.

Try the databases below to find journal articles and scholarly analysis related to politics, campaigns, and rhetoric:

• Communication and Mass Media Complete

• Worldwide Political Abstracts — some full text is available in this database which includes links out to E-Journal content through Get It! links.

• Taylor and Francis online

• Academic Search Complete

• LionSearch — one single search box that searches across all library resources for books, scholarly journals, e-books, newspapers, and more!

• JSTOR — digital archive of academic journals and other scholarly content.