Editorial cartoons contribute to candidate image development by offering condensed and simplified metaphoric portrayals. This study identifies the rhetorical fantasia advanced by cartoonists in their metaphors about Al Gore and George Bush through five themes of leadership during the early months of Campaign 2000: character, competence, viability, independence, and charisma. The cartoons reflected overall campaign strategies by attaching character issues to Gore and competence issues to Bush. However, the campaign was over-shadowed by the outside influence of preceding presidents, calling into question the independence of the candidates, which may have fueled the ambivalent results of the election.
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