Resumen de National identity, crisis, and the inaugural genre: George W. Bush and 9/11
Presidential crisis research typically focuses on crises that are rhetorically constructed in order to justify a preexisting policy. However, the research makes a clear exception for that tendency in the case of military attacks. I argue that in such cases presidential crisis rhetoric is formally and functionally different because it must take into account the state of the audience. Bush’s speech after 9/11 is just such a case. In the speech, Bush carefully addresses the state of the audience by tapping into the elements of the inaugural as a means to restore national identity through American Exceptionalism.
