Political Philanderers: Their Strategy for Apologies (2012)
Undergraduate: Lauren Stutts
Faculty Advisor: Jordynn Jack
Department: English
The basic apology has three parts: admitting the wrongdoing, expressing remorse for any hurt feelings, and the promise for better behavior in the future. However, the life of a politician is never basic. When a politician is caught in an adultery scandal, their apology is not just to their significant other, but also to their constituency. In this situation, there are certain rhetorical strategies these adulterous politicians use in order to patch up their relationship with their citizens and family. People like President Clinton, former Governor of New York Eliot Spitzer, and former Congressman Anthony Weiner use certain strategies of language in their public apologies in order to quell the firestorm of their philandering.