For The Living Room Candidate assignment, I was assigned the 2004 election between Bush and Kerry. More specifically, I was assigned to look at the ads released by Bush, the Republican, in this presidential election race. One of the ads that stuck out to me was an ad in which Bush described what he saw as faults in Kerry’s approach to National Security. In the ad, Bush appears to be appealing to people’s sense of patriotism, for he says things such as “As our troops defend America in the War on Terror”, indicating that Kerry either doesn’t care or cares less about these troops. Bush continues to use this patriotic appeal by discussing how Kerry opposed different types of military weapons made here in Florida. Firstly, this continues to appeal to people’s patriotic desires, for it emphasizes how the weapons were made in the United States, in Florida, and uses an accusatory tone that appears to almost see this refusal of American-made weapons as unpatriotic and bad for the country. Additionally, by listing these weapons that. appear to have fancy, “military-like” names, the ad gives the audience a sense that these weapons are very important to the war, and not having them is incredibly detrimental, while in reality, it is likely that people watching do not even know exactly what these weapons are, or how they would help. Additionally, Bush adds the fact that Kerry opposed extra body gear for soldiers as again an appeal to Americans patriotism, for it frames Kerry as caring little for the sacrifices of the military. Lastly, as a whole, this ad does not give any information about Bush’s policies; instead, it focuses on making his competitor, Kerry, look worse, and thus Bush looks better in comparison.