Argumentative statements used in political debate of the 2012 Republican Presidential Candidates

ABSTRACT

Argumentation is a kind of device which concerns with reaching mutually acceptable conclusions , It occurs when two or more people express differing points of view.

This research aims at finding out how the seven Republican Presidential Candidates formulate their claim, data, warrant, rebuttal, qualifier, and backing on their argumentative statements. Indeed, this research intended to observe, identify and prove the way of arguments used in Political Debate of The 2012 Republican Presidential Candidates in convincing their debate opponents and maintaining their stands in delivering the arguments.

This is a descriptive qualitative research. The transcript was accessed from The second Republican debate held at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire which was broadcasted live for 120 minutes on CNN, WMUR-TV, and CNN.com. The data of this research were the debate taken from http// www.Freerepublic.com. The Toulmin’s model and the criteria of recognizing argumentative elements by Zahro are utilized to recognize the argumentative elements in the candidates’ statements.

The result of this study is that all the candidates had delivered convincing arguments in the debate due to the fact that they had fulfilled the criteria of forming an argument as stated by Toulmin.

There are many ways of the seven candidates (Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney, Herman Cain, Ron Paul, Tim Pawlenty and Rick Santorum) in formulating their argumentative statements. It could be found various ways that were used by the candidates in formulating their argumentative statements. Some of them are: First, In economic topic, Cain proposed claim, data and warrant. For the Tea Party Influence, Cain stated claim, data, warrant, and backing. Second, in economic topic, Santorum used claim, data, warrant, and backing. For the tea party influence, Santorum used claim, data, and Massachusetts plan, which is included in economic topic, Romney stated claim, data, and warrant.