You Ain't Just Whistling Dixie: How Carol Moseley-Braun Used Rhetorical Status to Change Jesse...

Against the expectations of double minority researchers, Carol Moseley-Braun convinced a majority of senators to vote against an amendment for a design patent featuring the confederate flag. By effectively managing her rhetorical status, she turned sex, gender, and support for a minority viewpoint-the very qualities that Helms emphasized as detractors from Moseley-Braun's credibility in the Senate-into qualities that contributed to her credibility. In turn, increased credibility led to enhanced rhetorical status, which intervened to affect positively the efficacy of her arguments. Enactment and inspirational appeals are identified as the two rhetorical tools she used to prevail.