Rhetoric Of Barack Obama

Chris Terzic
Part 1: Speech Critique
Studying the Rhetoric of Barack Obama Barack Obama’s Address at the Associated Press Luncheon on April 3, 2012 covered a vast variation of topics that we will dissect throughout this paper. However, first and foremost, Obama’s initial speaking time lasted about 38 minutes. 38 minutes of articulated word choice, calculated arguments and style, and composed speaking presence is something every aspiring public speaker should be salivating at, not to mention be taking notes of. My first obligation of this paper is to commend President Obama on an absolutely breath-taking demonstration of public speaking. It’s recognized that President Obama is arguably one of the greatest speech giving Presidents ever, but
Obama used numbers throughout his entire speech, and at times, made you wonder how accurate those numbers really were? Obama used his data mostly to instill a fear, or at the very least, a concern from his target audience because the majority of the data he used was to show the incompetence of the Republican Party in congress. Although the President did use data to show why his budget decisions were working, and why his numbers were encouraging. He mostly spent time using his data to dissect the Republican agenda. I thought that his use of data was appropriate throughout the speech; his credibility would have been destroyed had he come on stage with no numerical support of his claims. However, the average listener could have very easily become skeptical of all the data the President was using because it became apparent his data had a negative connotation with the Republican Party. I thought this was where his speech leaves open a lot of room for criticism because for all the uplifting, positive, and confident messages he portrayed throughout his speech. When the listener sees his adamancy towards making clear that the Republican’s aren’t playing fair, it makes you wonder what the truth really is? Are those numbers accurate? Maybe that’s just me being skeptical, but his data he used to embarrass the Republican Party didn’t help me
His attempt to appeal to his audience emotionally through historical and numerical data had its strong and weak points. I know how I felt after watching the speech; the difficult part is trying to summarize what other American’s make of it. Obama’s speech can definitely be defined as cut-and-dry, he had a point to make, and he tried very hard to make his point clear. There was not much use of satire (normally one of his area’s of expertise), or much use of creative word play, or him trying to flaunt his power as President to persuade people to listen. Instead, Obama’s objective wasn’t to try and make us understand the issues of our time, but rather we need to understand the issues at hand, and I thought he raised those issues appropriately and chronologically throughout. Sure, he tried to make some people in his audience appeal to him by mostly using pathetic proof, but he used logic and appropriate ethical behavior as well. He articulated all his point in a manner that made you forget momentarily that he is the President of the United States. The brilliance of his mind was at full display, and as I believe, ended up hurting him because he tried too hard to show just how much trouble the Republican Party causes him. I do find it hard to label this speech as ineffective; the President’s content of the speech was relevant and critical. His ability to demonstrate the