...BARACK OBAMA'S SOUTH CAROLINA SPEECH Introduction In this paper, I shall analyze US Presidential hopeful Barack Obama's South Carolina victory speech from a particular pragmatic perspective. In particular, I shall explore the idea that this speech is constituted by many voices (in other words, it displays polyphony, to use an idea due to Bakhtin 1981, 1986) and that the audience is part of this speech event, adding and contributing to its text in a collaborative way (in particular, in constructing meaning). As many are aware (including the journalists who report day by day on Barack Obama's achievements), Obama uses the technique of 'personification' (The Economist, Dec 13th, 2007). When he voices an idea, he does not just expose it as if it came from himself, but gets another person (fictitious or, plausibly, real) to voice it. Since in an electoral speech, he cannot reasonably get people on stage to voice his ideas, he personifies ideas by narrating what people told him. His stories are his way of personifying his ideas. The discourse strategy he uses serves to reverse the direction of influence from the people in control to the people controlled (see van Dijk 2003). Duranti (2006b) writes that The language of politics has been presented and studied in terms of its ability to persuade an audience (of peers, subjects, and superiors) to go along with the speaker's view of the world and his or her proposal (Perrot 2000). In much of this literature, the successful political...
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...Evaluation of President Obama's First Year and a Half as POTUS" Introduction Barrack Obama became the 44th President of the United States of America on January 20th, 2009. He is the first African American to take office and with his presidency he promised to make changes to America that would liberate the American people from crisis into a bright new beginning. In his Inauguration speech, he claimed to mend the financial crisis by stimulating jobs and laying a “new foundation for growth” (Naughton, “Inauguration speech”). He promised to rebuild the Nation’s foundations such as roads, bridges, electric grids, and digital lines, to revive the prosperity and importance of science, to increase the care and lower the cost of health care, to mend the threat of global warming, to enact peace with Afghanistan, to withdraw from Iraq, and to transform the educational system to meet the conditions of a new era (Naughton, “Inauguration speech”). Throughout his first year as president Obama has enacted many policies and regulations such as the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and Health Care Bill. However, has Obama stayed true to his original promises stated throughout his campaigns, in his Inauguration speech, as well as his first State of Union speech. Has Obamba’s first year been a success or a failure? This essay will explore the history of Obama’s ascend to presidency, his success and failures, and an overall evaluation of Obama’s first year in office. ...
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...that has existed since the very first inauguration featuring the United States first president, George Washington. During Washington’s second inauguration, after his re-election, Washington gave the shortest Inaugural address on record. This address was just 135 words. Nonetheless, every president since Washington has delivered an Inaugural address. The purpose of this address is for presidents to present their vision of the country (United States) and to set forth their goals for the nation. With that being said, this paper will use the strategy of genre analysis to critique to examine Barack Obama’s second Inaugural Address and John F. Kennedy’s inaugural speech. Genre analysis is a type of rhetorical analysis that examines speeches based on the artifacts or commonalities that contain. The artifacts of speech are created by the rhetor as a response to a specific exigency. So as Bitzer’s essay, The Rhetorical Situation, saw it, in order for a text to be rhetorical, it must come in response to a rhetorical situation. Furthermore a rhetorical situation has three characteristics, an audience, an existence of constraints, and as mentioned above, an exigency. One manner, in which we can analyze an artifact, is through...
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...Essay about President Barack Obama’s speech “Back to school” Education is enormously important. The wish of having a good education system and people who freely use it is not something that only a few countries want or wish, but almost the whole world takes aim at this. The focus on education has particularly in the United States big mentions and support. The current Government, which are sitting on the power right now, has this area high on their list of upcoming plans for the future of the US. President Barack Obama has therefore also this topic involved in most of his performances and in most of the speeches he makes. Therefor, it’s definitely an option for the President to talk about the education topic in his speeches, which we also see in one of his speeches from 2009. This speech was held in Arlington, Virginia on September the 8. Obama visited Wakefield High School and presented his speech in front of a lot of older students, but also upcoming students, who was just about to start in a new step in the school system. As mentioned earlier, a clear point in President Barack Obama’s speech is how important the role of education has. This may also be the most important point he tells his audience about. He explains how, in this century one only can count on being considered for a job if one has an education. One can’t just expect that a job will appear and choose one, if the person has no proper education. Therefore will many good properties and abilities of the people...
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...Essay – Barack Obama,”Back to School” What are some of President Barack Obama’s methods for successful speeches? How does he manage to gather the attention of his audience? Is he really just throwing out slogans at people or does he really deliver a mark after they’ve left the audience? This essay will embark on some of these questions through an analysis of his speech presented at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia at an event called, “Back to school”. President Barack Obama’s speech is about the importance of education, and an efficient infrastructure in the USA. He gathers his audience’s attention by emphasizing on how important it is for each individual in America to have an education – not only for their own sake, but also for their country’s sake. Throughout the speech he addresses his audience in a specific way while advocating for some values. These values are different; however, they have an equal significance since they all contribute to the success of an eminent society. I’ll highlight the way he addresses his audience and the values he advocates for in his speech, respectively. “The president: Hello everyone – How’s everybody doing today?” [l.1] This statement used by Mr. Obama clearly states that he wants to create an impact in these young Americans’ heart. He isn’t speaking academically towards them but rather in a language that everybody speaks and understands, so they can easily relate to each other. Obama’s intention must have been not to elevate...
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...Essay – Barack Obama,”Back to School” What are some of President Barack Obama’s methods for successful speeches? How does he manage to gather the attention of his audience? Is he really just throwing out slogans at people or does he really deliver a mark after they’ve left the audience? This essay will embark on some of these questions through an analysis of his speech presented at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia at an event called, “Back to school”. President Barack Obama’s speech is about the importance of education, and an efficient infrastructure in the USA. He gathers his audience’s attention by emphasizing on how important it is for each individual in America to have an education – not only for their own sake, but also for their country’s sake. Throughout the speech he addresses his audience in a specific way while advocating for some values. These values are different; however, they have an equal significance since they all contribute to the success of an eminent society. I’ll highlight the way he addresses his audience and the values he advocates for in his speech, respectively. “The president: Hello everyone – How’s everybody doing today?” [l.1] This statement used by Mr. Obama clearly states that he wants to create an impact in these young Americans’ heart. He isn’t speaking academically towards them but rather in a language that everybody speaks and understands, so they can easily relate to each other. Obama’s intention must have been not to elevate...
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...Summary: "Our Biracial President," by James Hannaham In the essay "Our Biracial President," James Hannaham explains that the election of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States will be seen as a victory against racism around the world and will create hope for new beginnings. He goes on to say that this President will prove to Americans as well as to people from all over the globe that they can look to hope that they too can acheive their dreams if they work hard enough. Hannaham claims that the Obama's Presidency will utimately help to erase the social disapproval against people of African descent such as slavery because others can point to Obama and his accomplishments and feel as if there is hope. While it is a sign to all humanity that the United States is moving forward, this is certainly not the end to all racism. But a sign of hope that is to come in our future. The writer mentions that some doubted that Obama would be elected because he didn't have much experience and that perhaps America wasn't quite ready for such a drastic change as having a black President. The truth is, he has done so many great things for America's image around the world. We see Obama's face on bootlegged T-shirts and his election alone has served as a rescue to the opionions of America's ability to move forward. Hannaham offers that Obama is not to be compared to Malcolm X, he is not even Kanye West, and the motorcade that he rolls up to the White House will not include a thumping...
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...2012 U.S. Presidential Electoral Performance Review In Barack Obama’s passionate acceptance speech for president on Nov 5th, the fierce political campaigns between him and Mitt Romney came to an end. From making speeches through television to shaking hands with potential voters, from preparing debate questions to interacting with journalists, both the incumbent president from the Democratic Party and the nominee from the Republican Party have made great efforts to present themselves as the potential president for audiences. This essay will analyze their political performances by looking at the actor(s) in this campaign, collective representation, means of symbolic production, mise en scene, social power and the role of audiences and media based on Alexander’s work on cultural pragmatics. Their performances (especially Republican candidate Mitt Romney’s performances) between the first presidential political debate on Oct 2nd and the “Big Day” on Nov 5th will be reviewed. Undoubtedly, the actors in this political campaign are Democratic Party candidate Obama and Republican Party candidate Romney. Barack Obama as an incumbent president who won the 2008 election with his slogan called “Changes we can believe in”, however, he only faces “things can be worse” by now. For him, in all the three debates, he always tried to demonstrate that he had made great efforts in the past four years, his efforts can sustain in his second term and things will get better but they also take time...
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...In the concluding statement of his essay, William states: “Maybe we are learning again to cherish this right of every person to succeed on his own terms and to fail as often as necessary along the way.” This demonstrates to me that the American Dream is alive and well to all those with the peripheral vision to see the many possibilities still within the grasp of Americans flexible enough to go over, under, around, or even through the often self-imposed barriers we put in front of ourselves. And failing only means that one try and try again, before modifying the goal to our advantage, instead of repeatedly pounding our collective heads against the wall and expecting a different, more traditionally successful result. Similarly, in Barack Obama's keynote address, the description of his life’s journey supports my thesis of the American Dream being alive and well. In the speech, he states: “In no other country on Earth, is my story even possible.” when referring to himself and his family's remarkable achievements. Saying this, he gives self-evident proof from his own life that the American Dream is still attainable through hard work and that every child in America with big ears, a Punahou, Columbia...
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...society. In this paper, the prevalence of political correctness in politics is analyzed. As politics plays a part in connecting all other function of society, it is important to take a view of how the lack of political correctness has changed the society in difference forms by causing an upsurge in hate crime and white supremacy. In this paper, the presidency of Obama and Trump is contrasted as two differing sides of PC and the harmful effects of Trump’s anti-PC campaign are showcased. Political Correctness in Politics The term Political correctness has been weaving in and out of political talks since quite a while but without much significance. During the 1970s, Toni Cade Bambara, an African American activist, brought the phrase up in an essay. She talked about the gender relations in her community and the fact that her male friends were unable to accept the problems black women faced even though they claimed to be ‘politically correct’ (Weigel. M 2016). By the 80s, the left wing parties were using the term to criticize the traditionality present in the government (Weigel. M 2016). The of was continued to be used in varying forms, as a rebuttal to conservative arguments and bases for protests till the rightwing took the term and molded it into their being the reason for the crimes happening in the USarguments, claiming PC to be a leftwing political program. During the last stages of the Obama presidency, talks about PC became prevalent again. Movements for sexual violence and campaigns...
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...Increasing? The Polarizing Effect of Obama’s Presidency Abstract Previous research has shown that individuals who are highly conservative are more likely to hold negative perceptions of African-Americans and other minorities. Furthermore, racial antipathy affects the way individuals perceive Barack Obama. In light of recent trends, this study tested whether individuals who identify themselves as Republicans are substantially more likely to maintain negative racial attitudes. The study also investigated whether white Americans are more likely than other racial groups to harbor racial prejudices and disapprove of Barack Obama. Results from this study indicated that racial resentment plays a significant role in contemporary politics. Data from between-subjects ANOVA and correlational analysis suggested that the Democratic Party and Republican Party are polarized in regards to racial issues. Moreover, conservative whites are the most likely racial group to hold racial prejudices against African-Americans. Finally, disapproval of President Obama is highly associated with high levels of negative racial stereotypes. Keywords: race, antipathy, conservatism, prejudices, Obama Is Racial Antipathy Increasing? The Polarizing Effect of Obama’s Presidency In 2008, Barack Obama became the first African-American to become President of the United States. His election marked a pivotal turning point in American politics. To millions, Obama’s election signaled the start of a post-racial...
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...New Nationalism and Teddy Roosevelt: The new ideals of federal intervention, social justice and economic welfare for the Nation. Abstract In 1901 when President McKinley was assassinated, Roosevelt confronted sentiment, especially from the older members of the Republican Party, that he was not the right person to lead the country, often referring to him as “His Accidency.” Roosevelt was interested in quickly changing the mood of the country and establishing his legitimacy to his new position. He did so by introducing a “New Nationalist” form of Progressivism. When Roosevelt was sworn in, the Progressive Party had already been developing and growing since the end of the 19th century. It advocated for reforms and the lead of the government in changing society’s problems in response to socio-economic and political imbalances. Such thinking was a radical change in the country’s mindset, with earlier efforts supporting private efforts to solve the nation’s ills. The Progressive party had a broad platform, but the overall goal was for government to implement and lead efforts to alter societal inequalities. The Progressives called for eliminating corruption in the federal government as well as supporting a social welfare program, the women’s vote, penal system reform, and prohibition. Although the issue of civil rights for African-Americans was of concern of some members, this issue was not formally included in any of the Progressive party’s literature. With the support of...
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...CLINTONS, MCCAIN AND PALIN, AND THE RACE OF A LIFETIME JOHN HEILEMANN AND MARK HALPERIN FOR DIANA AND KAREN Contents Cover Title Page Prologue Part I Chapter One – Her Time Chapter Two – The Alternative Chapter Three – The Ground Beneath Her Feet Chapter Four – Getting to Yes Chapter Five – The Inevitables Chapter Six – Barack in a Box Chapter Seven – “They Looooove Me!” Chapter Eight – The Turning Point Chapter Nine – The Fun Part Chapter Ten – Two For the Price of One Chapter Eleven – Fear and Loathing in the Lizard’s Thicket Chapter Twelve – Pulling Away and Falling Apart Chapter Thirteen – Obama Agonistes Chapter Fourteen – The Bitter End Game Part II Chapter Fifteen – The Maverick and His Meltdown Chapter Sixteen – Running Unopposed Chapter Seventeen – Slipping Nooses, Slaying Demons Part III Chapter Eighteen – Paris and Berlin Chapter Nineteen – The Mile-High Club Chapter Twenty – Sarahcuda Chapter Twenty-One – September Surprise Chapter Twenty-Two – Seconds in Command Chapter Twenty-Three – The Finish Line Epilogue – Together at Last Index Author’s Notes About the Authors Copyright About the Publisher Prologue BARACK OBAMA JERKED BOLT upright in bed at three o’clock in the morning. Darkness enveloped his low-rent room at the Des Moines Hampton Inn; the airport across the street was quiet in the hours before dawn. It was very late December 2007, a few days ahead of the Iowa caucuses. Obama had been sprinting flat out for president for nearly a year...
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...Obama ultimately beat the social identity of black men that was by default laid upon him and his family. Like previously stated in this reading, middle class black American’s were at times flagged for drug use, welfare dependency, and other false stereotypical criticism. America had never seen an all-black first family, and here it was. This victory for president Obama marked a new post war America and helped a lot with muting racial discrimination. Hill Collins in the article first black American story (2012) declares, “Barack Obama’s campaign and subsequent Presidency provides a useful site for exploring changing conceptions of race, gender, economic security and American national identity” (Hill Collins, 2012, page 124). Not only did this help with race but also gender, and family. Hill Collins also states that there could not of been a better family to present a face to the public as the pinnacle American black...
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...Joseph Carr POL 205 Lanahan Essay #3 Low voter turnout is a direct danger to our democratic practices and the result of the elite pushing their special interests over the interests of the common man. Essay numbers sixty-six through seventy all deal with voting issues, showing the expanding flaws of American democracy in our modern world. First discussing the Exhibition season and the importance of the New Hampshire primary in grass roots politics, Dante Scala in Stormy Weather asserts that the first presidential primaries either give or take away a candidate’s momentum with the influence of the media fishbowl. Reading number sixty-seven No Place for Amateurs by Dennis Johnson focuses on the effect of political consultants on a candidate’s campaign for election. Discussing negative campaigning, reading sixty-eight Going Dirty by David Mark gives detail on political marketing, 527 groups and the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform of 2002. Reading number sixty-nine Why we vote by David Campbell highlights the different reasons why people vote. Finally, reading number seventy How Barack Obama Won by Chuck Todd and Sheldon Gawiser discusses the landmarks leading up to the 2008 election and the possibility of an alignment of the democrats. In Stormy Weather by Dante Scala the author describes the first stage of the election process as the exhibition season and the second stage as the media fishbowl. Scala describes the exhibition season as “the period that extends from the...
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