Analyzing the Effectiveness of President Obama’s Rhetoric

Once more, President Obama presented the annual State of the Union Address to the American people. For the most part, Mr. Obama focused on the issues of immigration and health care reform, wages, energy, infrastructure and education; all the while particularly stressing the value of hard work. Like any other discourse, his speech employs various rhetorical devices as well as the elements of the “rhetorical triangle”: ethos, pathos and logos. Thus, in order to gauge the effectiveness of Mr. Obama’s address, one must examine the speech wholly on a rhetorical level, making sure to ignore any personal political views and notions of inaccuracy. Arguably, it also seems that of his various methods, the President’s most effective strategy was to mention personal anecdotes of people planted within his audience. Basically, it appears that the various rhetorical strategies utilized by President Obama in his address were mostly effective; while still, of course, holding some notable flaws.

Of all of the rhetoric presented in his address, it seems that Mr. Obama’s most effective strategy was his usage of anecdotes. These instances seem to serve as great instruments for the performance of a variety of rhetorical functions. This is first demonstrated in the President’s reference of the first and second ladies; who he says, “ helped bring down childhood obesity rates for the first time in thirty years” and, “encouraged employers to hire or train nearly 400,000 veterans and military spouses.” Having introduced the notion that the government can serve as a benefactor to the public, Mr. Obama then proceeds to note that, “[t]aking a page from that playbook, the White House just organized a College Opportunity Summit, where already 150 universities, ...

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...oolproof, and truly acceptable evidence, for such a monumental claim.

Despite these generalizations, of which the President failed to fully support, his speech was quite effective. Most notably, Mr. Obama used anecdotes for various reasons, such as serving as springboards for more relevant issues, as well as to, more importantly, demonstrate pathos and logos. The latter two rhetorical elements were effectively employed by President Obama, helping to spur emotion (pathos) as well as to both support his claims and form logical conclusions (logos). Though, as previously mentioned, Obama occasionally presents assumptions of which he fails to support, Mr. Obama’s mastery of rhetorical strategies dwarfs most of the downsides of his address. All in all, it appears to be quite evident that President Obama presents effective rhetoric within his State of the Union Address.