Obama Inaugural Speech Rhetoric

President Barrack Obama was officially inaugurated and sworn in as the forty-fourth president of the United States of America On January 20, 2009. This speech is a tradition for all presidents being sworn into office to express what they want to accomplish during their term as president. The president must make a speech that appeals and shows the audience that he cares while also being professional. Rhetoric is a useful strategy to utilize in speech making. During President Obama’s inaugural speech, in 2009, he said “On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics”. His uses “strangled our politics” as an example of

Obama mentions how costly health care, failing schools, job shedding, lost housing, and high energy use are all “data and statistics” that are “indicators of crisis”. Using the data and statistics to show how our nation is falling also sparks an emotional reaction from the audience. Proving that a country is failing is a huge and serious issue which everybody in the audience would be concerned about. This not only captures the audiences' attention, but gives them more of a reason to want to do something about it. Using statistics in his speech shows that he has done the research and can prove that something needs to be done.
Obama refers to historical events to invoke emotion in the readers. At the end of Obama's speech, he mentions how “a man whose father less than 60 years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath”. This reference to the past relates to anybody in the audience who has lived in the time of slavery or has had relatives who were slaves. This reference sparks emotional attachment to the speech and makes the speech influential and easy to correlate to. Obama's use of the rhetorical triangle appeals to the audience, establishes the speaker, and defines the