Rhetoric Speech - Iowa Victory

The speech I chose to evaluate was Barack Obama’s victory speech from Iowa 2008. Similar to many other speeches given by Obama, his use of rhetoric is overwhelming and powerful to his audience and is able to generate a crowd of spirit, hope, and, unity, especially on the individuals whose lives are in need of drastic change. The way his voice empowers, the words presented, are the reasons why some writers, including Mark Lawrence McPhail, compare the speeches of Barack Obama and Martin Luther King Jr., as they are able to generate a moving crowd.

The most common use of rhetoric used in this speech was anaphora, a group of repeated words at the beginning of sentences for emphasizes. Anaphora was how Obama began his speech, by stuttering and repeating, “they said, they said, they said this day would never come” and continued throughout the 15 minute speech with “This was the moment…this was the moment…” and “You said…, You said the time would never has come”. However, another use of rhetoric included warrants, where Obama used Ethos, pathos, and logos of stories from women who live in Iowa and New Hampshire, attempting to incorporate a speech that is able to connect the Midwest farmer state with New Hampshire on the East Coast.

One final use of rhetoric used was antithesis, where a juxtaposition of contrasting terms is used. Obama said, “when were up and when were down” to represent the roller coaster that many American’s have been experiencing in the past four years. Mark McPhail wrote, “Obama embraces the ideals of American culture instead of rejecting them; it focuses on those commonalities that connect us instead of invoking the differences that divide us” (WP 303) which causes Obama to create a rhetorical coherence, opposed to the rhetoricconsilience that David Frank believed was used in the 2004 National Convention Speech.

The tone, imagery, repetition, and personal narratives used in Barack Obama’s speech gave the selected American people the speech that they wanted, giving them hope for change in the near future. Obama’s speeches are full of correct rhetoric enabling all followers’ to become motivated and excited for the future that he can bring.

This speech can be found at the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqoFwZUp5vc, however, I cannot find a transcript of it.