rhetorical devices used in obama's victory speech 2008

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'Yes we can' – Barack Obama's lesson in American rhetoric

This year sees a deluge of anniversaries of major American speeches. In August, the world marked the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech to the 1963 March on Washington. This month is the 150th anniversary of Lincoln's Gettysburg address, and the 50th anniversary of JFK's assassination has provoked memories of his great speeches, including the 1961 inaugural . It's 80 years since President Roosevelt's first inaugural ("the only thing we have to fear is fear itself") and 25 since Jesse Jackson's "keep hope alive" speech to the 1988 Democratic convention. And on 4 November it is five years since Barack Obama acknowledged his victory in the 2008 election with the mantra "yes we can" .

These speeches were delivered at different lengths, on different occasions and under different circumstances. The Gettysburg address (all 272 words of it) followed a two-hour eulogy by Edward Everett, the president of Harvard, celebrating a key civil war victory. The King speech was delivered at a rally in support of civil rights. Roosevelt's inaugural was given in the depths of the depression, Kennedy's at the height of the cold war. Jackson had lost the democratic nomination, Obama had won the election.

There is, I want to argue, a crucial difference between the content and therefore the rhetorical method of Obama's speeches and the rest. Nonetheless, they share much more than divides them: in style, reference, technique, subject and inspiration. In his definitive study of Lincoln at Gettysburg , the American scholar Garry Wills points out that the address not only followed Everett's sprawling oration, but supplanted it with a new, plain style of delivery that was to dominate American public speaking from then till now. "All modern political prose," Wills argues, "descends from the Gettysburg address."

No wonder, then, how many of these speeches start with reference to anniversaries and go on to refer to each other. The opening of Gettysburg harks back to American independence ("four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation"), the "I have a dream" speech to Lincoln's emancipation proclamation. Both Kennedy and Obama quoted Lincoln; accepting his party's nomination in 2008, Obama quoted and cited King. Unsurprisingly, there are myriad references to and quotations from the Bible. Although there is an important difference between how and why they use them, all of these speechmakers draw on the same repertoire of rhetorical devices.

As Wills argues, Lincoln uses repetition of words as "a kind of hook-and-eye method for joining the parts of his address": there's hardly a sentence that doesn't repeat a word in the preceding one, from "nation" and "conceived" to "consecrated" and "dead". Lincoln hands on one particular form of repetition, the anaphora (a word or phrase repeated in the same place in successive phrases or sentences), from Kennedy's "let both sides …" to Obama's "it's the answer … ". All of them use contrasts, from Lincoln's "the world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here," to King's "we cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote". In Kennedy's case, contrast takes the particular form of the chiasmus, in which one phrase is echoed in the opposite direction ("Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate"); a figure taken up by Jackson ("I was born in the slum, but the slum was not born in me"). Most follow the rule of three, from Lincoln's "in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate – we cannot consecrate – we cannot hallow this ground" to Obama's "America, we can come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do."

Of course, these devices are by no means exclusively American. As Max Atkinson makes clear in his analysis of speechmaking, Lend Me Your Ears , contrast and tripling appear in speech after speech, time after time. In his wartime broadcasts, Churchill used anaphora ("we will fight them" on the beaches, landing-grounds, fields, streets and hills), contrast (so much "owed by so many to so few") and chiasmus (not "the beginning of the end" but perhaps "the end of the beginning"). But it's the sheer quantity of these devices that gives American rhetoric its peculiar rhythmic power, its musicality, and – often – its meaning.

So Lincoln's repetitions are not just a baton passed from sentence to sentence, but a drumbeat (the word "dedicate" appears in every sentence but one). Kennedy uses chiasmus like a hammer ("ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country"). Obama's 2012 victory speech had four anaphora (as did Jesse Jackson's speech in 1988), and King's no less than seven (apart from "I have a dream" itself, "one hundred years later …", "we refuse to believe …", "now is the time …", "we can never be satisfied …", "with this faith …" and "let freedom ring").

But if all of these orators cram their rhetorical devices together to an unprecedented degree, they are differently distributed. Atkinson calculates that, in his inaugural, Kennedy employs contrast every 39 seconds, but uses hardly any triples. King's written text contains 18 contrasts, from "a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity" to "transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood". Obama, on the other hand, favours triples (there were 13 in the speech that launched him to national prominence at the 2004 Democratic convention, and 20 in the "yes we can" speech).

The difference between King and Obama's favoured figure is much more than a matter of taste, technique or style. Contrasts and triples express different views of the world. Contrasts reveal binaries and present choices, multiples accrete evidence for a single case. Which you choose betrays not just your subject but your attitude.

So Kennedy's contrast-laden speech was (predominantly) about what he saw as the conflict between freedom and tyranny. The first section of Roosevelt's inaugural is about how the rich let down the American masses, and most of the paragraphs consist of two contrasting sentences. At the end, Roosevelt offers a prospect of national unity, and the paragraphs expand to a lilting three. And while Lincoln, King, Jackson and Obama all address the division between free states and slave states, north and south, blue and red America, King sees that contest in terms of unresolved binaries, Obama as a barrier that can be overcome.

Obama is a master of the personal anecdote and the telling example (neither of which feature in Lincoln, Kennedy or King's speeches at all). In this he follows Jackson, whose 1988 speech includes an evocative list of the sort of Americans who lost out in the 80s: redundant workers, farmers losing land to bad loans, students who can't afford college. Obama picks this device up again and again. In his 2004 critique of Bush's America, he cites children who can't read, seniors who can't pay for prescriptions, Arab-Americans rounded up without due process. In 2012 he accentuates the positive: an immigrant's daughter pledging allegiance to the flag, a Chicago youth seeing a life "beyond the nearest street corner", the furniture worker's child in North Carolina who wants to become a doctor or an engineer. When Obama challenges the division between red states and blue states, he lists examples of attitudes and phenomena – religious belief, hostility to censorship, gay communities – that are supposedly restricted to one or other but are actually present in both.

The fact that Martin Luther King is held to have taken a similarly conciliatory view is due to the most famous section of his 1963 speech, which King decided to substitute for the written ending as he spoke. As Gary Younge relates in his book The Speech , King's aides advised him against repeating the "I have a dream" mantra (which he'd delivered at least twice before) on the grounds that it was cliched and trite. Certainly, as black militancy deepened in the years that followed, the last section of the speech was seen as weak and sentimental. If it's true that contrasts are about conflict and multiples tend to the conciliatory, King's ending would be a wonderful example: following his seven dreams, King calls for freedom to ring from five northern and western states and three in the south.

Taken on their own, as a couple of soundbites, these tropes support the argument that King's speech was merely a call for peace, love and harmony. But in the context of the speech as a whole, with its insistent repetition of contrasts between the world as it should be and the world as it was, the end seems less a flight of fancy about the future than a critique of now. In the context of the failure of America to deliver on the emancipation proclamation, the extent of discrimination, violence and poverty, and the urgent need for what King called a "whirlwind of revolt", King's dream for his children to be judged "not by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character" is all about students and voters in the south being judged entirely by the colour of their skin. And when King demands that freedom ring from "the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire" and "the curvaceous slopes of California", he does so not to celebrate these admirable places but to contrast them with Stone Mountain of Georgia, Lookout Mountain of Tennessee and "every hill and molehill of Mississippi". The soaring multiples are organised by the binary contrast between one kind of country and another, the same binary which Lincoln posited 100 years earlier at Gettysburg.

As Younge argues, both King's speech and Obama's victory have been celebrated for asserting that, now, African-Americans are indeed judged by the content of their character, and can succeed on their own. On election night last year , Obama asserted that "whether you're black or white or Hispanic or Asian or Native American or young or old or rich or poor, abled, disabled, gay or straight", you can "make it here in America if you're willing to try". But after citing a comparable list – "black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics" – King looked forward to something different: a day when "all of God's children" would be able to sing "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty, we're free at last", not as individuals but as a people.

In finishing with a triple repeat and an extended last phrase, King anticipated Jackson ("Keep hope alive. Keep hope alive. On tomorrow night and beyond, keep hope alive") and echoed Lincoln ("that government of the people, by the people and for the people, shall not perish from the earth"). Fifty years on, would he feel that any of those ambitions has been fully achieved?

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(CNN) -- President-elect Barack Obama's victory speech Tuesday night compares favorably with a number of historic orations, a linguist said Thursday.

Barack Obama speaks at a rally in Chicago, Illinois, after winning the presidency Tuesday night.

"His goal was to be understood by the widest possible audience during his victory speech, and he seems to have done a great job doing it," said Paul J.J. Payack, president of the Austin, Texas-based Global Language Monitor, which analyzed the speech for content, tone and length.

"He's at his best communicating directly and forthrightly with this audience and using different types of rhetorical devices," Payack said, noting that the speech was written to a seventh- or eighth-grade level.

That's lower than the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech (grade 8.8), President Reagan's 1987 "Tear Down This Wall" speech (grade 9.8) and even Obama 's own 2004 Democratic Convention speech (grade 8.3), Payack said.

In the four years since then, "he has learned to speak more directly and more succinctly when he's giving a major address," the word aficionado said.

• Transcript: 'This is your victory,' Obama says
• America votes for change

He spoke admiringly of Obama's repeated use of the phrase "Yes, we can," calling it "very effective."

"That's a very short, direct sentence," Payack said. "Almost like a drumbeat hammering into people's minds and hearts."

He added, "something like that comes across as a very effective rhetorical device."

That phrase compares with Reagan's "Tear Down This Wall" and President Kennedy's "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country," delivered in his inaugural speech.

Twelve of those words were "hope" or variations of the word, which indicates optimism about the change (used nine times) he has promised to effect.

Another 23 of the words were "will," another way of making the speech forward-looking.

Though most of Obama's verbs were in the active voice, 11 percent of the sentences were in the passive voice, a dependable method of deflecting responsibility, Payack said. He cited Obama's "There will be setbacks and false starts" as an example.

"He's spreading the responsibility around," Payack said. "He didn't say, 'I will have setbacks. I will be wrong. I will make mistakes.' He used the passive voice for those types of constructions."

But the vast majority of the hopeful references were in the active voice, he said. "It's very personal and very active. 'I promise we, as a people, will get there.' "

The speech was notable for what it omitted, too, Payack said. In this case, the absence of a reference to the September 11 terrorist attacks indicates a change in tone, he said.

In his closing phrase, Obama repeats the mantra, "Yes, we can," which serves as a call to action, an acknowledgment that the country faces hard work, Payack said.

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Barack Obama’s Victory Speech 2008 – Analysis

On November 4, 2008, President Barrack Obama delivered a speech given on the night of winning the election at Grant Park., Illinois. This pivotal address, subject to extensive Obama victory speech 2008 analysis, highlighted his emphasis on the American dream, declaring that it was not fading but revitalized with the advent of change in America. His passionate speech, employing rhetoric that soars and excites, instigated the people of America to restore their confidence in the nation and strive to fulfill their dreams and yet still form part of the larger American family.

My Barack Obama victory speech 2008 analysis essay will concentrate on the way Obama employed the approaches of narration, intonation, verbalization, silence, and telling of stories to draw the attention of the thousands of his audience who were enthusiastically listening to this historic speech. Obama employed different rhetorical strategies to deliver the speech and it was effective in giving the audience hope concerning the future. He started his keynote delivery, by setting the tone with a clear message of hope to the people of America, a theme widely dissected in this Barack Obama victory speech 2008 analysis.

“Obama understands the connection between discourse and power, and was able to use that knowledge to develop a discourse that conveyed his views and platforms, but also created a connection with the audience within the context of the circumstance” (Tarish 130). Maintaining direct eye contact with his audience, Obama was loud enough to be heard but soft enough so that the poetic words could sink deep into the minds of his listeners.

In addition, the opening allusion to the American dream echoes the words of great speakers in American history, such as Martin Luther King. “The findings revealed that Obama frequently focused on evoking the myth of the “American dream”. Obama was successful in implementing and conveying his message through rhetorical devices.” (Hajawi and Alireza 1). Moreover, it was crucial for him to understand which topics to prioritize in order to capture the attention of a broad audience.

“It’s the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor…” (Obama para. 2). The word “answer” is used once more here, suggesting that he is prepared to address the issues that the United States has been facing in the twenty-first century and reinforcing the idea of change (Bose). Subsequently, Obama employs “answer” once more in the next two paragraphs to firmly emphasize that momentous change has arrived in America, a rhetorical choice scrutinized in the analysis of the speech following Barack Obama’s victory.

In the third paragraph, Obama recognized that America is a diverse country having people from different backgrounds by saying “It’s the answer spoken … Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of Red States and Blue States: we are, and always will be, the United States of America” (para. 3).

In order to portray existing situations negatively as problematic and depict future scenarios positively as solutions to these issues, Obama utilizes metaphors. “He continues with a metaphor belonging to the field of agriculture (i.e. rack) again to highlight the hardship experienced by the aforementioned families. This shows that people had problems providing their basic needs” (Hajawi and Rasti 10).

He intended his audience to realize that his triumph and future effort to bring change in the country will depend on the endeavors of the collective and not entirely on himself. In the mind of the people, the use of the second person is intended to enable them to feel a sense of belonging. Therefore, as their presence is acknowledged, they can feel appreciated and part of the change that was to come to America.

During the acceptance speech, Obama made numerous references within the text of gifted speakers in American history, for example, Martin Luther King, as mentioned above.

“The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep…I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you – we as a people will get there” (Obama para. 13). This creates the perception that the road to recovery will not be easy. He wanted his audience to realize that repairing the damage he inherited from the country’s past leadership would not be an easy task.

The inclusion of the inter-textual references of other motivational speakers also served the purpose of instilling hope in the eyes of the people. “The speaker continues with the hope of a better life but reminds people of the challenges that they should face. This is liable to give a realistic sense to the expectations of the addressees” (Hajawi and Rasti 6). It seems that the plain and musical language of the speech was drawn heavily from the life of the past inspirational speakers.

In the speech, Obama routinely repeats the slogan “Yes we can” (Brown et al. 1). This acts as an encouragement that all things are possible and the people of America can surmount all difficulties that they may encounter in the journey towards complete economic and social liberation. Before he was elected the 44th president of the United States, Obama’s “campaigns relied heavily on TV as their chief medium of communication and that this allowed campaigns time to craft messages, advertisements, and responses” (Harris 6). Ultimately, this medium’s widespread reach and influence allowed for the careful crafting of narratives that resonated with diverse audiences.

Therefore, the repeated use of the slogan seems to emphasize how the nation has changed over time in terms of how it handles economic hardship and how it views women’s roles in society (Hajawi and Rasti 9). In addition, it points out that more change is yet to come during Obama’s presidency. Finally, but not to be ignored, it also epitomizes the American dream, which every citizen of the country can realize through maintaining a positive mentality in life.

In the speech, Obama gave thanks to various people who assisted him in ascending to the presidency. He started by praising the defeated, “A little bit earlier this evening I just received a very gracious call from Senator McCain. Senator McCain fought long and hard in this campaign, and he’s fought even longer and harder for the country he loves” (para. 6).

“Obama was the first president to claim victory in a social media election” (Harris 1). Through this, he demonstrated magnanimity in victory, appreciated the defeat, and did not ignore or trample upon them; therefore, this indicates that he is a good leader. It is interesting to note that he was able to commend his competitors before his supporters.

After that, he commenced a series of thanks. He portrayed the Vice President as an ordinary person to connect with the crowd. And he only mentioned Joe Biden at the end of the paragraph. This created tension and also assisted in capturing the audience’s attention.

Next, he thanked his family members, First Lady, Michelle Obama, and his daughters, Sasha and Malia, saying that he owes his presence here to the unwavering backing of his closest companion of sixteen years, the cornerstone of his family, and his nation’s future First Lady, Michelle Obama – the love of his life. (Bose).

He expressed his love for his children Sasha and Malia, declaring they deserved the new puppy that would accompany them to the White House (Obama para. 8). This demonstrated that he is a normal family man who cares for the well-being of his family, for example, he promised his daughters a puppy. The reference to his grandma who had just passed away without being over sentimental induces the sympathy of the audience.

The speech signifies that Obama will be ready to incorporate the efforts of everybody on the road to recovery. He said, “Let us resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long” (Obama para. 17).

The phrase “partisanship and pettiness, poisoned our Politics” (Obama para.17) is an alliteration showing the extent of the damage it has caused to American society. “Let us” (Obama para. 17) speaks to all voters in America, regardless of their political affiliation, and repeats nobility as well as the call for humility and healing of the land.

Obama artfully employed the life of the 106-year-old Ann Nixon Cooper to both repaint the history of America and draw the audience’s attention to the nation’s past century of successes and failures, effectively connecting them in his speech – an aspect explored in this essay analyzing Obama’s victory speech from 2008.

The creation of a sense of history was meant to demonstrate that the extraordinary could become ordinary if Americans were prepared to strive to this end. The history of skin color is meant to indicate that he is a beneficiary of the historic struggle. “America, we have come so far” (Obama para. 29). This illustrates that he addresses the country with ease since he is a part of the struggle. He also gives an individual touch by relating his two daughters to Ann Cooper.

“This speech is very important for him because it makes people know more about his assistance to national advancement, let the people know about his vision, and gather more people to join him so Obama can win the election” (Alireza et al. 27). meant to draw the attention of the audience. It also acts as the final call to action. Obama gets back to the central theme of hope and beneficial gains that await the people of America. He concludes the speech by restating the ‘yes we can’ theme.

Listening to Obama’s acceptance speech captured my imagination from the start. The sections of the speech, which can be characterized as celebration, thanksgiving, challenge, history, and hope, had a central focus of emphasizing the importance of unity in America for the benefit of its future. The general approach Obama used in the speech was to form an inclusive sense of history so that every American could see himself or herself as a part of the road to recovery.

Works Cited

Alireza, Eko Rideau, et al. “An analysis of illocutionary acts in Yes, We Can speech by Barack Obama.” Journal of Ilmu Buday , vol. 3, no. 1, 2019.

Brown, Tony N., et al. “Yes We Can!” The Mental Health Significance for US Black Adults of Barack Obama’s 2008 Presidential Election.” Sociology of Race and Ethnicity , vol. 7, no. 1, 2021: pp. 101-115.

Bose, Meena. “Appraising the Foreign Policy Legacy of the Obama Presidency.” Looking Back on President Barack Obama’s Legacy: Hope and Change . Edited by Wilbur C. Rich, 2019: pp. 93-113.

Obama, Barrack. “ Election Night Victory Speech Grant Park, Illinois .” Obama Speeches . 4 Nov. 2008. Web.

Hajawi, Yasser, and Alireza Rasti. “A Discourse Analytic Investigation into Politicians’ Use of Rhetorical and Persuasive Strategies: The Case of US Election Speeches.” Cogent Arts & Humanities , vol. 7, no. 1, 2020: 1740051.

Harris, Chamberlain. “Missing the Mark: Obama and Trump’s Use of Similar Communication Strategies”, 2019.

Tarish, Abbas Hussain. “Us Presidents’ Political Discourse Analysis: George W. Bush and Barack Obama. A Pragmatics Approach.” Romanian Journal of English Studies , vol. 16, no. 1, 2019: pp. 128-134.

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IvyPanda. (2018, July 14). Barack Obama’s Victory Speech 2008 - Analysis. https://ivypanda.com/essays/analysis-of-obamas-victory-speech/

"Barack Obama’s Victory Speech 2008 - Analysis." IvyPanda , 14 July 2018, ivypanda.com/essays/analysis-of-obamas-victory-speech/.

IvyPanda . (2018) 'Barack Obama’s Victory Speech 2008 - Analysis'. 14 July.

IvyPanda . 2018. "Barack Obama’s Victory Speech 2008 - Analysis." July 14, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/analysis-of-obamas-victory-speech/.

1. IvyPanda . "Barack Obama’s Victory Speech 2008 - Analysis." July 14, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/analysis-of-obamas-victory-speech/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Barack Obama’s Victory Speech 2008 - Analysis." July 14, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/analysis-of-obamas-victory-speech/.

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The rhetorical tools used in Obama’s powerful Charleston address

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Even by his high standards, President Barack Obama’s eulogy in Charleston for Clementa Pinckney — the pastor and state senator killed with eight of his flock by a white supremacist during a church service — was a fine speech. Some have rated it among the great speeches of his career (you can find the full transcript here and a full video here).

That it was a moving speech did not mean that it was spontaneous or unpremeditated. You did not so much need to count the rhetorical tricks (see glossary below) as weigh them.

Systrophe , antithesis , anaphora , epistrophe , symploce , zeugma , alliteration , syntheton , apostrophe  . . . In a speech lasting a little over half an hour I counted 25 or so instances of tricolon — arranging things in groups of three. Sincere, as I say, does not necessarily mean not-artful. Likewise, artful does not necessarily mean not-sincere.

Mr Obama is known to be a divisive figure. Here his task was to use an instance of racial violence to call for unity — and, trickier, to build political capital for gun control. Black America and white America, as well as red America and blue America, have religion in common. So here was an address somewhere between a presidential speech and a sermon. He began with a Bible verse, and he explored an orthodox theological point — that divine grace is not earned but unconditional — and made that the spine of his oration.

Marrying the language of politics with that of the folk pulpit is a trick he learnt from Martin Luther King . It is central to the history of the civil rights movement; and in an early parallelism Mr Obama pointedly identified Pinckney as from a family of “preachers” and “protesters”.

As in King’s speeches, the oral performance was everything. It behaved antiphonally: as Mr Obama delivered the speech he was effectively in dialogue with his audience. Murmurs of approval, exclamations, even little organ trills, are heard from the crowd.

Here is a speaker working with his audience: to create an idea of unity within the congregation and sell that as a model for something wider. His register was often intimate (he talked of “brothers and sisters”, described his personal acquaintance with Pinckney, and introduced the relatable tactile detail of a “husband who will never feel his wife’s warm touch”) but it reached out in the hopes of corralling the “big, raucous place America is” away from its habit of viewing “those who disagree with us [as] not merely wrong but bad”.

Then — a brave as well as an effective stroke; to sing in public is very exposing — he started to sing. The theme of grace, worked through the speech as an idea and in phrases from the hymn, was suddenly emotionally animated in performance. He stopped being a theologian and became a congregant — and, of course, fellow members of the congregation joined in: speaker and audience were, almost literally, singing from the same hymn-sheet.

Then came an incantatory naming of names: “Clementa Pinckney found that grace. Cynthia Hurd found that grace. Susie Jackson found that grace . . .” In classic funeral oration style, Mr Obama celebrated the dead by suggesting that carrying their legacy forward is the duty of the living.

Having opened with the Bible, he closed his eulogy with the words that end many of his national addresses: “United States of America.” He hit the stress hard on the first of those words: “Un- it -ed.” Which was, at least, the hope.

The writer is the author of ‘You Talkin’ to Me?’ Rhetoric from Aristotle to Obama

[email protected]

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Why It Worked: A Rhetorical Analysis of Obama’s Speech on Race

CORRECTION APPENDED BELOW

More than a century ago, scholar and journalist W.E.B. DuBois wrote a single paragraph about how race is experienced in America. I have learned more from those 112 words than from most book-length studies of the subject:

Much has been said about the power and brilliance of Barack Obama’s March 18 speech on race, even by some of his detractors. The focus has been on the orator’s willingness to say things in public about race that are rarely spoken at all, even in private, and his expressed desire to move the country to a new and better place. There has also been attention to the immediate purpose of the speech, which was to reassure white voters that they had nothing to fear from the congregant of a fiery African-American pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. 

Amid all the commentary, I have yet to see an X-Ray reading of the text that would make visible the rhetorical strategies that the orator and authors used so effectively. When received in the ear, these effects breeze through us like a harmonious song. When inspected with the eye, these moves become more apparent, like reading a piece of sheet music for a difficult song and finally recognizing the chord changes.

Such analysis, while interesting in itself, might be little more than a scholarly curiosity if we were not so concerned with the language issues of political discourse. The popular opinion is that our current president, though plain spoken, is clumsy with language. Fair or not, this perception has produced a hope that our next president will be a more powerful communicator, a Kennedy or Reagan, perhaps, who can use language less as a way to signal ideology and more as a means to bring the disparate parts of the nation together. Journalists need to pay closer attention to political language than ever before.

Like most memorable pieces of oratory, Obama’s speech sounds better than it reads. We have no way of knowing if that was true of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, but it is certainly true of Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. If you doubt this assertion, test it out. Read the speech and then experience it in its original setting recited by his soulful voice.

The effectiveness of Obama’s speech rests upon four related rhetorical strategies:

Allusion Part of what made Dr. King’s speech resonate, not just for black people, but for some whites, was its framing of racial equality in familiar patriotic terms: “This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning, ‘My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty of thee I sing.  Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.'”  What follows, of course, is King’s great litany of iconic topography that carries listeners across the American landscape: “Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!…”

In this tradition, Obama begins with “We the people, in order to form a more perfect union,” a quote from the Constitution that becomes a recurring refrain linking the parts of the speech. What comes next is “Two hundred and twenty one years ago,” an opening that places him in the tradition of Lincoln at Gettysburg and Dr. King at the Lincoln Memorial: “Five score years ago.”

On the first page, Obama mentions the words democracy, Declaration of Independence, Philadelphia convention, 1787, the colonies, the founders, the Constitution, liberty, justice, citizenship under the law, parchment, equal, free, prosperous, and the presidency. It is not as well known as it should be that many black leaders, including Dr. King, use two different modes of discourse when addressing white vs. black audiences, an ignorance that has led to some of the hysteria over some of Rev. Wright’s comments.

Obama’s patriotic lexicon is meant to comfort white ears and soothe white fears. What keeps the speech from falling into a pandering sea of slogans is language that reveals, not the ideals, but the failures of the American experiment: “It was stained by this nation’s original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least twenty more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations.” And “what would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part … to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time.”

Lest a dark vision of America disillusion potential voters, Obama returns to familiar evocations of national history, ideals, and language:

–“Out of many, we are truly one.” –“survived a Depression.” –“a man who served his country” –“on a path of a more perfect union” –“a full measure of justice” –“the immigrant trying to feed his family” –“where our union grows stronger” –“a band of patriots signed that document.”

Parallelism At the risk of calling to mind the worst memories of grammar class, I invoke the wisdom that parallel constructions help authors and orators make meaning memorable. To remember how parallelism works, think of equal terms to express equal ideas. So Dr. King dreamed that one day his four children “will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” ( By the content of their character is parallel to by the color of their skin .)

Back to Obama: “This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this campaign — to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America.” If you are counting, that’s five parallel phrases among 43 words. 

And there are many more:

Two-ness I could argue that Obama’s speech is a meditation upon DuBois’ theory of a dual experience of race in America. There is no mention of DuBois or two-ness, but it is all there in the texture. In fact, once you begin the search, it is remarkable how many examples of two-ness shine through:

–“through protests and struggles” –“on the streets and in the courts” –“through civil war and civil disobedience” –“I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas.” –“white and black” –“black and brown” –“best schools … poorest nations” –“too black or not black enough” –“the doctor and the welfare mom” –“the model student and the former gang-banger …” –“raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor” –“political correctness or reverse racism” –“your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams”

Such language manages to create both tension and balance and, without being excessively messianic, permits Obama to present himself as the bridge builder, the reconciler of America’s racial divide. Autobiography There is an obnoxious tendency among political candidates to frame their life story as a struggle against poverty or hard circumstances. As satirist Stephen Colbert once noted of presidential candidates, it is not enough to be an average millionaire. To appeal to populist instincts it becomes de rigueur to be descended from “goat turd farmers” in France.

Without dwelling on it, Obama reminds us that his father was black and his mother white, that he came from Kenya, but she came from Kansas: “I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slave and slave owners — an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles, and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.”

The word “story” is revealing one, for it is always the candidate’s job (as both responsibility and ploy) to describe himself or herself as a character in a story of his or her own making. In speeches, as in homilies, stories almost always carry the weight of parable, with moral lessons to be drawn.

Most memorable, of course, is the story at the end of the speech — which is why it appears at the end. It is the story of Ashley Baia, a young, white, Obama volunteer from South Carolina, whose family was so poor she convinced her mother that her favorite meal was a mustard and relish sandwich. 

“Anyway, Ashley finishes her story and then goes around the room and asks everyone else why they’re supporting the campaign. They all have different stories and reasons. Many bring up a specific issue.  And finally they come to this elderly black man who’s been sitting there quietly the entire time. … He simply says to everyone in the room, ‘I am here because of Ashley.'”

During most of the 20th century, demagogues, especially in the South, gained political traction by pitting working class whites and blacks against each other. How fitting, then, that Obama’s story points in the opposite direction through an old black man who feels a young white woman’s pain.  

CORRECTION : An earlier version of this post incorrectly attributed the phrase, “We the people, in order to form a more perfect union” to the Declaration of Independence.

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Vox Politics

Obama's victory speech.

NPR Political Unit

In front of 27 American flags, and before an enormous and electrified crowd in Chicago's Grant Park, President-elect Barack Obama celebrates his victory in the 2008 presidential election:

If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

Obama speaks graciously of his opponent, Senator McCain, commending him on his lifetime of service and saying that "we are better off for the service rendered by this brave and selfless leader". He makes an unusual move, acknowledging by name the guys-behind-the-guy: his campaign manager David Plouffe and chief strategist David Axelrod. And he offers a cautionary note on this otherwise enormously optimistic night for his supporters:

There will be setbacks and false starts. There are many who won't agree with every decision or policy I make as President, and we know that government can't solve every problem. But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree. And above all, I will ask you join in the work of remaking this nation the only way it's been done in America for two-hundred and twenty-one years -- block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand.

Obama then calls on his audience to "summon a new spirit of patriotism" and asks them to "resist the temptation to fall back on...partisanship and pettiness and immaturity". He vows to be the President for those whose support he did not win in this election. And he promises his daughters Sasha and Malia a new puppy to bring to the White House.

The speech ends with the refrain that became familiar to both Obama's supporters and his detractors during the primary: "Yes We Can".

The full prepared remarks are after the jump.

-- Evie Stone

Remarks of President-Elect Barack Obama--as prepared for delivery

Election Night Tuesday, November 4th, 2008 Chicago, Illinois

It's the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen; by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the very first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different; that their voice could be that difference.

It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled -- Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of Red States and Blue States: we are, and always will be, the United States of America.

It's the answer that led those who have been told for so long by so many to be cynical, and fearful, and doubtful of what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.

It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America.

I just received a very gracious call from Senator McCain. He fought long and hard in this campaign, and he's fought even longer and harder for the country he loves. He has endured sacrifices for America that most of us cannot begin to imagine, and we are better off for the service rendered by this brave and selfless leader. I congratulate him and Governor Palin for all they have achieved, and I look forward to working with them to renew this nation's promise in the months ahead.

I want to thank my partner in this journey, a man who campaigned from his heart and spoke for the men and women he grew up with on the streets of Scranton and rode with on that train home to Delaware, the Vice President-elect of the United States, Joe Biden.

I would not be standing here tonight without the unyielding support of my best friend for the last sixteen years, the rock of our family and the love of my life, our nation's next First Lady, Michelle Obama. Sasha and Malia, I love you both so much, and you have earned the new puppy that's coming with us to the White House. And while she's no longer with us, I know my grandmother is watching, along with the family that made me who I am. I miss them tonight, and know that my debt to them is beyond measure.

To my campaign manager David Plouffe, my chief strategist David Axelrod, and the best campaign team ever assembled in the history of politics -- you made this happen, and I am forever grateful for what you've sacrificed to get it done.

But above all, I will never forget who this victory truly belongs to -- it belongs to you.

I was never the likeliest candidate for this office. We didn't start with much money or many endorsements. Our campaign was not hatched in the halls of Washington -- it began in the backyards of Des Moines and the living rooms of Concord and the front porches of Charleston.

It was built by working men and women who dug into what little savings they had to give five dollars and ten dollars and twenty dollars to this cause. It grew strength from the young people who rejected the myth of their generation's apathy; who left their homes and their families for jobs that offered little pay and less sleep; from the not-so-young people who braved the bitter cold and scorching heat to knock on the doors of perfect strangers; from the millions of Americans who volunteered, and organized, and proved that more than two centuries later, a government of the people, by the people and for the people has not perished from this Earth. This is your victory.

I know you didn't do this just to win an election and I know you didn't do it for me. You did it because you understand the enormity of the task that lies ahead. For even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime -- two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century. Even as we stand here tonight, we know there are brave Americans waking up in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan to risk their lives for us. There are mothers and fathers who will lie awake after their children fall asleep and wonder how they'll make the mortgage, or pay their doctor's bills, or save enough for college. There is new energy to harness and new jobs to be created; new schools to build and threats to meet and alliances to repair.

The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America -- I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you -- we as a people will get there.

What began twenty-one months ago in the depths of winter must not end on this autumn night. This victory alone is not the change we seek -- it is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were. It cannot happen without you.

So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism; of service and responsibility where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves, but each other. Let us remember that if this financial crisis taught us anything, it's that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers -- in this country, we rise or fall as one nation; as one people.

Let us resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long. Let us remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House -- a party founded on the values of self-reliance, individual liberty, and national unity. Those are values we all share, and while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress. As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, "We are not enemies, but friends...though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection." And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn -- I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your President too.

And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of our world -- our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand. To those who would tear this world down -- we will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security -- we support you. And to all those who have wondered if America's beacon still burns as bright -- tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from our the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity, and unyielding hope.

For that is the true genius of America -- that America can change. Our union can be perfected. And what we have already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations. But one that's on my mind tonight is about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta. She's a lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this election except for one thing -- Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.

She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn't vote for two reasons -- because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin.

And tonight, I think about all that she's seen throughout her century in America -- the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can't, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can.

At a time when women's voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot. Yes we can.

When there was despair in the dust bowl and depression across the land, she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal, new jobs and a new sense of common purpose. Yes we can.

When the bombs fell on our harbor and tyranny threatened the world, she was there to witness a generation rise to greatness and a democracy was saved. Yes we can.

She was there for the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that "We Shall Overcome." Yes we can.

A man touched down on the moon, a wall came down in Berlin, a world was connected by our own science and imagination. And this year, in this election, she touched her finger to a screen, and cast her vote, because after 106 years in America, through the best of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change. Yes we can.

America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves -- if our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What progress will we have made?

This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment. This is our time -- to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American Dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth -- that out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope, and where we are met with cynicism, and doubt, and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people:

Yes We Can. Thank you, God bless you, and may God Bless the United States of America.