Obama’s Announcement Speech For President

“Change We Can Believe In.” This was the slogan during the for Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential election. Obama was known for his great slogan and his great speeches. Barack Obama gives a speech on February 10, 2007 when declaring his announcement to run for President. Despite the widespread controversy of his politics, no one can deny the brilliance of President Obama’s rhetoric--or at least the rhetoric of his speech writers. Obama’s speech uses a great amount of anaphora, pathos, and logos to make his speech effective to his audience.

Obama uses anaphora in his speech abundantly to show his passion for the people of America. He says, “I want to win that next battle - for justice and opportunity. I want to win that next battle - for better schools, and better jobs, and health care for all. I want us to take up the unfinished business of perfecting our union, and building a better America.” By Obama repeating “I want...”he’s persuading his audience that he wants the same things that every American would or should want. Barack is stating what he wants to do when he’s the president, and what he wants to change. Obama continues to say, “It was here, in Springfield...” over and over. Obama shows the

emotions he feels when he talks about growing up in Springfield. In his hometown was where he learned that he wanted to become the President of the United States. He looked out in the audience and saw past friends and teachers and realized he wanted the best for them. He realized he loves them and wants them to be as successful as they can be. Obama uses Anaphora to make his points of how he knows that he can change America, and makes an effect on the audience.

As Barack gives his speech one can see the he focuses on convincing the audience of how he should be the next president by using the element of pathos. Obama gives us examples of how he is just an average American citizen wanting the same things as us. He gives a specific experience when he lived in Chicago. He says, “My work took me to some of Chicago's poorest neighborhoods. I joined with pastors and lay-people to deal with communities that had been ravaged by plant closings. I saw that the problems people faced weren't simply local in nature - that the decision to close a steel mill was made by distant executives; that the lack of textbooks and computers in schools could be traced to the skewed priorities of politicians a thousand miles away; and that when a child turns to violence, there's a hole in his heart no government alone can fill.” By using this example of pathos Obama is able to relate with the average American and gives us hope that even though he’s only human he still has hope to make these changes that America needs. Obama first was a community worker, then was a civil rights lawyer and at this point was a US senator. It was easy to see that Obama was trying to prove that he has experienced all kinds of life styles and that he could relate to how everyone was feeling. The audience is able to feel Obama’s

emotions towards those people who lived in the Chicago and that’s what makes these specific experiences so effective to the audience.

President Obama wanted everyone to support him because he knew the one thing everyone wanted was to change to save America from becoming a sinking ship. Obama refers back to Abraham LIncoln to show how he just wants the same things as him. Obama says, “"That is why, in the shadow of the Old State Capitol, where Lincoln once called on a divided house to stand together, where common hopes and common dreams still live, I stand before you today to announce my candidacy for president of the United States." President Obama uses logos because it’s common sense that we want America to become a better place, but still people were worried if he still had enough experience to run a country. Obama exclaimed, “I recognize there is a certain presumptuousness - a certain audacity - to this announcement. I know I haven't spent a lot of time learning the ways of Washington. But I've been there long enough to know that the ways of Washington must change.” The audience knows that he has hopes the same as us, and even though he didn’t have the same experience as some of the other candidates he still had enough passion to makes those changes.

Listening to Obama’s speech, one can see that Obama is trying to persuade his voters by making them realize that they need change and he is the only one who can make it happen accurately. Even though the voters feel that he may not have the same experience as most of the other candidates, he makes them believe that he has more ambition to makes the changes everyone wants to happen. Obama effectively

influences the audience by using many rhetorical devices, and overall persuaded voters that he was the best option to be the President of the United States.