Obama Iowa Speech Rhetoric

Barack Obama uses several different rhetoric techniques to get his listeners to connect with him and to get them to interpret things the way he wishes them to be interpreted. In his January 03, 2008 speech in Des Moines, Iowa, Obama began by setting a friendly rapport between himself and his audience. He did this by the phrase "You know" this phrase is very conversational and placed the audience into a situation in which they and Obama were equals in a casual conversation. By doing this he could put the audience at ease and make them more receptive to his ideas. Later in his speech, Obama connects with the audience again by thanking his wife for everything she has done for him. By doing this the audience views him as a husband rather than a politician. He connects yet again when he mentions a safer and healthier environment for not only his own children but the children of everyone in the audience. These things show his compassion not only for his own family but for everyone’s family.
This most prevalent rhetorical strategy that Obama employs is the use of emotional words. These words generate a certain response to the listener. They cause the listener to open up to Obama and the way Obama uses them makes him seem considerate and compassionate. He uses the words courage and hope along with united and American to describe how he plans to win office and what he is going to do once he is in office. These words are used because there are not many people who would argue with the importance of a united nation or the positive sentiment of bringing the troops home form overseas or making health care more available. These ideas may be controversial topics but they are mentioned in such a way that there seems to be only one course of action for each and that Obama is the only president who would be able to accomplish such goals.
A third technique of rhetoric is comparing himself and the voters, what they accomplished by voting for him, to great accomplishments from the past. He equates his winning of the Iowa primary with the colonial uprising against England and with the marches for the rights of African Americans. This gives his listeners a sense of pride and accomplishment about what they had done and it allows Obama to couple himself with his voters and show that he relates to them.
Barack Obama already knew that most if not all of his audience had already voted for him in the Iowa primary, therefore his objective was to ensure that they would continue to support him up until November and perhaps that they would help him campaign in the other primaries. He knew that the members of his audience accepted his views on the issues so he wanted to create a personal connection with them that would add to their approval of him. This personal connection was created by showing that he and his audience shared common views on and hopes for America in the New Year and beyond. This strategy surpasses that of merely restating the issue because everyone has access to his views on the issues, he wished to make it so the people in his audience would see him as a down-to-earth man with a family rather than a politician out for the vote.