Speech comparisons:

Mitt Romney: Although he spent a good portion of his speech discussing the typical candidate praises of the United States that play well to members of both parties (Americans are hard working, have freedom), Mitt Romney made a clear effort to reach out to undecided voters and independents during his speech at the RNC. Although only group he explicitly targeted was women and he didn’t delve too deep statistically into too many issues, his main appeal to undecided voters (which cleverly doubled as an appeal to his Republican base) was the idea that Obama has failed as a president and he doesn’t deserve another four years, which is a wide-reaching strategy. He made a comparison to Jimmy Carter (historically an retrospectively unpopular president) and hammered home the idea of “failed hope” that Barack Obama’s presidency has given Americans. His speech was well organized and his tone authoritative, giving the impression that he’s ready to represent the United States to the rest of the world. Grades: A to Republicans/B+ to undecided voters.

Barack Obama: Well-known as a strong orator, Barack Obama’s speech at the DNC was calmly authoritative delivered with the assured, confident tone that has become his trademark. Although Obama also sang the praises of the United States (which, again, plays well with all voters), he focused on issues that resonated strongly with Democrats, specifically referencing education, energy independence, and women’s rights as specific issues that are generally championed by the Democrats. Although Obama did make some appeals to independents, his primary point was that a Romney presidency will offer more of the same Republican policies that George W. Bush supported, and that point leans more partisan than not. Additionally, his humorous quips about the Republican party as a whole were probably ineffective to voters other than Democrats. Grades: A+ to Democrats/B to undecided voters.

Comparison: Barack Obama and Mitt Romney’s key points essentially both centered around whether or not the former should receive another term in office, but their methods of communicating their reasons why or why not Obama should remain President were quite different. Romney focused heavily on the idea that Obama had failed to fulfill any promises he made on the 2008 campaign trail, where Obama indirectly responded to these claims by listing what he had achieved in the past three years. Although both candidates took shots at the other, Obama’s speech went slightly more on the offensive than Romney’s, often making quips about his opponent and the Republican party as a whole, questioning their credibility by bringing up references to the unpopular George W. Bush years. (Which was perhaps a response to Romney comparing Obama to Jimmy Carter, another president who has been remembered unfavorably.) Regardless of their content and effectiveness at convincing undecided voters to vote for them, both speeches were effective in energizing their bases, which is a primary goal at the national conventions.

Project proposal:

1.     1. My goal is to create an attractive infographic that contains the education proposals of both candidates including information on the proposed amount of federal funds to be allocated towards education, student loan policies, and education goals/standards. I hope to condense the educational policies of both candidates into a package that is easily read and comprehended in order to inform potential voters.

2.     2. My target audience is voters who have an interest in American education policies. To reach that audience, I would need to focus on outlets and locations where educators and students gather. (Primarily universities.)

3.     3. The form of my project would be an image that would fit cleanly on a piece of paper or on a computer screen. It could be created in Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator.

4.     4. The project could be distributed in physical form on campuses or digitally on any number of education/college-related websites.

5.     5. Hopefully, if my project is successful, voters would be more informed of the candidates’ education policies. However, it would be difficult to track the level of information actually received by those who view the infographic.