Obama’s and Romney’s Convention Speeches
In my opinion, both President Barack Obama and
Governor Mitt Romney delivered very good and elaborated speeches at their
parties’ national conventions. In terms of efficiency, I would give Obama an A-
and Romney a B-. Although one could argue that Obama is a better speaker than
Romney given his experience as President, the latter did a very good job in
reaching his audience as well. Both had quite the same goals in their speeches:
present their ideas of the role of the President of the United States, create
an image of themselves, and convince both their supporters as well as those who
are still undecided that they will be successful with their visions and
agendas. Throughout their speeches, they used many similar rhetorical figures,
such as repetitions to place emphasis on the topics close to their hearts – or on
those that they thought would be effective – as well as the fact that they were
both very clear in their choice of words. What they said was eloquent and
elaborated but still easy to understand. This is a very important feature any
successful speech should have to reach its audience. As both candidates managed
to do so, I believe that their arguments were very effective to the undecided.
President Barack Obama
President Obama presented a very smart choice
of topics. When it comes to his supporters that he had to convince to vote for
him again, what I thought to be very effective was the fact that he directly
addressed his audience by referring to his campaign four years ago and
acknowledging them with the words “You were the change” and “Four years ago the
election wasn’t about me, it was about you”. This appealed to the Democratic
supporters, implying that they are the reason why things have changed for the
better. It is very likely that this strategy reaches the audience and their
emotions – making them feel proud – and makes them vote for Obama once again. Undecided
voters might be impressed by his outstanding talent as a public speaker and the
authentic, very credible way in which he creates an image of himself and presents
the goals he promises to accomplish in his second legislation. To address the
American people as a whole, he chose to talk about something that each and
every one of them is able to relate to: American patriotism. By mentioning the
label “Made in America” and referring to the products that, under his
presidency in the past four years, would be proudly be presented as such, he
once again tries to appeal to people’s national proud. Obviously, he also talks
about what he has achieved so far and how he fulfilled his promises, such as
the end of the war in Iraq. To conclude, I would say that Obama’s speech was
very effective in general, which is why I would give him a very good grade.
However, I think it was more effective for his “base” audience than for
undecided voters which is why I choose A- instead of an A. Still, he definitely
phrased his arguments very well and made his position clear by emphasizing the
issues that he believes in and at the same time, opposing republican ideas like
health care, gay marriage, and abortion. All in all, it must be recognized that
Obama already had an established image of himself that he only had to keep
instead of create as it was rather Romney’s goal.
Governor Mitt Romney
Romney had, in my opinion, a more difficult
task to complete than Obama. On the national scene, he is not as well-known as
the President and it is harder for people to base their opinions about the
elections based on his previous actions. Thus, Romney has to explain his ideas
and policies in a credible and reasonable way. I think, he did a good job in
focusing on exactly what his audience wanted to hear. To seem authentic and
credible, he presented a list of facts and made his republican principles very
clear. Also, he wanted to appear “normal” and indirectly compared himself to
the average American. His goal might have been to tell his audience who he is in
order to help them relate to him better. To do so, he used emotional images
like the anecdote about how his mother knew his father had died the one day
there was not a rose for her – a story that would probably appeal to everyone
and thus has the potential to be effective to everyone. I would give him a B+
appealing to his “base” audience as he did a good job promoting conservative
principles like, for instance, the importance of community and religion –
values that the majority of his voters hold. Also, his Republican audience probably
wanted to hear about Romney’s plans for the economic recovery as many of them are
concerned with economic issues these days. When it comes to the effectiveness
of Romney’s speech in appealing to undecided voters, I think he did not focus
enough time on this goal or at least it did not seem like it. He might not have
done anything to hurt himself but he did not help himself gain an advantage for
undecided voters either. Many arguments seemed very forced. One aspect of his
speech that might have reached them, however, was his appeal to women and
feminists who typically are more liberal and thus rather in favor of the
Democratic Party. Saying that “a mom’s job was harder than his” sounds more
like a Democratic feature (referring to Michelle Obama’s speech at the
Democratic National Convention) than a Republican one and might reach rather liberal
voters. Another aspect that probably was supposed to serve as an argument for
undecided voters was Romney’s statement about Obama’s legislation, criticizing
him for not having led America to success. At this point, he also challenged
the President’s voters directly by saying “Hope and change is what we voted for
– that’s what America deserves”. In general, I would give him a B- for his
speech, as he did a good job appealing to his base audience but was not very
successful in reaching undecided voters.
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