Convention speeches of President Obama and Governor Romney

The aim of this comparative essay is to give prominence to the effectiveness to both President Obama’s speech and Governor Romney’s speech during the Parties Convention. I personally think that the two speeches were extremely different, according to the content as well as the way that both candidates delivered the message. First, I am going to explain how the speeches were effective to their “base” and then how it might have decided the middle-of-the-road Americans who hadn’t definite yet for who they are going to vote.  

First, I have to say that I felt Obama’s speech one of the most exciting speech I ever watched. The audience was totally crazy and we could feel the excitement event watching it on TV. Concerning Obama’s effectiveness, I think it came from his hopeful, which was more powerful than ever. Moreover, what I really appreciated in his speech was how he encouraged people to vote “It will be a choice between two different paths for America”. He also tried to connect and compared his life with the one of its opponent, Mitt Romney, talking about how he began his career and how Mitt Romney did: sending jobs overseas “a time when too many good jobs were starting to move overseas”. He said that at the contrary, he is not going to send jobs overseas but to bring jobs back to America. Then, he started to criticize the speech of Mitt Romney at the Republican Convention saying that he didn’t suggest anything but only  disapproved his mandate. On another hand, I really appreciate how he talked about what he did and what he is going to do: “we're not going back; we are moving forward, America”. His humanity touched me: he said he is not able to change the world in four years and that he tried his best and he still needs time to achieve his goals. I think he was really effective because he knew how to talk to everyone, to every class and every environment. He talked about topics that concern the middle-class: gas, the environment (reduce the carbon pollution), create new jobs, education (less expensive system), Medicare, Social Security… I also liked the way he talked about Healthcare and Education if we don’t have the money to be treated or to be cultivated. He said the depressing reality with a certain irony to transmit his message. Finally, I think the speech was effective because he talked to everyone, he always said “you” suggesting all the American population. Thus, I would give Obama an A for his effectiveness because I had been very touched by his remarkable talent of speaker and by his deep sincerity.

Even if I think Barack Obama and Mitt Romney’s speeches were very different, we can find some similarities. For example, both talked about their family and about how much they loved America and American people. Nevertheless, I think that Romney’s success didn’t come from the same points than Obama. I think he had been effective thanks to his humor since the beginning of the speech, thanks to his sincerity concerning American people and their bravery. His goal was to make people know more about him and about what he wants to do: he told stories about his family as well as his career. At the same time, he blamed Obama for what he didn’t accomplish. I think what he succeed to transmit to his audience was when he talked about entrepreneurs such as Steve Jobs. Moreover, his speech was well structured, he had a clear point of view; every single American would be able to understand. He put main points all together before explaining them: energy independence of the US; good education; forge new trade agreements; encourage entrepreneurship and small businesses. Finally, his audience gave rise to the traditional Republican voters: elderly people and wealth families. However, I found some points definitely not effective, such as the story about how his mother knew his day died or his lack of honesty when he said: “I wanted the president to succeed because I want America to succeed”. Thus, I would give a B for Romney’s effectiveness, because I think he spend more time criticizing Obama’s mandate than giving solutions and explaining what he would do if he was going to be elected. 

Now, I think it is important to look at the influence both of them had on the audience and especially on the middle-of-the-road Americans who might have been undecided when they watched them. For sure, the goal of both candidates was to make people vote for them. Thus, which one had been the most successful persuasive voters? I would give an A to Obama and a B to Romney. I think they both tried to reach the biggest audience as possible but I think Romney stayed too focus on his major audience: the well-off class and the elderly people. However, I think Romney did a great job presenting him so that people would know him better. Obama is a great orator and I think he could reach every single American even if they don’t totally agree with him. Thus, I would say he did a great job achieving a bigger audience.  

To conclude, I would say that the audience’s excitement says everything. During Obama’s speech, we could see how people were enjoying and admiring the moment. People were crazy; they were applauding, laughing, crying, and shouting during the whole speech. We cannot really say the same about Romney’s speech. It didn’t have this driving power that Obama transmitted and this is probably why the speech didn’t had a lot of impact on me.