Weblog Post #2: Obama & Romney's Convention Speeches

In my opinion, both President Obama and Governor Romney delivered successful speeches at their respective conventions. Romney's goal seemed to be to make himself more likeable to the American public, while Obama took care in stressing the notion that change doesn't happen over night, and that his plan for America will benefit us far more than Romney's in the long run. In terms of assigning grades to these speeches, I will admit I am already more biased in favor of President Obama than of Governor Romney. However, even trying to look at the speeches objectively, I believe President Obama's was somewhat more effective. Therefore, I would award Obama an "A" regarding effectiveness to his Democratic Base, and a "B+" regarding effectiveness to middle-of-the-road Americans. In contrast, I would give Romney a "B" for effectiveness to his Republican base, and a "C" for effectiveness to middle-of-the-road Americans. I would award Obama higher grades, because I think he was able to deliver a powerful oratory in a way that hit on many important points without seeming too disjointed. In contrast, Romney was less effective in terms of likeability and rhetoric, and also focused the majority of his time on either family values or the economy, largely ignoring many other important political topics. However, I believe he was probably quite effective with his base, as many Republicans are deeply concerned with economic issues, and want to hear Romney's plans for economic recovery. Moreover, as one of Romney's major criticisms is that he isn't as personally likeable as he could be, the fact that he talked about his family, his background, and American family values ("That's how it is in America... communities, faiths, families") probably served to humanize him more to both his own party, and to middle-of-the-road Americans. Therefore, I believe the Republican base would have found this speech, though not a knock-out piece of oratory, acceptable and relevant (B+), while middle-of-the-road Americans might now find Romney more likeable, but may have wanted greater expansion into policy details and issues other than the economic crisis (C). In contrast, I believe Obama delivered a somewhat more convincing speech. His goal seemed to be to address the criticisms coming at him from the right end of the political spectrum while also stressing his vision for the future of America in an inspirational way. Obama made a point of contrasting his economic plans with those of Romney, referencing and reinforcing the facts and numbers presented by Bill Clinton during his own convention speech ("Well... what did Bill Clinton call it? You do the arithmetic. You do the math.") He also continuously built upon the notion of "we're all in this together," using phrases such as "We, the people, recognize that we have responsibilities as well as rights," and "America isn't about what can be done FOR us, but what can be done BY us." Moreover, he incorporated many anecdotes and stories of struggling Americans that probably made strong pathos-type appeal to viewers belonging to all political parties. As I consider myself a member of Obama's "base," and thought his speech to be very effective, I believe other Democratic-leaning Americans would feel the same (A), while I believe that middle-of-the-road Americans may have a few criticisms of Obama, but would undoubtedly be affected by his strong rhetoric and vision for America.