Universit Paris 7 Diderot Institut Charles V - UFR d'tudes anglophones

Maria RANIERI

Obamas 2008 Campaign Speeches Rhetorical and Prosodic Perspectives

Mmoire prsent pour l'obtention du Master 2 Recherche en linguistique anglaise Sous la direction de M. le professeur Nicolas Ballier Anne universitaire 2010-11 Soutenu le 28 juin 2011 Jury : Agns CELLE, professeure luniversit Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (examinateur) Nicolas BALLIER, professeur luniversit Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (directeur)

If only I could just find the right words. [] With the right words, everything could change. Barack Obama, Dreams from My Father (New York City: Three Rivers Press, 2004, 2nd edn), p.106.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My most important intellectual debt goes to Professor Nicolas Ballier who has assisted me with precious advice and many encouragements all along. He provided me with excellent guidance. His useful comments opened new and essential directions and oriented me toward key-references. May he also be thanked for carefully reading the final draft and suggesting ways of improving it. I would also like to thank all those who indirectly influenced this work, whose analyses provided thought-provoking insights into Obamas rhetorical and oratorical characteristics. Their names can be found in the References section and throughout this dissertation. I believe it is fitting to add a few words on the person whose voice inspired this work: President Barack Obama. It has been both intellectually stimulating and personally fascinating to work on his 2008 campaign speeches. I would finally thank my parents, my brother Giovanni and my friends for their support all along.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................................... 1 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ..................................................................................................... 4 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................... 5 1. Obama the political rhetorician ............................................................................................ 10
1.1. Structure of Obamas speeches .................................................................................................. 11

1.1.1. Analysis of the stump speech and of its evolution .................................................. 11 1.1.2. The height of the primary campaign ....................................................................... 13 1.1.3. Specific speeches .................................................................................................... 14 1.1.4. From the Whistle-Stop Tour to the Inauguration .................................................... 15
1. 2. Epideictic oratory in Obamas speeches.................................................................................... 17

1.2.1. The opponents ......................................................................................................... 17

1.2.1.1. Targeting anonymous groups ....................................................................................... 17 1.2.1.2. Hillary Clinton .............................................................................................................. 17 1.2.1.3. John McCain................................................................................................................. 20

1.2.2. Praise of America and Americans ........................................................................... 22

1. 3. The rhetorical proofs at play in Obamas speeches ................................................................... 27

1.3.1. Obama on Obama ................................................................................................... 28 1.3.2. The appeal to emotions ........................................................................................... 30 1.3.3. The minor use of arguments.................................................................................... 32
1.4. The flourishing rhetorical imagery and characteristic stylistic devices...................................... 35

2. Obama the modern politician ............................................................................................... 39

2.1. Obama the storyteller ................................................................................................................. 40

2.1.1. Prefabs based on the personal narratives of anonymous Americans ...................... 41 2.1.2. The Ashley Baia story ............................................................................................. 44 2.1.3. Obamas personal narratives ................................................................................... 47
2.2. Forging unity through words ...................................................................................................... 51

2.2.1. Redefining Americas national identity .................................................................. 51 2.2.2. Use of the personal pronoun we (and possessive determiner our)................... 53
2.2.2.1. Determining who we refers to................................................................................... 53 2.2.2.2. Opposing we to they .............................................................................................. 55 2.2.2.3. Shifting back and forth between we and I ............................................................. 56

2.2.3. The functions of the toponyms ............................................................................... 58 2.2.4. A post-racial discourse? .......................................................................................... 59
2.2.4.1. References to race prior to A more perfect union ..................................................... 60 2.2.4.2. A more perfect union ................................................................................................ 63 2.2.4.3. What the tone reveals beyond the message .................................................................. 68

2.2.5. The manifold parallels with Lincoln ....................................................................... 71

2.2.5.1. Non-verbal references .................................................................................................. 72 2.2.5.2. Verbal references .......................................................................................................... 73

3. Obama the Preacher ............................................................................................................. 76

3.1. The influence of black church rhetoric ....................................................................................... 77

3.1.1. The structure and main components of the sermon ................................................ 77

3.1.1.1. A clearly defined yet not-so-rigid pattern..................................................................... 77 3.1.1.2. Obamas rhetorical frame: where the religious meets the political .............................. 80 3.1.1.3. The nature of religious discourse in black churches..................................................... 83

3.1.2. Using the motifs and stylistic devices used in sermons .......................................... 85
3.1.2.1. The use of repetition ..................................................................................................... 85 3.1.2.2. The use of hypotyposis ................................................................................................. 88

3.1.3. Looking at the world through the prism of Black Church values ........................... 90
3.2. Acting as a preacher ................................................................................................................... 92

3.2.1. The building-up of a crescendo in the overall structure.......................................... 92 3.2.2. Adopting the techniques of the Black Church ........................................................ 96
3.2.2.1. The tone of a preacher .................................................................................................. 96 3.2.2.2. Call-and-response ....................................................................................................... 104

3.3. Echoing MLK ........................................................................................................................... 106

3.3.1. Using MLKs words ............................................................................................. 106 3.3.2. Sounding like MLK?............................................................................................. 108 CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................... 112 APPENDIX ............................................................................................................................ 117 TIMELINE OF KEY-SPEECHES ......................................................................................... 120 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................. 123 INDEX ................................................................................................................................... 130

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Fig.1 Presentation of Ashley Baia at Dr Kings Church (January 20, 2008) PRAAT, p.68. Fig.2 Presentation of Ashley Baia in A more perfect union (March 18, 2008) PRAAT, p.69. Fig.3 Equilibrium and tricolon (Announcement Speech, Springfield, February 10, 2007) PRAAT, p.87. Fig.4 Ebenezer 1 PRAAT, p.93. Fig.5 Ebenezer 2 PRAAT, p.93. Fig.6 Ebenezer 3 PRAAT, p.94. Fig.7 Ebenezer 4 PRAAT, p.95. Fig.8 Prosograms of how Blacks and Whites pronounce yes we can, p.98. Fig.9 Prosograms of four of Obamas utterances of yes we can during the New Hampshire Primary Night Speech (Nashua, January 8, 2008), p.99. Fig.10 They said 1 Iowa Caucus Night Speech (Des Moines, January 3, 2008) PRAAT, p.101. Fig.11 They said 2 Iowa Caucus Night Speech (Des Moines, January 3, 2008) PRAAT, p.101. Fig.12 They said 2 Iowa Caucus Night Speech (Des Moines, January 3, 2008) PRAAT, p.102. Fig.13 Prosograms: Barack Obama and Martin Luther Kings utterances of We cannot walk alone, p.110.

INTRODUCTION

On the shoulders of giants1

George Washingtons lofty rhetoric helped lend dignity to the American presidency, a then fledgling institution. The U.S. Presidents that have left greater imprints in collective memory have often been both great leaders of action in times of crisis and skilful masters of oratory.2 Elvin T. Lim, Assistant Professor of Government at Wesleyan University, analyzed the steady decline of presidential rhetoric up to George W. Bush, using the readability tests for example to show that presidential rhetoric had become simpler over the years.3 Good orators have not vanished but skillful rhetoricians have given way to skilful performers, like Ronald Reagan who was known as the Great Communicator. Barack Obama came as a watershed after the spate of lexical gaffes of his predecessor in the White House. With his widely acclaimed 2004 Keynote Address at the Democratic National Convention to support John Kerrys run for President, Obama gained public recognition and came to symbolize a

1. The phrase was originally used by Bernard de Chartres and taken up by Isaac Newton. It was used by Barack Obama in the speeches he delivered on January 20, 2008 at Dr Kings Church and at the NAACP Convention on July 17, 2009. 2. It was not the case however for Thomas Jefferson, who was a bad public speaker. Interview of Allan Metcalf, Professor of English at MacMurray College and author of Presidential Voices: Speaking Styles from George Washington to George W. Bush (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, July 2004), http://www.pbs.org/speak/seatosea/standardamerican/presidential/voices/ 3. Elvin T. LIM, The Anti-Intellectual Presidency: The Decline of Presidential Rhetoric from George Washington to George W. Bush (New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), pp.19-39.

clear break from the noted decline in political rhetoric. The sharp contrast between Bushisms and Obamas soaring rhetoric is even more striking as it opposes two very different types of discourse: spontaneous speech and carefully written campaign speeches. Scores of articles dealing with Senator Barack Obamas rhetorical skills were published during the 2008 presidential campaign. Since 2004, Barack Obama has stood out on the national stage as a man of words. His eloquence has been both an object of praise and an easy target for his opponents during the campaign. Hillary Clinton and later John McCain criticized the empty words4 which acted as a smokescreen for his lack of experience5 or accused him of plagiarizing.6 Despite those repeated accusations, many commentators insisted that it was precisely Obamas way with words that proved decisive in both the primary campaign and the national presidential election.7 It was precisely because Obama had little national experience that he had to rely on his rhetorical and oratorical skills. As Gerald Shuster from the University of Pittsburgh explained, The only way he can convince people that he can become president is his rhetoric. What other opportunity does he have?8 The process of spoken identification is often seen as a crucial parameter in voters decision to support a given candidate. It also tells a lot about the extent to which candidates have to adapt to woo certain sections of voters. This somehow represented a major obstacle for Obama as his well-spoken style made him appear too remote and aloof from the less educated, poorer sections of the American society. In an article published in The Sunday Times about how Obama was regarded by poor whites, the Democratic candidates liberal bullshit (as one of the interviewees put it) was considered more damaging to him than his
4. Obama counterattacked at the height of the Primary season, John McCain and Senator Clinton echo each other in dismissing this call for change. They say it is eloquent but empty, speeches and not solutions. And yet, they should know that it's a call that did not begin with my words. Texas and Ohio Primary Night (San Antonio, March 4, 2008). 5. Alec MacGILLIS, Finding Political Strength in the Power of Words, The Washington Post, February 26, 2008. The ideas were taken up by CBS: Obamas most powerful weapon: words, CBS, February 26, 2008. 6. Hillary Clinton heavily insisted on Obamas use of Governor Deval Patricks phrases to denounce his lack of originality, If your candidacy is going to be about words, then they should be your own words. [] Lifting whole passages from someone else's speeches is not change you can believe in, it's change you can Xerox. Alec MacGILLIS, op. cit. 7. There have been many controversial aspects to this presidential election, but one thing is uncontroversial: that Obamas skill as an orator has been one of the most important factors perhaps the most important factor in his victory. Charlotte HIGGINS, The new Cicero, The Guardian, November 26, 2008. See also Henry ALLEN, His Way With Words: Cadence and Credibility, The Washington Post, January 20, 2009: As much as anything else, Obama won the presidency with words. 8. Quoted in Alec MacGILLIS, op. cit. See also David REMNICK in The New Yorker: Barack Obama could not run his campaign for the Presidency based on political accomplishment or on the heroic service of his youth. His record was too slight. His Democratic and Republican opponents were right: he ran largely on language, on the expression of a countrys potential and the self-expression of a complicated man who could reflect and lead that country. David REMNICK, The Joshua Generation, The New Yorker, November 17, 2008.

race. Another explained that Bush had been popular among them because he looks as dumb as we feel. When you see a president who looks aw-shucksy about everything, you kinda like that around here.9 For reporter Kent Garber, that identification with Bush [had] less to do with the content of [his] words and more to do with his style that Texas twang, those folksy vowels.10 This sense of artificial belonging explains why Hillary Clinton decided to lower the level of her English. Obama, however, did not make the same choice. According to studies, Clinton and Obama scored very differently on the readability tests.11 Clinton wished to sound more like the voters she was targeting and that explained the support she garnered from working-class women. As Connie Schultz pointed out, she looked like them and, often, sounded like them.12 Political speeches are often collectively drafted. It is obvious that campaign speeches are not the products of a single man. Major politicians work with a team of speechwriters. This raises the question of authorship, which is to determine to what extent the voices of ghostwriters overlap that of the politician. In the case of Barack Obama, his closest speechwriter for the 2007-2008 campaign was Jon Favreau. As Favreau confided, writing for Obama was more a matter of writing with Obama or even letting Obama write the major speeches himself:
What I do is to sit with him for half an hour, Favreau explains. He talks and I type everything he says. I reshape it, I write. He writes, he reshapes it. That's how we get a finished product. It's a great way to write speeches. A lot of times, you write something, you hand it in, it gets hacked by advisers, it gets to the candidate and then it gets sent back to you. This is a much more intimate way to work.13

Writing in The Washington Post, Eli Saslow commented on their special bond, the two men have formed a concert so harmonized that Favreau's own voice disappears.14 This dissertation will not focus on the question of authorship, which would appear more relevant if Obama was not working so closely with his speechwriters. In such a case, the politician would be essentially a performer.
9. Tony ALLEN-MILLS and Nina BERMAN, How Barack Obama can win over poor whites The Sunday Times, August 3, 2008. 10. Kent GARBER, Rhetoric and Speaking-Style Affect the Clinton-Obama Race, U.S. News, March 25, 2008. 11. Jim TANKERSLEY, To working-class, Clinton talks the talk, The Chicago Tribune, March 31, 2008. 12. Connie SCHULTZ, Obama and Working-Class Women, The Nation, June 26, 2008 and also in Will Obama pass the Waitress Test? The Nation, 14 July 2008. See also Tony ALLEN-MILLS and Nina BERMAN, How Barack Obama can win over poor whites The Sunday Times, August 3, 2008 and Sylvie LAURENT, Barack Obama peut-il sduire la classe laborieuse blanche ?, ESPRIT, October 2008. 13. Quoted in Richard WOLFFE, In His Candidates Voice, Newsweek, January 6, 2008, http://www.newsweek.com/id/84756/page/1. Favreau mentions in the article that the Announcement Speech was e-mailed to him by Obama at 4 a.m. the day it was delivered. 14. Eli SASLOW, Helping to Write History, The Washington Post, December 18, 2008.

Obamas speeches are powerful because of the impressions that they arouse: Barack Obama bringeth rapture to his audience. They swoon and wobble, regardless of race, gender, or political affiliation, although few understand exactly why he has this effect on them.15 There is now a widely-held view that his oratorical talent and rhetorical skills (even if combined to those of others) largely contributed to his electoral victory. It is indeed impossible to dissociate the rhetorical skills from the oratorical talent displayed by Obama, though some have sometimes played down one aspect.16 Well-written speeches need to be well-delivered in order to be most effective and convincing. The object of this dissertation is to analyze both aspects of Obamas speeches by combining a rhetorical analysis with a study of Obamas spoken style. For both, the question of influences proves crucial. A first series of articles like Charlotte Higginss widely publicized analysis depicting Obama as a new Cicero focused on Greek and Roman influences to account for Obamas rhetorical skills.17 A second series of articles clearly departed from this approach and put forward more typically American roots. This second approach emphasized the pastoral tradition which resonates in Obamas speeches and the influence of historic figures like Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King whose words and ideas are often echoed in Obamas speeches. For a man whose key-word in the campaign was change and who symbolizes change by the very color of his skin, it is worth analyzing which traditions he seeks to break with or pursue and what makes him such an acclaimed orator. The corpus under scrutiny is made up of a wide selection of Obamas speeches delivered during the campaign, from his Announcement Speech on February 10, 2007 on the steps of the Old Capitol in Springfield to his Inaugural Speech on January 20, 2009. In addition to the key-speeches such as the New Hampshire speech (Yes We Can) or A more perfect union, I chose to include speeches delivered in front of highly partisan audiences (the Jefferson Jackson dinners organized by the Democratic Party) as well as those delivered in symbolic circumstances (in Martin Luther Kings church to celebrate the anniversary of Kings birth or during the Whistle-Stop Tour staged to prepare his arrival in Washington a few days before the Inauguration). The reader will find an annotated timeline at the end of the

15. Jack SHAFER, How Obama Does That Thing He Does, Slate, posted on 14 February 2008. 16. Says Ms Ekaterina Haskins, professor of rhetoric at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York: "I've been going through his speeches textually. The text alone cannot tell us why they are so powerful, it is about delivery." Quoted in Stephanie HOLMES, Obama: Oratory and originality, BBC News, posted on November 19, 2008, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7735014.stm. 17. Charlotte HIGGINS, op. cit.

dissertation18 indicating all the major speeches of the campaign. This analysis of Obamas campaign speeches also focuses on the stump speech, that is to say the standard form that Obama delivered across the country hundreds of times and which he knew by heart while the others were generally read from a prompter.19 A DVD with all the speeches selected (transcripts, audio and video files) is provided at the end of the dissertation, in the back cover. This dissertation will be divided into three parts, all aimed at characterizing Obamas speeches in terms of rhetoric and oratory, gauging the extent of the various traditions that influence and inspire Obama. The first part will focus on Obama as a political orator to determine the extent of classical influences, as much in terms of structure, components and style. The second part will concentrate on Obama as a modern American politician as he often resorts to storytelling,20 a now characteristic feature of American political discourse, and as he develops a rhetoric of unity inspired by Lincoln and crossing party and racial boundaries. The third and final part will seek to determine the influence of the African American Church and what his rhetoric and oratory owe to the black pulpit tradition.

18. See pp.120-2. 19. Alec MacGILLIS, op. cit. 20. Developed by Ronald Reagan, storytelling consists in the use of narratives as a political tool. It has mostly been used to illustrate Conservative values. See Yves CITTON, Mythocratie: Storytelling et imaginaire de gauche (Paris: Editions Amsterdam, 2010), p.68. During a campaign, politicians use stories about the nation, its difficulty, and, most of all, about themselves to persuade those who have the power to elect them. [] They connect a politician with both the issues of his time and with the hearts and minds of the voters. [] The word story can refer to the course of a persons entire life or a single moment in that life, to factual narratives and fictitious ones, and can even suggest a lie. Evan CORNOG, The Power and the Story: How the Crafted Presidential Narrative Has Determined Political Success from George Washington to George W. Bush (New York: Penguin, 2004), p.2.

1. Obama the political rhetorician21

Rhetoric and oratory were developed in Ancient Times in large part because language was a major political tool in Athenss democracy and Romes Republic. The structure of speeches was codified, the plethora of stylistic devices listed. It was a technique before becoming an art. This accounts for the number of major works devoted to the question by Greek philosophers and Roman lawyers to theorize the art of persuasion and determine what elements were more effective and which ones should be, for instance what part should emotional appeal play. Speeches were categorized according to the functions they performed: ceremonial, judicial, political. Some of those elements have hardly changed (stylistic devices), others have had to adapt to contemporary circumstances: the political elites that Greek Citizens and Roman Senators represented have little to do with todays mass democracies. This part will focus on analyzing the structures of Obamas speeches. Then, it will concentrate on the use of epideictic oratory and the rhetorical proofs (logos, ethos and pathos) privileged by Obama. Finally, this section will be devoted to the stylistic devices that characterize Obamas rhetorical style.

21. For a clear yet detailed introduction to Ancient Rhetoric, see Olivier REBOUL, Introduction la rhtorique (Paris: PUF, 2001, 4th edn).

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1.1. Structure of Obamas speeches

I will mostly focus on the structure of the speeches, not on the designational paradigms that characterize each basic part. I will also insist on the major variation and adaptations adopted at different moments of the campaign. The adaptations consist mainly in the parts developed after the major turning-points of the campaign as was the case in February 2008 when John McCain became the presumptive Republican candidate. The major variation in his speeches consists in the change of discursive strategy he adopted in December 2007 to evoke the problems America was facing.

1.1.1. Analysis of the stump speech and of its evolution

The stump speech is the standard speech delivered by a candidate during a campaign. The structure of the stump speech has been delineated in The Washington Post by Alec MacGillis,
The basic structure of Obama's speech has remained more or less the same: a statement of why he is running now, an account of the movement the campaign is building, a subtle argument for why voters should not settle for Clinton, a list of the things he would do as president if you are ready for change, and finally an invocation, and rejection, of the arguments against his candidacy. 22

The argument used against Hillary Clinton is not really a distinct part in fact. Here are the five basic parts that structure most of Obamas stump speeches. - Introducing the beginning of his journey and establishing his credibility:23
It has now been almost a year, just a week short of a year, since I stood on the steps of the old state Capitol in Springfield, Illinois, the place where Abraham Lincoln served for many years before he went to Washington, the city where I served for many years before I went to the United States Senate, and announced that I was embarking on this unlikely journey. (Barack Obama, Boise, February 2, 2008)

- The case for change: List of problems (replaced as of December 27, 2007 by a list of narratives representing the major problems America is facing):
22. Alec MacGILLIS, Finding Political Strength in the Power of Words, The Washington Post, February 26, 2008. 23. Patterson CLARK and Larry NIST, Anatomy of a Stump Speech, The Washington Post, February 26, 2008.

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All of us know what those challenges are today - a war with no end, a dependence on oil that threatens our future, schools where too many children aren't learning, and families struggling paycheck to paycheck despite working as hard as they can. (Announcement Speech, Springfield, February 10, 2007).

- What he advocates: New politics24 necessary (people as the catalyst for change):
We're not going to reclaim that dream unless we put an end to the politics of polarization and division that is holding this country back, unless we stand up to the corporate lobbyists that have stood in the way of progress, unless we have leadership that doesn't just tell people what they want to hear but tells everyone what they need to know. [] I believe that Americans want to come together again behind a common purpose. (Reclaiming the American Dream, Bettendorf, November 27, 2007).

Political agenda and ideas and argument against Hillary Clinton:

I believe that Americans want to come together again behind a common purpose. [] When I am this partys nominee, my opponent will not be able to say that I voted for the war in Iraq, or that I gave George Bush the benefit of the doubt on Iran, or that I supported Bush-Cheney policies of not talking to leaders that we dont like. (Iowa Caucus Night Speech, Des Moines, January 3, 2008)

- The belief in America and in the American Dream Personal story to exemplify the American Dream and praise of America and the American spirit:
I am not a perfect man and I won't be a perfect President. But my own American story tells me that this country moves forward when we cast off our doubts and seek new beginnings. (A New Beginning, Chicago, October 2, 2007).

- Rallying cry to fight together, win together: the journey ahead. The speeches sometimes end with a very long sentence that also encompasses the main ideas developed during the speech.
And so tomorrow, as we take this campaign South and West, as we learn that the struggles of the textile worker in Spartanburg are not so different than the plight of the dishwasher in Las Vegas, that the hopes of the little girl who goes to a crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of LA, we will remember that there is something happening in America, that we are not as divided as our politics suggests, that we are one people, we are one nation, and together, we will begin the next great chapter in America's story with three words that will ring from coast to coast, from sea to shining sea - Yes. We. Can. (New Hampshire Primary Night Speech, Nashua, January 8, 2008)

The stump speech is basically constructed in a cyclical way with references to a journey to open and close the speech. The speech itself represents a journey through time. The introduction is about the past journey accomplished so far, including historical references while the closing sentences evoke the path ahead (use of the modal will or would in hypothetical contexts). This introduction states the purpose of the speech and sets the
24. Obamas case for a new politics recalls the New Coalition formed by Roosevelt in 1932. For parallels between the economic and political situations between the early 2000s and the 1930s, see Paul KRUGMAN, Franklin Delano Obama?, The New York Times, op-ed, November 10, 2008.

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campaign into perspective, by specifying for how long he has been campaigning. It therefore clearly performs the function of an introduction as Obama starts by establishing the situation (a campaign speech by the candidate) and prepares his audience to hear the arguments to support his candidacy and oppose those of his rivals. The epilogue urges the audience to mobilize and fight for him. Hence, the outline of Obamas campaign speeches is very close to the classical structure of the judicial speech, which is not surprising as the judicial speech aimed at convincing an audience (judges) which is presented with two contradictory sets of arguments : the exordium which exposes what the speech is about (Obama running for President), the narratio in which Obama presents an assessment of the situation, insisting on the nature of the challenges and problems to face, the propositio in which Obama develops the change he seeks for the country and refutes his opponents arguments25 and the peroratio which ends as a call to mobilize and go ahead. Aristotle defined the excitement of emotion as one of the key-part of the epilogue.26 Quintilian, the Roman rhetorician, also insisted on the necessary use of pathos in the concluding lines of a speech, In the peroratio, however, we may give full scope to the pathetic.27 As the epilogue provides the lasting impression made on the audience, it is fundamental that it ends with electrifying emotion and a powerful dynamic rather than arguments on which people have to ponder.

1.1.2. The height of the primary campaign

On the whole, the structure of Obamas speeches remained fairly the same. A few variations can be noted, however. When the primaries really started in January 2008, Obama often started by expressing his gratitude to his activists and voters and then made an account of their journey together so far and of the movement built, which corresponds to the look backward that characterized his earlier speeches of the campaign. Obama also replaced the factual list of problems by a list of individual narratives to illustrate the problems America was facing. As the Primaries unfolded, the argument against Clinton related to her initial support of the war in Iraq was removed from the speeches and from early February, an
25. In judicial speeches, that part was devoted to the arguments developed to prove the guilt or innocence of the accused. It also contained arguments to counter those of the other side. 26. Hillary Clinton generally concluded her speeches by thanking people. It usually constituted a fairly large section. 27. QUINTILIAN, Institutes of Oratory, Book IV, Chapter 1. http://www.public.iastate.edu/~honeyl/quintilian/contents.pdf

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important section was added as to why McCain should be opposed. Obama still ended his speeches with a rallying cry and the urge to move forward but from January 8, 2008 and his defeat in the New Hampshire primary, Obama added a definition of hope and the Yes We Can gimmick. The pattern thus remains globally unchanged even if the main rival changes.

1.1.3. Specific speeches

Some of these speeches were delivered in the first months of the campaign, but most of them were given after the Primaries were over, when Obama was directly and solely confronted to his Republican opponent. Those speeches, which gave voters a precise and detailed idea of what he intended to do, came very late in the campaign. That delay can explain Clintons criticisms of his relying on nice words for most of the primary campaign.28 Those speeches were generally repeated several times and delineated in detail what Obama proposed to do on a given issue (the war in Iraq,
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health care,30 the economy,

energy,31 foreign policy, education) or as regards a specific audience (working women, veterans, African Americans, Latinos, unionists). Based on individual and/or personal examples and hence once more resorting to storytelling, Obama described various situations to show the many facets of the issue, then followed by a detailed account of Obamas personal record on the issue (laws he supported both in the State of Illinois and then in the U.S. Senate, personal experience), his criticism of the current legislation or situation and of his Republican opponents position and past record on the issue. He then moved on to promise what he would do instead. Those speeches are often more technical, including many figures to sound more convincing. They discuss current legislation and suggest reformed or new legislation. Obamas past record on the issue is generally the occasion for him to praise compromise by stating what has been achieved through bipartisan consensus in the State of Illinois and in the Senate.

28. Quoting Mario Cuomo, a former Governor of New York, Hillary Clinton declared on January 6, 2008, just before the New Hampshire Primary that You campaign in poetry, you govern in prose. 29. The War in Iraq was already specifically dealt with on October 2, 2007. The speech was delivered in De Paul University in Illinois on the fifth anniversary of a speech he had delivered at that same university to vigorously oppose the war. 30. A first speech on healthcare was delivered on May 29, 2007. 31. A first speech on energy was delivered very early in the campaign on May 7, 2007.

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When Obama addresses specific audiences, he does so in events staged by legitimate organizations representing the specific audience (NAACP for African Americans, LULAC for Latinos, AFL-CIO for workers). In these speeches, Obama focuses on the main themes of his campaign like healthcare and the economy but insists on how his audience is specifically affected by the issues.32 When addressing ethnic communities, Obama insisted on their being Americans, not hyphenated Americans33, stressing his leitmotif of national unity. The speeches addressing one particular issue were carefully staged as regards place and/or time. The Cost of War was delivered on March 18, 2008, that is to say on the fifth anniversary of the beginning of the war. The Speeches on Energy were delivered in Michigan and a large section was devoted to the car industry based in Detroit. The Speech on Education was given the day after school resumed after the summer holidays. To set out his views on foreign policy, Obama delivered a speech from Berlin, hence addressing the citizens of the world, not just Americans. Focusing on his mixed origins, Obama presents himself as a global man. The choice of Berlin is doubly symbolical: it is where John Kennedy had made a vibrant speech to oppose the erection of the Berlin Wall in 1961 and the city is now the symbol of a reunified Germany, proving that barriers can tumble down. Capitalizing on his worldwide popularity, he can appear as a potential statesman whose popularity benefits America and therefore helps restore Americans esteem in the world.

1.1.4. From the Whistle-Stop Tour to the Inauguration

Shortly before the Inauguration, Obama undertook a journey by rail to Washington in a vintage railcar, imitating Lincolns Whistle-Stop Tour. The symbolical journey was made on January 17, 2009. The three speeches delivered along the journey were more or less the same; the Philadelphia and Baltimore speeches were almost identical word by word. The theme of the journey was in keeping with the staging: A new declaration of independence. The Philadelphia and Baltimore speeches were devoted to the beginning of the American journey and experiment and focused on American core values. Then Obama told the stories of
32. See for example the drop-out rates for Latinos. Speech at the LULAC Convention (Washington D.C., July 8, 2008). 33. The expression dates back to the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, during the third mass immigration wave to America. It was disparaging at the time and used by Americans to define the new Americans coming from Europe: Irish Americans, Italian Americans, German Americans. Today, this kind of expression is sometimes used by a community to stress the richness of its cultural roots. This is the case of African Americans.

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three ordinary Americans to illustrate the everyday problems Americans were facing. The stories were different in each speech and the Americans mentioned were each time named. The speeches ended with a call to perfect the union and keep the American spirit of the early patriots alive. The speech delivered in Wilmington was more particularly focused on Joe Biden, who boarded the train with his family there, where he lived. On the whole, the structure remained the same as during the speeches, except for the sections devoted to his rivals.

There is a relative stability of structure in Obamas speeches throughout the campaign. Even the Inaugural Address starts with a glance backward: Forty-four Americans have now taken the oath. The end is a projected glimpse forward:
America, in the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words; with hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come; let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.34

This stability of the structure also reflects the stability in the ideas put forward. Obama repeatedly insisted on the stability of his message, insisting on the same message we had when we were up and when we were down.35

34. This epilogue echoes that of the Final Primary Speech, which can be found p.107. It evokes the future as a projected past. The present is seen as a moment that will go down in history, being remembered by the posterity. 35. Iowa Caucus Night Speech (Des Moines, January 3, 2008), South Carolina Primary Night Speech (Columbia, January 26, 2008), Virginia Jefferson Jackson Dinner (Richmond, February 9, 2008), Potomac Primary Night (February 12, 2008).

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1. 2. Epideictic oratory in Obamas speeches

Epideixis, also called praise-and-blame rhetoric, is to be expected in the campaigns speeches of political candidates to emphasize ones own assets and the opponents shortcomings and flaws.

1.2.1. The opponents

1.2.1.1. Targeting anonymous groups
In Obamas speeches, overt and harsh criticism is mainly limited to anonymous groups of people whose precise identity is never defined: the cynics, the skeptics, the pundits, the lobbyists and the special interests in Washington.36 Apart from the lobbyists and special interests which can be more or less identified, the cynics are characterized by a name which is already a criticism and therefore to respond to it would be to endorse the criticism. These collective targets are characterized by their generic representation and the quite systematic use of THE + plural NP.

1.2.1.2. Hillary Clinton

As for his direct opponents, Obama opted for two different discursive strategies. Despite his early statements that he rejected the divisive Washington way of making politics,37 he had to respond to the attacks leveled at him by Hillary Clinton as regards his lack of experience; yet, the references to Clinton were rarely direct. He used counterarguments without ever mentioning his target by name. Obama sometimes used the generic pronoun you as in But you can't at once argue that you're the master of a broken system in Washington and then offer yourself as the person to change it. 38 Yet, what people

36. The cynics and the skeptics are by far his most frequent collective targets. The cynics and/or cynicism are mentioned in most of Obamas campaign speeches. 37. You know that we can't afford four more years of the same divisive food fight in Washington that's about scoring political points instead of solving problems, that's about tearing your opponents down instead of lifting this country up. Our Moment is Now (Des Moines, December 27, 2007). The reference to the scoring-point game is made repeatedly in the course of the campaign. 38. Our Moment is Now (Des Moines, December 27, 2007).

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should really have heard was the pronoun she. He transformed a direct attack into a general rule of adequate political behavior, hence attacking not the person but the behavior. In other cases, Obama substituted a collective entity of Democrats who had acted like Bushs Republicans for his main rival, we need to ask those who voted for the war: how can you give the President a blank check and then act surprised when he cashes it?39 and I am running for President because I am sick and tired of democrats thinking that the only way to look tough on national security is by talking, and acting, and voting like George Bush Republicans. 40 Most of these indirect attacks took place before the primary season actually started and all dealt with the same issue: the war in Iraq. Clintons error of judgment as regards the issue was the chief argument used by Obama against her. The issue was in fact less and less developed as the campaign unfolded; it was often limited to an illustration through an individual narrative and was then replaced by the economic issue which had become the voters main concern. Obamas discursive strategy is clear: he had to attack his rival in the Democratic Primaries but neither too harshly nor too directly as he had to prepare the necessary unity of the party for when the primary season was over. In fact, Clinton was never mentioned namely until Obamas first defeat in the New Hampshire primary when Senator Clinton was congratulated on her hard-fought victory. She was only directly attacked with some sarcasm when she was likened to John McCain in March, as the race of the Primaries still remained very close and embittered,41
Now, at that debate in Texas several weeks ago, Senator Clinton attacked John McCain for supporting the policies that have led to our enormous war costs. But her point would have been more compelling had she not joined Senator McCain in making the tragically ill-considered decision to vote for the Iraq war in the first place. 42

39. A New Beginning (Chicago, October 2, 2007). Obama delivers in that speech a fierce diatribe against the decision made by Congress to support the executive, Obama explains that Americans were failed not only by the president but also by the majority of a Congress - a coequal branch of government - that voted to give the President the open-ended authority to wage war that he uses to this day. So let's be clear: without that vote, there would be no war. 40. Iowa Jefferson Jackson Dinner (Des Moines, November 7, 2007). The argument of not having voted for the war in Iraq is partly fallacious as Obama was not yet Senator when the vote took place in 2002. 41. The campaign was getting tougher in mid-January after mutual accusations concerning the Nevada Caucus where the votes were not all taken into account and after Bill Clinton misrepresented Obamas remarks on Reagan to imply that he supported the former Republican Presidents ideas. The tension reached a climax at a televised debate opposing the three major Democratic candidates which was organized days before the South Carolina Primary and two weeks before the often-decisive Super Tuesday. For more on the feud opposing Clinton and Obama, see Andrea MITCHELL, Clinton, Obama Clash at S.C. Debate, January 22, 2008, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22771568/ns/politics-the_debates/ (04/11). 42. The Cost of War (Charleston, March 20, 2008). The speech dealt exclusively with the war in Iraq and its various consequences.

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The use of the past conditional is used to undermine her own authority to attack McCain on the issue. Obama implied that the argument was fallacious by focusing on her point, not on her directly and he used a comparative form, more compelling, which is only rhetorical precaution. In addition, Obama performed a pool trick shot as it enabled him to target both Clinton and McCain. Obama generally praises bipartisan consensus but in the case of Clinton and McCain siding together, it was Clinton who acted like the Republicans as the use of the verb join suggests. Yet, a few weeks later, during the transition period as the primary campaign ended and the campaign against the Republicans was really going to start, Hillary Clinton was praised at length for who she was and what she represented.43 Praise of Hillary Clinton evolved in nature and length by becoming longer and by shifting focus. Her personality, commitment and career were described as sources of inspiration, including for his daughters. She was in fact often reduced to that simplistic approach, presented as a symbol for women,44 as was briefly the case in the Kentucky-Oregon Primary Night Speech on May 20, 200845, in Unity on June 27, 2008 and in the Acceptance Speech on August 28, 2008 when she was presented as an inspiration for my daughters and yours. It was exclusively the case in New York City during a joint meeting organized on July 10, 2008, all the more so as Obamas main focus that day was working women.46 This was combined with a fairly long account of her professional career and various commitments. Clinton was praised for being a relentless fighter (the noun fight is often repeated) and a pioneer for other women in politics (made history, barrier-breaking).47 When Obama summarized her political career, he made a very long sentence containing a series of nominal relative clauses to define what led her on (a pseudo-cleft sentence).
But as someone who's shared a stage with her many times, I can tell you that what gets Hillary Clinton up in the morning even in the face of tough odds is exactly what sent her and Bill Clinton to sign up for their first campaign in Texas all those years ago, what sent her to work at the Children's Defense Fund and made her fight for health care as First Lady, what led her to the United States 43. Hillary Clinton was praised in five main speeches: the Kentucky and Oregon Night Speech on May 20, 2008, in the Final Primary Night Speech delivered in St Paul on June 3, 2008, in Unity to symbolize the unity of the party on June 27, 2008, in a joint meeting held in New York City on July 10, 2008, and then briefly in the Acceptance Speech. Attacks on McCain started as of early February 2008, after Super Tuesday, when the other Republican candidates had been left lagging much behind. 44. Ironically enough, in the Final Primary Night Speech on June 3, 2008, Obama himself explained that she could not be reduced to what she symbolized for women: Senator Hillary Clinton has made history in this campaign not just because she's a woman who has done what no woman has done before, but because she's a leader who inspires millions of Americans with her strength, her courage, and her commitment to the causes that brought us here tonight. 45. In that speech, praise of Hillary Clinton was limited to, And no matter how this primary ends, Senator Clinton has shattered myths and broken barriers and changed the America in which my daughters and your daughters will come of age, and for that we are grateful to her. 46. The speech is one of Obamas specific speeches. See 1.1.3. Specific speeches p.14. 47. Final Primary Night (St Paul, June 3, 2008).

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Senate and fueled her barrier-breaking campaign for the presidency an unyielding desire to improve the lives of ordinary Americans, no matter how difficult the fight may be. 48

The use of anaphora enables Obama to rhythmically reproduce the unflinching commitment. Using nominal relative clauses to define another such clause, what gets Hilary Clinton up in the morning, consists in turning around endlessly as the structures do not contain antecedents, thus building some suspense until the answer is given after a short pause, graphically represented by a dash. What makes this long sentence laudatory is the very nature of her driving-force, which is only disclosed at the very end of the sentence. The answer could have been her ambition without changing a single word before the pause. Interestingly enough, the section was reproduced in the speech delivered at their joint meeting in Unity, June 27, 2008 but was slightly modified and defines her motivation and her passion as what led her on. The three stages of her career that Obama mentioned are the ones she evoked in her own speeches and decided to put forward. During a fierce debate in January, Obama blamed her for sitting on the boards of major companies.49 This is not mentioned.

1.2.1.3. John McCain

It is a very different strategy used with his Republican opponent, John McCain, who was attacked directly and at length after Super Tuesday when he was so much ahead of his Republican opponents that it was clear and obvious he would be the Republican nominee. When Obama directly mentioned his Republican opponent, he referred to him by his name and surname, without mentioning his political title. John McCain, on the contrary, only referred to Obama as Senator Obama. Obamas discursive treatment of John McCain consisted in praising the American hero he [respects] and his years of service to the nation but criticizing fiercely the failed policies of the past he had supported and still supported. Praise of McCain was brief and was immediately, sometimes in the very same sentence, counterbalanced by a criticism introduced by the conjunction but. McCains campaign was articulated on the idea that he was an independent thinker and had on occasions voted against his own party. The main point of Obamas campaign was to hammer in the idea that McCain was no different from Bush and that electing McCain would lead to George

48. Final Primary Night (St Paul, June 3, 2008). 49. Michael Moores Sicko accused her of having HMOs (Health Maintenance Organizations) fund her campaigns. Michael MOORE, Sicko (Dog Eat Dog Films, 2007).

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Bushs third term (April 14, 2008). Obama used expressions of similarity and continuity, four more years (March 4, 2008, April 14, 2008), the same course (March 4, 2008), more of the same (April 22, 2008), deriding the Republican Primaries as a contest to determine which candidate could out-Bush the other (May 20, 2008). Obamas neologism is patterned on Shakespeares expression to out-Herod Herod. Using a neologism gives more weight to the criticism as it can take the audience unawares and be taken up as a sound bite by the media. The compound verb out-Bush is made up of the adverb out referring to the idea of surpassing, going beyond a limit and the proper noun Bush, whose characteristic feature is surpassed. The person whose name is used is reduced to their main characteristic feature and stands as a reference. The verb suggests that the subject-agent has surpassed the reference. In addition, the use of this verb in an indirect question is manipulative insofar as it lies in the presupposition that all the Republican candidates model themselves on Bush and therefore share the same political ideas. Obama also coined the compound-adjective BushMcCain (March 20, 2008 and October 27, 2008) to define the policies led by the Republican Administration. Such a close-knit connection which is graphically represented by a hyphen suggests that McCain has been holding a major executive office in the Bush Administration. It would have made more sense if the second name was the Vice-Presidents but Obamas aim is not only to attack the Republicans record but to convince voters that McCain should be directly blamed for it. This compound adjective reinforces the use of presuppositions which convey the idea that all the Republican candidates are Bushs political heirs. To derail McCains self-definition as an independent thinker, Obama used McCains own words and criticisms against Bushs tax cuts50 to emphasize that McCain was no longer an independent thinker and had fallen back in line. Obama started to use McCains words as soon as he became the Republican nominee to show that he was now contradicting himself and endorsing policies he had previously opposed. By using McCains very words, Obama skillfully made an independent McCain criticize a loyal McCain. Going further, it can also be considered that the formerly independent McCain was more in tune with Obama. From April 2, 2008, a new argument was developed by Obama after McCain admitted, the issue of economics is not something Ive understood as well as I should. 51 As voters had become

50. McCain had criticized those tax cuts because so many of the benefits [went] to the most fortunate. (taken up in a speech by Obama on February 12, 2008) 51. Obama also used McCains words to criticize his position regarding Americas addiction to oil in his Speech on Energy (Lansing, August 4, 2008).

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more and more preoccupied with the economy and the bail-out,52 Obama used McCains own recognition of partial incompetence to discredit him and undermine his authority on the issue by parroting them and turning them to his advantage.53 The point was made again and emphasized during the Acceptance Speech delivered at the Democratic National Convention, on August 28, 2008: I don't believe that Senator McCain doesn't care what's going on in the lives of Americans; I just think he doesn't know. and It's not because John McCain doesn't care; it's because John McCain doesn't get it. The two quotes frame a series of rhetorical questions on a hypothetical mode (use of the conditional) introduced by why else would he or how else could he, implying that McCains unawareness and failure to understand are the only explanations. McCain is not only someone whose ideas were wrong but someone who was simply not fit for and up to the job. More than blame or petty politics, the prevailing feature of Obamas speeches throughout the campaign is the optimism and enthusiasm that characterize them.

1.2.2. Praise of America and Americans

Theres no obstacle we cannot overcome. Theres no destiny we cannot fulfill. 54

Obamas upbeat discourse echoes Reagans 1980 campaign speeches. The positive undertones aimed at restoring Americans pride and confidence in their country in a period of economic turmoil and military doubt in Afghanistan and Iraq. That is what Reagan had managed to do in 1980 by making people believe in America again after the fiasco of the American hostage crisis in Lebanon and the dull years of the Carter presidency. According to Arthur Schlesinger, like Franklin Roosevelt, the hero of his youth, [Reagan] radiated a reassuring confidence that all contradictions would be dissolved and all difficulties overcome.55 That is the sort of confidence that Obama sought to inspire. Though elaborating along the lines of Reagans America is back, Obama delineated his own distinctive praise of America throughout the campaign.

52. The comprehensive program carried out by the Federal State to save banks from going bankrupt. It cost billions of dollars. 53. Alec MacGILLIS, op. cit. 54. Final Campaign Speech (Manassas, November 3, 2008). 55. Arthur M. SCHLESINGER, The Imperial Presidency (New York, Mariner Books, revised edition, 2004), p.441.

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This question was at the very core of Obamas discourse in three of his speeches: Reclaiming the American Dream (November 7, 2007), Our Moment Is Now (December 27, 2007) and The America We Love (Speech on Patriotism, June 30, 2008). Playing the Reagan card on patriotism, Obama stated that America [was] the greatest country on Earth.56 The statement is hyperbolic in nature (use of the superlative). Yet, it is clear in the three major speeches mentioned above that for Obama, what is great in America is not only America and loyalty to the flag, it is its people and the spirit that has animated the countrys story from its very beginning and its revolutionary genesis:
In the end, it may be this quality that best describes patriotism in my mind not just a love of America in the abstract, but a very particular love for, and faith in, the American people. [] For we know that the greatness of this country its victories in war, its enormous wealth, its scientific and cultural achievements all result from the energy and imagination of the American people, their toil, drive, 57 struggle, restlessness, humor and quiet heroism.

Where others had praised the greatness of America through the greatness of its leaders, Obama shifted the greatness onto ordinary citizens, everyday heroes by becoming the storyteller of individual stories. As could be expected from a laudatory discourse, a number of positively-connoted words can be found in those few lines, mostly pertaining to the lexical field of success (victories, achievements) or that could be related to it (enormous wealth). He adds a long, almost never-ending series of nouns to characterize their obstinate hard work. The accumulation effect represented by the enumeration helps symbolize the unyielding and unflinching effort and was delivered with a very solemn tone. Obama also repeatedly used the superlative to describe ordinary Americans: the most talented, the most productive workers of any country on Earth (Last Week Speech, Canton, October 27, 2008). Even when mentioning the glorious birth of the United States, Obama did not praise the Founding Fathers but the patriots who had fought against the British Crown by using once more the superlative, the greatest generations [who freed] a continent.58 The whole American history was interpreted as a succession of victorious battles:
We're the nation that liberated a continent from a madman, that lifted ourselves from the depths of a Depression, that won Civil Rights, and Womens Rights, and Voting Rights for all our people.59 56. The America We Love. (Independence, June 30, 2008). 57. The America We Love (Independence, June 30, 2008). Echoes can be found in Our Moment is Now: We are a decent, generous people willing to work hard and sacrifice for future generations. (Des Moines, December 27, 2007). 58. Our Moment Is Now (Des Moines, December 27, 2007). The mention of our greatest leaders appears only once to praise Washingtons military achievements. It is immediately followed by a redefinition of greatness as the wisdom Washington showed when he decided not to run for a third term. The America We Love (Independence, June 30, 2008). 59. Turn the Page Speech (San Diego, April 28, 2007).

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That very selective summary of American history, which included large short-cuts, contributed to depict a mythical America that stands for justice and has won over injustice. The other accounts of American history that can be found in Obamas speeches were developed along the same lines.60 Obamas representation of American history partly focused on the same chapters as previous U.S. Presidents had done before him: the beginnings of the Republic, the Civil War and the New Deal. Obama was less eloquent on the New Deal and focused more often on the Civil Rights victories. This selective history presented episodes which could unite Americans because they are now consensual.61 The idea was to convey a sense of progress and unity of the nation. The references chosen were also selective: MLK stood along former U.S. Presidents while Lyndon B. Johnson who was President in 1964 when the Civil Rights Act was passed was never mentioned.62 Johnson could not be mentioned because he was mostly associated with the escalation and quagmire in Vietnam in American collective memory. In a period of growing popular dissatisfaction with the stalemate in Iraq, Obama had better not be associated with Lyndon Johnson. Obama needed mythical figures that solely embodied progress. Apart from Americas greatness, Obama developed the idea of its uniqueness and praised it, hence echoing the theories of American exceptionalism.63 Americas uniqueness was developed with two different points: Obamas own story and the American Dream. In his Keynote Address at the Democratic National Convention, Obama had started presenting his story as one which could only have been possible in America: I stand here knowing that my story is part of the larger American story, that I owe a debt to all of those who came before me, and that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.64 Obama preferred to focus on America by placing the location phrase at the beginning of the clause, to put more emphasis on the determiner no. Adding on Earth implied that the statement was made after scanning every country. Obama pursued on Americas uniqueness with the definition of
60. See also A New Beginning (Chicago, October 2, 2007), Iowa Jefferson Jackson Dinner (Des Moines, November 10, 2007), Our Moment Is Now (Des Moines, December 27, 2007). 61. Senator Robert Byrd, a Dixiecrat and former Klan member, exemplifies such an evolution from total rejection of Civil Rights legislation in the 1960s to a very consensual attitude, fully supporting the NAACP at the end of his political career. He supported Barack Obama during the Primaries. 62. For Evan Thomas, the comparison between Obama and Lyndon Johnson is relevant: Though Obama likes to model himself on Lincoln, or perhaps FDR, another close comparison can be made to Lyndon Johnson. Evan THOMAS, Obamas Lincoln, Newsweek, November 15, 2008. For more parallels between Johnson and Obama, see 3.2.2.1. The tone of a preacher, p.96. 63. Obama refers directly to that theory in his speech on patriotism: As we begin our fourth century as a nation, it is easy to take the extraordinary nature of America for granted. (Independence, June 30, 2008). 64. The Audacity of Hope (Boston, July 27, 2004). The point is made again in Reclaiming the American Dream (Bettendorf, November 7, 2007) and the Iowa Jefferson Jackson Dinner (Des Moines, November 10, 2007)

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the American Dream, his own definition in fact: What is unique about America is that we want [the American dream] for more than ourselves we want [it] for other people. [] We fight for each others dreams.65 By contrasting each other which expresses a mutual, reciprocal relationship with the reflexive pronoun ourselves, Obama defined American uniqueness in terms of widespread solidarity, opposing the prevailing notion of American individualism and praising a sense of national belonging. The representation that Obama offered of America each time he was defining and characterizing it was hardly realistic, overlooking long-lasting and often violent oppositions.66 Michael Kammen defined the tendency of permanent construction and reconstruction of the past as disremembering the past.67 Using advertising tips, Obama sought to present an idealistic vision of America based on hyperboles and mythical representations. The aim was to make Americans proud of their country and believe again in its intrinsic capacity to overcome the biggest challenges. And that was the sense of the yes-we-can motto which was developed after Obamas first defeat on January 8, 2008. The enthusiasm he sought to convey had also much to do with the future he proposed. What Obama promised throughout the campaign was to write with people the great, next chapter in the great American story.68 Praise of American people and of a better tomorrow was recurrent all along the campaign, especially in the lyrical outbursts that could be found in the epilogues. These lyrical outbursts, in which Obama sketched the next stage in Americas destiny, often included quotes or echoes from Jefferson, Lincoln or Martin Luther King.
Obama: Out of this long political darkness a brighter day will come. (The Audacity of Hope, July 24, 2004) MLK: It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity. (I Have A Dream, August 28, 1963) Obama: usher in a new birth of freedom on this Earth. (Announcement Speech, February 10, 2007) Lincoln: we shall have a new birth of freedom (Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863) Obama: the last, best hope on Earth69 (Turn the Page Speech, April 28, 2007) 65. Reclaiming the American Dream (Bettendorf, November 7, 2007). The idea is developed as well in his Acceptance Speech at the Democratic National Convention: It is that promise that's always set this country apart, that through hard work and sacrifice each of us can pursue our individual dreams, but still come together as one American family, to ensure that the next generation can pursue their dreams, as well. (August 28, 2008) 66. It corresponds to Renans definition of what the essence of a nation is, Or lessence dune nation est que tous les individus aient beaucoup de choses en commun, et aussi que tous aient oubli bien des choses. Benedict Andersen speaks of nations as imagined communities based on the falsification of the shared memory of a people. See Luc BENOT LA GUILLAUME, Le discours d'investiture des prsidents amricains ou les paradoxes de l'loge (Paris : Harmattan, 2003), p.198. 67. Michael KAMMEN, Mystic Chords of Memory: The Transformation of Tradition in American Culture (New York : Knopf, 1991), quoted in Luc BENOT LA GUILLAUME, op. cit., p.199. 68. Turn the Page Speech (San Diego, April 28, 2007). 69. Interestingly enough, Ronald Reagan also took up the reference in a TV speech to support Barry Goldwater on October 22, 1967. There was just a slight variation: the last best hope of man on Earth.

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Jefferson: the worlds best hope70 (1st Inaugural Address, March 4, 1801) Lincoln: the last best hope of Earth (Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862)

Using intertextuality through authoritative quotes was a repetitive pattern in Obamas speeches which enabled him to associate himself with Americas leading figures of the past. As Professor of Linguistics Ekaterina Haskins argues, His speeches are shaded with subtle echoes of great speeches past, consciously creating a sense of history, purpose and continuity.71 All these epilogues pointed to a better, brighter tomorrow72; the echoes of the great leaders of the past served to establish a connection with Obama, who wished to appear as their heir. Like Martin Luther King, Obama sought to point the direction ahead, sharing his faith in America. He used lyrical outbursts to transform the future into a destiny 73 (Iowa Caucus Night, January 3, 2008), and in particular a world destiny. Americas position in the world and as the leading force of the world was frequently asserted, on (this) Earth and repair the world. To reach that goal however, Americas self-improvement appeared as a prerequisite. The sense of destiny was constructed through a widening of the geographical perspective and with hyperboles (use of superlatives). More than a presidential election, Obama seemed to offer and promise a new national epic, as was clearly stated one week before the election:
And if in this last week, you will knock on some doors for me, and make some calls for me, and talk to your neighbors, and convince your friends; if you will stand with me, and fight with me, and give me your vote, then I promise you this we will not just win Ohio, we will not just win this election, but together, we will change this country and we will change the world.74

According to Luc Benot la Guillaume, the promise of a new era is a recurrent topic in Presidential discourse especially in times of crisis,75 even though it is hardly ever a real break with the past.76 This was emphasized by Obama with the use of the recurrent
70. A more complex variation can be found in James Madisons Notes on Nullification, as he defined America as the last hope of true liberty on the face on the earth. (1835-36). 71. Stephanie HOLMES, Obama: Oratory and Originality, BBC News, November 19, 2008, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7735014.stm. 72. Sacvan Bercovitch defined the jeremiad as the political sermon developed by American colonists: In explicit opposition to the traditional mode, it inverts the doctrine of vengeance into a promise of ultimate success, affirming to the world, and despite the world, the inviolability of the colonial cause. [] The purpose of their jeremiads was to direct an imperiled people of God toward the fulfillment of their destiny, to guide them individually toward salvation, and collectively toward the American city of God. Sacvan BERCOVITCH, The American Jeremiad (Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1978), quoted in Luc BENOT LA GUILLAUME, op. cit., p.74. 73. The word can be found in the Announcement speech (Springfield, February 10, 2007) and the Iowa Caucus Night Speech (Des Moines, January 3, 2008). It can also be found often in the expression: no destiny we could not fulfill (Our Moment is Now, Des Moines, December 27, 2007; New Hampshire Primary Night Speech, Nashua, January 8, 2008 ; Wisconsin Primary Night Speech, Houston, February 19, 2008). 74. This is the very end of the speech delivered in Canton (October 27, 2008). 75. Luc BENOT LA GUILLAUME, op. cit., p.199. 76. Luc Benot la Guillaume speaks of a rhetoric of the fake break (rhtorique de la fausse coupure). Ibid., p.206.

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expressions such as Its time to turn the page77, We are at a defining moment in our history78, a moment that will define a generation79 or the projected retrospective glance This was the moment when it all began.80 References to time are essential to build up on the notion of the sacred moment, the turning-point. These lyrical outbursts were often hyperbolic in essence (it all began; a contest that will determine the course of this nation for years, perhaps decades, to come81). Turning American history into an epic has been recurrent in presidential discourse and often associated with the mythical notion of the frontier 82 as developed by John Fitzgerald Kennedy for example in the 1960s with his New Frontier program. Ronald Reagan used John Withrops image of the Citty upon a hill (sic)83 to define his vision of Americas destiny.84 By praising America, Obama made his speeches more difficult to criticize. He could reach out to Democrats and Republicans alike because a section devoted to Americas greatness is essentially and intrinsically consensual.

1. 3. The rhetorical proofs at play in Obamas speeches

Aristotle defined the three proofs that were necessary in a political speech: ethos (character), logos (argument) and pathos (emotion). Elvin T. Lim holds a Platonician view of what a political speech should include, We expect political leaders to prioritize logos.85 He deplores that todays presidential rhetoric is short on logos, disingenuous on ethos and long
77. Announcement Speech (Springfield, February 10, 2007) and Turn the Page Speech (San Diego, April 28, 2007). 78. Iowa Jefferson Jackson Dinner (Des Moines, November 10, 2007). The expression is used throughout the campaign: Our Moment is Now (Des Moines, December 27, 2007), Iowa Caucus Night Speech (Des Moines, January 3, 2008), Kentucky and Oregon Night Speech (Des Moines, May 20, 2008), Final Primary Night Speech (June 3, 2008), Speech on the Middle-Class (St Louis, July 7, 2008), VP Announcement (Springfield, August 23, 2008), The American Promise (August 28, 2008), Speech on Education (September 9, 2008), Last Week Speech (Canton, October 27, 2008), Final Election Speech (Manassas, November 3, 2008), Election Night Victory Speech (Chicago, November 4, 2008). 79. Final Primary Night Speech (St Paul, June 3, 2008). 80. Iowa Caucus Night Speech (Des Moines, January 3, 2008). 81. Speech on Patriotism (Independence, June 30, 2008). 82. Frederick Jackson Douglas theorized in the late 19th century the concept of the frontier. He defined the essence of American identity as being rooted in the West. 83. The biblical phrase was used in 1630 by John Winthrop, a Puritan, to express the belief that Puritans were sent to the New World by God to establish a city which the world would look at. Reagan used the expression twice, each time in a major speech: his Acceptance Speech at the Republican National Convention in 1980 and in his Farewell Speech in 1989. Interestingly enough, John F. Kennedy also used it in 1961. 84. These two notions are both congruent with John OSullivans concept of Manifest Destiny developed in 1845 to justify American westward expansion. 85. Elvin T. LIM, The Anti-Intellectual Presidency: The Decline of Presidential Rhetoric from George Washington to George W. Bush (New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), p.55.

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on pathos.86 Manipulating the audience with emotion and a distorted self-portrait seems to have become the characteristic feature of political speech. Obama has often been criticized for his lack of detailed propositions in his speeches. Let us determine to what extent Obama actually corresponds to that now prevailing pattern.

1.3.1. Obama on Obama

For Aristotle, ethos encompasses different notions: phronesis (practical skills and wisdom) and art (virtue, goodness). They are often all present in a political speech, but at different levels. The major criticism leveled at Obama was his lack of political experience, especially at the national level. Indeed, Obama had been a state Senator in Illinois from 1997 to 2004, when he resigned after being elected to the U.S. Senate. Obama had therefore been a member of Congress for two years when he officially announced he had decided to run for the U.S. Presidential election. From the very beginning of his campaign, Obama needed to establish his credibility and therefore a crucial section of his speeches in 2007 consisted in putting forward what experience he had. Interestingly enough, Obama developed and used the fighting metaphor not about Iraq but about the war on poverty and discrimination. Departing from the warmongers in Washington, Obamas account of his experience as a community organizer echoed the rhetoric of Lyndon Johnsons War on Poverty. Obama insisted on his experience before the primaries started. It was especially the case in his Announcement speech, a significant section of which was devoted to developing his professional experience as a community organizer in Chicagos South Side and as a lawyer specialized in civil rights but also his political experience as a state Senator in Illinois.87 From November 2007, Obama developed a rhetoric of battle and started using the verb fight,88 often associated with the present perfect or HAVE+V-en and BE + Ving to establish the experience he had gained. On December 27, 2007, Obama used Bill Clintons very words to counter attacks on his lack of experience.89 This indirect attack against Hillary Clinton reflects a strategy Obama would use
86. Ibid, p.54. 87. The very place where the speech is delivered is quite significant as Springfield is the State Capital. The city is highlighted several times with the repetitions of the expression, It was here that []. 88. Occurrences of the noun fight can also be found. 89. The truth is you can have the right experience and the wrong kind of experience. Mine is rooted in the real lives of the people and it will bring real results if we have the courage to change.

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even more effectively against John McCain: using an opponents declaration on which he agrees but which the opponent is now attacking. In February 2008, at the height of the primary season, Obama briefly mentioned his political and/or professional experience again. He did it again in his specific speeches, when the primary season was over. In the speech delivered at the AFL-CIO, Obama used the word fight fifteen times. Obamas self-portrait as a fighter somehow counterbalanced his commitment to seeking consensus. The image as someone determined to defend his ideas whatever the obstacles was essential to establish his credibility as a future President. In addition to his experience and stamina, Obama boasted himself of being right from the beginning as regards the war in Iraq, unlike others: When I am this partys nominee, my opponent will not be able to say that I voted for the war in Iraq. 90 Obama insisted on his good judgment, on the right decisions he made and he was therefore the most adequate candidate to end the war, The first thing we have to do is end this war. And the right person to end it is someone who had the judgment to oppose it from the beginning.91 Barack Obama is in fact the someone he is talking about. Someone does not represent here an indefinite individual, but is reduced with the non-defining restrictive relative clause to a very precise individual and should be understood as some one. The argument is also connected to that of experience, opposing the right experience and the wrong experience. Hillary Clintons error of judgment as regards the war in Iraq was clearly the kind of experience she should not boast about. As was developed in 1.2.1.2. Hillary Clinton, the war in Iraq is the key-argument developed against Clinton whereas Obamas lack of experience was his opponents central argument against him. By elaborating on the right kind of experience and the wrong kind of experience, Obama could connect the two issues and emphasized his clear-sightedness. Obama also insisted on his virtue by emphasizing his lack of self-interest, which is a feature that characterizes his whole career,
I walked away from a job on Wall Street to bring job training to the jobless and after school programs to kids on the streets of Chicago. I turned down the big money law firms to win justice for the powerless as a civil rights lawyer. I took on the lobbyists in Illinois and brought Democrats and Republicans together to expand health care to 150,000 people and pass the first major campaign finance reform in twenty-five years; and I did the same thing in Washington when we passed the toughest lobbying reform since Watergate. I'm the only candidate in this race who hasn't just talked about taking power away from lobbyists, I've actually done it. So if you want to know what kind of

90. Iowa Jefferson Jackson Dinner (Des Moines, November 10, 2007). 91. A New Beginning (Chicago, October 2, 2007).

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choices we'll make as President, you should take a look at the choices we made when we had the chance to bring about change that wasn't easy or convenient. 92

Through this self-portrait, Obama represented himself as a person free of all bonds, unconnected to any special interests, motivated by superior principles and not by selfinterest.93 This self-portrait actually consisted in a series of actions (use of action verbs), focusing both on the choices he did not make (walked away, turned down) and the successes he managed to bring about. Obamas whole career was reduced to a conflict between the powerful (lobbies, special interests) and the powerless / jobless (using the less suffix to emphasize the poors deprivations) whom he stands for, reenacting a modern version of David vs. Goliath. He also described himself as the artisan of the legislative successes mentioned. Indeed, although he used the pronoun we to refer to the Democrats and Republicans who allied to pass anti-lobbying legislation, Obama had initially presented himself as the one who had made that bipartisan conciliation possible, I [] brought Democrats and Republicans together.

1.3.2. The appeal to emotions

Analyzing the evolution of presidential discourse, Elvin T. Lim observed that pathos had become predominant and there was even a tendency to resort to an extreme form of emotional appeal: bathos, which he defined as the references involving children and families.94 Indeed, references to families, whether anonymous average American families or his own, are frequent in Obamas speeches, though not overabundant. George Lakoff, Professor of Linguistics at Berkeley, of whom Barack Obama had been a student, explained how essential family values are in American discourse,
Our national political dialogue is fundamentally metaphorical, with family values at the center of our discourse. There is a reason why Obama and Biden spoke so much about the family, the nurturant 92. Our Moment is Now (Des Moines, December 27, 2007). Obamas decision to work in Chicagos South Side at the expense of the generous offers from Wall Street appeared in several speeches, in the Announcement Speech (Springfield, February 10, 2007), Turn the Page (San Diego, April 28, 2007), Reclaiming the American Dream (Bettendorf, November 10, 2007), Super Tuesday Night Speech (St Paul, February 8, 2008), Potomac Primary Night Speech (Madison, February 12, 2008), Wisconsin Primary Night Speech (Houston, February 19, 2008) and very briefly in his Acceptance Speech (Denver, August 28, 2008). 93. The Bush Administration was fiercely criticized by its opponents for the Bushes and Cheneys connections to the oil industry and their direct personal economic interests in the War in Iraq. William KAREL, Le Monde selon Bush (2004). 94. Elvin T. Lim, op. cit., p.72. Lim defined that tendency as a characteristic of anti-intellectual presidential discourse.

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family, with caring fathers and the family values that Obama put front and center in his Father's day speech: empathy, responsibility and aspiration. 95

Thirty occurrences of the noun family or families can be found in his speech on the economy and the middle-class delivered in July 7, 2008, and eighteen in Reclaiming the American Dream (November 7, 2007). There was an average of half a dozen occurrences during the height of the primary season. Obamas personal narratives often focused on women and more especially mothers or young women to insist on their vulnerability. 96 The references to child/children were more frequent, with an average of half a dozen approximately throughout the campaign, peaking exceptionally at forty occurrences in the speech dedicated to A 21st Century Education (September 9, 2008). But even when Obama spoke of children in general and used the generic expression a child, it is later substituted by the pronoun she97 to make the story more emotional as girls are seen as being more vulnerable:
We believe that a child born tonight should have the same chances whether she arrives in the barrios of San Antonio or the suburbs of St. Louis; on the streets of Chicago or the hills of Appalachia. We believe that when she goes to school for the first time, it should be in a place where the rats don't outnumber the computers; that when she applies to college, cost is no barrier to a degree that will allow her to compete with children in China or India for the jobs of the twenty-first century. We believe that these jobs should provide wages that can raise her family, health care for when she gets sick and a pension for when she retires. We believe that when she tucks her own children into bed, she should feel safe knowing that they are protected from the threats we face by the bravest, best-equipped, military in the world, led by a Commander-in-Chief who has the judgment to know when to send them into battle and which battlefield to fight on. And if that child should ever get the chance to travel the world, and someone should ask her where she is from, we believe that she should always be able to hold her head high with pride in her voice when she answers I am an American.98

By telling the story of this imaginary average girl, Obama could address the issues common to both men and women (racial discrimination, education, employment, safety, health care) but also the issue of sex inequality and by depicting her as a future mother, he could focus on the motherly instinct of protection. Unlike Reagan and the Bushes who insisted on a strong America and a manly approach to leadership, Obama shifted focus to domestic policies, often depicting families as matriarchies in his individual examples. In addition to making his examples more emotional, it was surely also the result of his being
95. George LAKOFF, The Palin Choice and the Reality of the Political Mind, posted on September 1, 2008 on http://www.huffingtonpost.com/george-lakoff/the-palin-choice-and-the_b_123012.html. 96. Interestingly enough, the three individual narratives developed in the Texas and Ohio Primary Night Speech (San Antonio, March 4, 2004) exclusively focus on women: a young [female] student, a mother in San Antonio and an elderly woman. 97. The singular personal pronoun she has been used since the late twentieth century in academic journal articles as a generic pronoun to counter the predominant use of the generic pronoun he. Obama could have used the epicene they but he specifically intended to develop the story of a woman here. 98. Texas and Ohio Primary Night Speech (San Antonio, March 4, 2008). Like the Ashley Baia story, this one ended with a sentence in direct speech. See 2.1.2. The Ashley Baia story, p.44.

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raised by a single mother and grandmother and a deliberate attempt to appeal to female voters who could feel closer to Hillary Clinton.99 Obamas strong and laudatory emphasis on America and American values100 should also be included in this section as they tug at the heartstrings.

1.3.3. The minor use of arguments

The only organ to which no appeal is made these days - you might call it Americas understimulated organ - is the brain.101

Obamas development of arguments varied along the campaign. At the beginning and almost until the late December 2007, he developed a number of fairly precise points though he remained quite general and did not delve into detail: no figures were given. It was the case in the following examples which is fairly representative:
We know that the cost of the American dream must never come at the expense of the American family. You're working longer hours. More families have two parents working. Meanwhile, it's hard to get a hand. It's even harder to get a break. That's why I'll double spending on quality after-school programs - so that you can know your kids are safe and secure. And that's why I'll expand the Family Medical Leave Act to include more businesses and millions more workers; to let parents participate in school activities with their kids; and to cover elderly care. And we'll finally put federal support behind state efforts to provide paid Family and Medical Leave.102

Obama explained that more businesses and millions more workers would be included but no precise idea was given as to how many million workers would be concerned. What is crucial is Obamas determination to act personally (frequent uses of Ill). Other examples confirmed that lack of precision: pay teachers what they deserve to be paid 103 or We wont wait ten years to raise the minimum wage Ill guarantee that it goes up every single year.104 Obama repeated in other speeches that teachers should be paid as they

99. Fathers were specifically addressed in Obamas speech to the NAACP on July 14, 2008 because broken families have been a crucial problem with African Americans for generations: what makes them men is not the ability to have a child but the courage to raise one. 100. See 1.2.2. Praise of America and Americans, p.22. 101. Peggy NOONAN, Simply Speaking: How to Communicate Your Ideas with Style, Substance, and Clarity (New York: Regan, 1998), p.70 quoted in Elvin T. Lim, op. cit., p.5. Peggy Noonan was Ronald Reagans former speechwriter. 102. Reclaiming the American Dream (Bettendorf, November 7, 2007). 103. Turn the Page Speech (San Diego, April 28, 2007). 104. Reclaiming the American Dream (Bettendorf, November 7, 2007).

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deserved105 but never specified how much that represented and obviously no one could disagree on such an assumption. It was the same with the annual raise of the minimum wage: by not giving a precise figure as to the percentage nor on its terms, he prevented attacks on the idea. The section devoted to Obamas proposals was much reduced in the first month of the primaries but was then developed again but often in connection with a detailed account of the present situation. Obama developed his plans on energy, families, the middle-class and so on in the specific speeches which were mostly given once the primary campaign was over. In those speeches, he often sounded less lyrical and more down-to-earth, giving precise accounts of his record, a detailed analysis of the situation and his precise proposals. In the following example, Obama detailed what he intended to do about Family and Medical Leave, which he had evoked in general terms at the beginning of the campaign:
It means dramatically expanding the Family and Medical Leave Act to reach millions of additional workers and I'll ensure that it doesn't just cover staying at home with a new baby, but also lets you take leave to care for your elderly parents and participate in school activities like parent-teacher conferences and assemblies. It means standing up for paid leave so I'll invest $1.5 billion to help create paid leave systems across America and I'll require employers to provide all of their workers with at least seven days paid sick leave a year. Senator McCain has no clear plan to expand paid leave and sick leave and that's a real difference in this election. Finally, we've got to do more to help folks at the bottom of the ladder climb into the middle class. 106

Obamas proposals usually followed McCains senatorial record on the issue. Here again, Obama directly addresses the working women facing him by using the personal pronoun you. In both cases, Obama shifted back and forth between the pronoun I and the exclusive we which referred to his Administration. As regards the people he was talking about, Obama no longer referred to them directly but used the generic plural form (workers, parents), which sounded more inclusive. One of the reasons Obama avoided developing precise, detailed ideas too soon in the campaign was that it might force him to readjust his ideas according to the economic evolution and that would undermine his capacity to persuade. For example, Obama had to make a U-turn on the strategic oil reserve within four weeks.107 Obama avoided as much as possible partisan policies and advocated a consensual, bipartisan, pragmatic approach. This was at the core of his Inaugural Speech: The question we ask today is not whether our
105. Instead of talking how great our teachers are, we will reward them for their greatness. (South Carolina Primary Night Speech, Columbia, January 26, 2008). 106. Speech on working women (Fairfax, July 10, 2008). 107. First opposed to utilizing the Strategic Oil Reserve except in case of emergency, Obama approved it a month later on August 4, 2008.

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government is too big or too small, but whether it works [] Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end.108 Obamas political decisions were not motivated by ideology, but by rational thinking, promoting a politics that favors common sense109 over ideology (Last Week Speech, Canton, October 27, 2008) and moving beyond old arguments of left and right (Speech on Education, Dayton, September 9, 2008).

More than detailed policies, what Obama mainly advocated was a new politics in which people and not special interests would have a greater say. Obamas focus on individual narratives, the praise of America and Americans or the bipartisan approach was more consensual and therefore more difficult to oppose for his rivals. As John McWorther pointed out, Obama followed the tendency Elvin T. Lim delineated in todays political discourse: he won the Democratic nomination with ethos and pathos.110 Unlike arguments, ethos and pathos are largely non falsifiable and could not be deliberated on.111 As far as substance is concerned, Obamas speeches follow the anti-intellectual trend that Lim defined and characterized. What made him different, apart from the special focus on praising America, was the style he developed.

108. Obama had developed the idea in his Last Week Speech (Canton, October 27, 2008): We dont need bigger or smaller government. We need better government. While the question of size is highly ideological as it involves the extent of the states intervention in the economy and society, the question of efficacy is highly consensual and enables Obama to skillfully evade the question of size. Using the comparative form and the keyword government three times gives the (deceiving) illusion that there is topical unity. For more on the shift between the November Victory Speech and the Inaugural Address, see Michael NOVAK, Studying Obamas Rhetoric, January 20, 2009. 109. Obama opposed the war in Iraq because it was a dumb war (Chicago, October 2, 2002); the adjective dumb was used four times in that speech. 110. [Hillary Clinton] has lost the Democratic nomination to Barack Obama, who first electrified the electorate with touching autobiography and comfort-food proclamations about hope and unity--that is, with ethos and pathos. John McWORTHER, A Rhetorical Question, First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life, Issue 186, October 2008, p.45ff. 111. Elvin T. Lim, op. cit., p.55.

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1.4. The flourishing rhetorical imagery and characteristic stylistic devices

Obamas special way with words has been the focus of many a journalist, linguist or political specialist. Charlotte Higgins deemed Obama the new Cicero, insisting on his frequent use of the tricolon,112 one of Ciceros best known techniques. The use of the tricolon can be either microstructural or macrostructural in Obamas discourse. When the tricolon is found at the microstructural level, it gives a regular balance to the sentence as the three parts are usually of the same length. Besides, it is often located at the end of the sentence as is often the case with the expression: if there are people who are willing to work for it, and fight for it, and believe in it.113 This example can be found with variations in a number of Obamas speeches. They are usually located at the end of a sentence,114 except in the Final Primary Night Speech. The third element makes the list unequivocal. The three-part list can also be found at the beginning of a sentence, in hypothetical contexts to build up suspense until Obama delivers the apodosis which is very short in contrast and hence creates a contrast in the rhythm of the sentence as in:
If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.115

The tricolon can also be found at the macrostructural level to structure a paragraph and can be combined with anaphora as in the previous example. Here is the introduction to the Iowa Caucus Night Speech:
You know, they said this day would never come. They said our sights were set too high. They said this country was too divided, too disillusioned to ever come together around a common purpose. 116

112. Max Atkinson, a specialist in public speaking, listed about thirty three-part lists in Obamas Inaugural Speech, one every thirty seconds. 113 Kentucky Oregon Night Speech (Des Moines, May 20, 2008). 114. If we're willing to work for it and fight for it. in Our Moment is Now (Des Moines, December 27, 2007); if we have the courage to reach for it, and to work for it, and to fight for it. Iowa Caucus Night Speech (Des Moines, January 3, 2008); No dream is beyond our grasp if we reach for it, and fight for it, and work for it. Potomac Primary Night Speech (Madison, February 12, 2008); if you are willing to vote for me, if you are willing to stand with me, if you're willing to caucus for me Wisconsin Primary Night Speech (Houston, February 19, 2008); So I'm asking you to march with me, and work with me, and fight with me. Speech to the AFL-CIO (Philadelphia, April 2, 2008); if we are willing to work for it, and fight for it, and believe in it Final Primary Night Speech (St Paul, June 3, 2008). 115. Introduction to the Election Night Victory Speech (Chicago, November 4, 2008).

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The three-part list conveys a regular rhythm but also anticipates on the last idea as the adverb too which expresses excess is often associated with an infinitive clause which specifies why there is an excess. The steady rhythm is reinforced by the combination with anaphora. Pierre Varrod in Les trois leviers rhtoriques dObama117 and Malcolm Kushner, author of Public Speaking for Dummies, insisted on Obamas use of contrasts, In Iowa he uses contrasting opposites; that goes back to the ancient Greeks.118 Contrasts are a predominant characteristic of Obamas speeches; Varrod listed over thirty examples of contrasting opposites in the fairly short Inaugural Address.119 Contrasts can be articulated with the conjunction but or simply with a comma (orally a pause). Using contrasts allows the speaker to delay the moment before developing the idea, it generates an expectation for the audience. Pierre Varrod suggested that contrasts enable the audience to anticipate on what is, once they know what is not. It puts the audience in a situation in which they follow the speakers thought process, as was the case in the oft-repeated expression: we have never been a collection of Red States and Blue States: we are, and always will be, the United States of America.120 These techniques are given even more weight when they are combined, as in:
Why else would he define middle-class as someone making under $5 million a year? How else could he propose hundreds of billions in tax breaks for big corporations and oil companies, but not one penny of tax relief to more than 100 million Americans? Our government should work for us, not against us. It should help us, not hurt us. It should ensure opportunity not just for those with the most money and influence, but for every American who's willing to work.121

Those two extracts are taken from the same speech and illustrate two different ways of combining the three-part list and contrast: either contrasting the third element of the list or presenting three successive contrasting opposites. These examples are in fact not only combinations of contrasts and three-part lists, they are also combined with rhetorical
116. The tricolon actually gives way to another tricolon: But on this January night - at this defining moment in history - you have done what the cynics said we couldn't do. You have done what the state of New Hampshire can do in five days. You have done what America can do in this new year 2008. 117. Pierre VARROD, Les trois leviers rhtoriques dObama, ESPRIT, May 2009. 118. Malcolm KUSHNER, quoted in Jennie YABROFF, The Mother and the Orator, Newsweek, January 10, 2008. 119. Pierre VARROD, op. cit. 120. Election Night Victory Speech (Chicago, November 4, 2008). The opposition between Red and Blue States and the United States of America was initially used in Obamas 2004 Keynote Address and was a recurrent line in the 2008 campaign. 121. The American Promise (Denver, August 28, 2008).

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questions and hyperbole (contrast between hundreds of billions and not one penny), lexical contrasts (those vs. every) and of course phonological emphasis with a contrastive stress on the pair of words that are opposed (for vs. against ; help vs. hurt). Obamas mastery of language is characterized by the huge number of stylistic devices he uses and combines, each time with an effective purpose. They are indeed taken up by the media as sound bites. When Obama uses antonomasis by referring to Martin Luther King as a young preacher from Georgia122, he can do so because he knows that his audience will understand who he has in mind. The use of such device is possible because the audience can understand the reference. It is based on common, shared knowledge. When he uses polyptoton in his Acceptance Speech, it is to criticize John McCains program and what he is supposedly really driving at: The Ownership society but what it really means is that youre on your own.123 It is the same with paronomasis, I dont know about you but I am not ready to take a ten percent chance on change124 or syllepsis, I left [Harvard] with a degree and a lifetime of debt.125 Obamas snapping remarks often made the audience laugh; humor, although it is not a predominant feature, was used effectively by Obama. Obama sometimes adds a lighter tone to his speeches, which was usually a way of sharing something with his audience, a common experience of the debts to pay or the frustration caused by the 2000 phony election.126 Such remarks can be found mostly in speeches delivered in front of partisan audiences (DNC Conventions or Jefferson Jackson Dinners127) and illustrate the closer proximity Obama can establish with his audience. But establishing a direct connection with the audience was not the only purpose of the devices Obama mainly used. Max Atkinson insists on some specific rhetorical devices being used as claptraps, "using contrasts is a real winner. Research shows 33% of the applause a good speech gets is when a contrast is used.128 According to Max Atkinson, contrasts, threepart lists as well as a combination of both prove effective claptraps, hence telling the audience
122. The American Promise (Denver, August 28, 2008). 123. The sentence was first used at the AP Luncheon on April 2, 2008 against Bush. 124. The American Promise (Denver, August 28, 2008). 125. Turn the Page Speech (San Diego, April 28, 2007). 126. During his 2004 Keynote Address while he was praising the American democracy, Obama unexpectedly referred to the 2000 election after a significant pause: and that our votes will be counted --- or at least, most of the time. 127. In the Iowa Jefferson Jackson dinner, Obama joked about being the hidden cousin of Dick Cheney: Now, heres the good news the name George W. Bush will not be on the ballot. The name of my cousin Dick Cheney will not be on the ballot. Weve been trying to hide that for a long time. Everybody has a black sheep in the family. (Bettendorf, November 10, 2007). 128. Quoted in Denise WINTERMAN, Want to know how to handle all of these? BBC NEWS Magazine, posted on July 14, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8128271.stm.

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when to applaud.129 Atkinson has been studying claptraps in British political discourse for over two decades. Obamas use of those effective devices shows that he is an expert in political communication. They are not specific to him. And so it goes with the analogy with Cicero. Charlotte Higgins who considered Obama as the new Cicero mentions only one stylistic parallel (the large use of the tricolon) and Christophe De Voogd who wonders in the title of one of his articles if Cicero is Obamas speechwriter never mentions the Roman lawyer in his article.130 For Philippe Rousselot, President of the Socit Internationale des Amis de Cicron, the two are actually rereading Cicero with Obama in mind, rather than the other way round.131 What is sure, nonetheless, is that Obamas brilliant rhetoric contrasts sharply with Bushs style, which had contributed to lower the function to the level of ordinary citizen. Obamas superior rhetoric restores some distance and reinvests the function of politician with a rhetorical grandeur that helps sacralize it. What makes the specificity of Obamas speeches cannot be reduced to his lofty rhetoric and abundant stylistic devices. The outline of Obamas speeches is rooted in classical tradition. Obama offered the vision of a new American epic that would make Americans proud of being Americans and self-confident in the countrys ability to overcome its current ordeals. This was Obamas key purpose and it never varied throughout the campaign. Obama wants to place his rhetoric at a higher level than political agendas. This is also reflected by how Obama treats his direct opponents. Breaking with the usual political practices, Obama offered change in the way he thought political battles should be led. As he said in his Announcement Speech, he had learnt in the Illinois State Senate to disagree without being disagreeable.132 This higher level was also strategic obviously as it kept Obama from being constantly dragged into controversies regarding specific political propositions. Yet, by many other standards, Obama proved more in tune with some prevailing features of American modern political discourse.

129. Max ATKINSON, Rhetoric and applause in Obamas Inaugural Speech as a measure of what the audience liked best, posted on January 21, 2009 on http://maxatkinson.blogspot.com/2009/01/rhetoric-and-applause-inobamas.html. See also Peter BULL, The Microanalysis of Political Communication: Claptrap and Ambiguity (New York: Routledge, 2003), the third chapter focuses on Atkinsons theory of how rhetorical devices are used to call for applause. 130. Christophe DE VOOGD, Cicron: speechwriter dObama?: lloquence revient la Maison Blanche, posted on January 22, 2009, www.nonfiction.fr. 131. Ce nest pas tant Obama qui est dcrypt que Cicron qui est reconstruit. Philippe ROUSSELOT, Marcus Tullius Obama, www.tulliana.eu/document/marcustulliusobama.pdf (01/11). 132. Announcement Speech (Springfield, February 10, 2007).

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2. Obama the modern politician

As was seen in the first part, Obama sought to rise above the fray as his rhetoric suggested. Yet, he could not escape from some of the tendencies that had become most effective to attract voters like the use of pathos and ethos, which had become a characteristic of American political discourse. Another characteristic in which Obama had specialized is storytelling (which is related to pathos) as we will first see in this section. Reagan had proved what an effective tool of persuasion it could be and had inspired other American politicians to make use of stories too. In Obamas speeches, there was a constant movement between the particular and the generic but all tended to reflect and inspire unity. Because America is a nation of immigrants as John F. Kennedy put it, a population officially classified according to race, the need for unity has been all the more necessary and all the more difficult to reach, especially as Republicans have sought to exploit tensions and divisions. After analyzing Obamas use of storytelling, this section will focus on Obamas discursive strategy to forge unity: his redefinition of Americas national identity, his use of personal pronouns and toponyms, his treatment of race and the symbolical summoning up of Lincoln.
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2.1. Obama the storyteller

When I grew up and got into politics, I always felt the main point of my work was to give people a chance to have better stories. 133

Evan Cornog, professor of journalism at Columbia University and Christian Salmon who works at the CNRS, have analyzed the major importance taken by storytelling in political discourse. While Cornog insists on the feature as being a characteristic of every U.S. presidential elections,134 Salmon coined the expressions narrarchy and narrative presidency 135 to account for the prominence it had now reached at the expense of formulating a detailed political agenda. A major component of Obamas speeches consisted in the narratives of average Americans representing the whole society and which reappeared from one speech to another. According to Matt Bai, a New York Times columnist, the use of personal narratives was directly related to the influence of Obamas main consultant, David Axelrod.136 According to Bai,
Mr. Axelrod is an advertising guy. A man who perfected the craft of encapsulating an entire life in 30 seconds, he has a gift for telling personal stories in ways that people can understand. Axelrods essential insight [] is that the modern campaign really isnt about the policy arcana or the candidates record; its about a more visceral, more personal narrative.

The strategy devised by the Obama team was to use the main tools of modern political campaigns. Storytelling had become a predominant feature of American political discourse since Reagan in the early 1980s. The personal narratives were often synthesized in one or two sentences in Obamas speeches and were used as leitmotifs. These prefabricated stories punctuate the campaign and the speaker knows them by heart.

133. Bill CLINTON, My Life (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), p.15. 130. The 2004 election, like all the elections that have come before it , will be defined by the power of stories. Evan CORNOG, The Power and the Story: How the Crafted Presidential Narrative Has Determined Political Success from George Washington to George W. Bush (New York: Penguin, 2004), p.273. 135. Christian SALMON, Storytelling, la machine fabriquer des histoires et formater les esprits (Paris: La Dcouverte, coll.Cahiers libres, 2007), p.124. 136. Matt BAI, In the Clinton-Obama Race, Its the Pollster vs. the Ad Man, The New York Times, March 16, 2008. This analysis was previously developed by Matt Bai on the New York Times blog, The Caucus on March 13, 2008.

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2.1.1. Prefabs based on the personal narratives of anonymous Americans137

Most of the prefabs originated from the stories heard in Iowa where Obama campaigned for months to win the symbolic first caucus and hence gain credibility. The first events organized in Iowa took place on the day he declared his candidacy, February 10, 2007. Obama extensively campaigned there: the Washington Post listed 174 events between February 10, 2007 and January 3, 2008, the day of the Caucus. 138 Obama first introduced personal narratives of average anonymous Americans on December 27, 2007 and this would subsequently become a characteristic feature of his speeches. Those individual narratives aimed to illustrate the problems America was facing. Yet, depending on the precise and specific function they were given in the speech, the series of prefabs could be found toward the beginning of the speech if they were solely used to illustrate Americas problems,139 toward the middle when they were included in the section devoted to John McCain (and sometimes Hillary Clinton)140 and at the end, just before the epilogue if they were used to define hope and Americans dreams.141 Interestingly enough, the section was adapted to the global function it had. Hence, when the race was still particularly close in February and March 2008, it was used to fuel the criticism against John McCain and Hillary Clinton. The examples given on February 19, 2008 served to prepare the elections scheduled in Texas and Ohio two weeks later. Delivered in Texas, the speech included one example located in Ohio, one in Texas and the last one in Wisconsin as it was the day of the primaries in Wisconsin. No mention was made of race in these examples; the special narratives from South Carolina142 (January 26, 2008) were in fact the same ones told in Iowa on December 27, 2007. As little information as possible was given on the person portrayed: a student, a woman a mother, a worker. As the narratives were repeated, details were removed. It was in
137. These personal narratives have been listed in a table, see the Appendix, p.117. 138. http://projects.washingtonpost.com/2008-presidential-candidates/tracker/candidates/barack-obama/ (05/10). 139. Our Moment Is Now (Des Moines, December 27, 2007), Wisconsin Primary Night Speech (Houston, February 19, 2008) and Speech on Health Care (Bristol, June 5, 2008). 140. Texas Primary Night Speech (San Antonio, March 4, 2008), Speech to AFL-CIO (Philadelphia, April 2, 2008) and Final Primary Night Speech (St Paul, June 3, 2008). The section fulfils an illustrative purpose in the Acceptance Speech (Denver, August 28, 2008) but as the speech is longer, it can be found toward the middle of the speech. 141. Iowa Caucus Night Speech (Des Moines, January 3, 2008), Potomac Primary Night Speech (Madison, February 12, 2008) and Wisconsin Primary Night Speech (Houston, February 19, 2008). 142. Theirs are the stories and voices we carry on from South Carolina. [] The Maytag worker who is now competing with his own teenager for a $7-an-hour job at Wal-Mart because the factory he gave his life to shut its doors. South Carolina Primary Speech (Columbia, January 26, 2008).

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particular the case with Obamas most-frequently repeated example. The story of the young student who had to work to help her sick sister was almost invariably included in the section on personal narratives, often as the first or second example given. It was first mentioned on December 27, 2007:
Just two weeks ago, I heard a young woman in Cedar Rapids who told me she only gets three hours of sleep because she works the night shift after a full day of college and still can't afford health care for a sister with cerebral palsy. She spoke not with self-pity but with determination, and wonders why the government isn't doing more to help her afford the education that will allow her to live out her dreams.143

Details were given on when Obama met her. The story was repeated a number of times afterward, mainly until April 2,144 then occasionally (Final Primary Night Speech on June 3, 2008, Speech on Health Care on June 5, 2008 and Acceptance Speech on August 28, 2008). Gradually though, the narrative was deprived of its characteristic details to ease the identification process. The geographical indication was removed as well as the disease of the sister. A student from Cedar Rapids was soon shortened to a student and the person hence became emblematic: a young student was any student, reaching a universal status, becoming a prototypical example. The use of the indefinite article a allows the extraction from the group and lends a metonymic function of representation to the example. There was also an evolution as regards the determiners used to refer to that individual. (1) (2) (3) (4) a young woman in Cedar Rapids (Des Moines, December 27, 2007). the young woman in Cedar Rapids (Des Moines, January 3, 2008) the young woman (Bristol, June 5, 2008). that young student (Denver, August 28, 2008)

Obama gradually shifted from the indefinite article a when he first mentioned that example to the definite article the to stress the anaphoric reference as the woman had been mentioned in previous speeches,145 and finally the deictic that the last time he used the example in his Acceptance Speech (August 28, 2008). The noun phrase was always followed by a relative clause to introduce what the problems of those persons were.

143. Our Moment is Now (Des Moines, December 27, 2007). 144. In the Iowa Caucus Victory Speech (Des Moines, 3 January 2008), the South Carolina Victory Speech (Columbia, January 26, 2008), the Potomac Primary Night Speech (Madison, February 12 2008), the Texas Primary Night Speech (San Antonio, March 4, 2008) ; The Cost of War (Charleston, March 20, 2008) ; the Speech to the AFL-CIO (Philadelphia, April 2, 2008); the Final Primary Night Speech (St Paul, June 3, 2008); the Speech on Health Care (Bristol, June 5, 2008) and the Acceptance Speech (Denver, August 28, 2008). 145. Obama shifts from the indefinite article a to the definite article the, not because he has already introduced the woman in the speech and is now going to say something else about her, but to state exactly the same things but in a later speech.

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The narrative was summarized in one sentence: We're going to finally help folks like the young woman I met who works the night shift after a full day of college and still can't afford medicine for a sister who's ill.146 Obama adds the zero relative clause I met to establish a direct connection with the woman before the restrictive relative clause introduced by who. That additional information was not always included. The restrictive clause introduced by who in this example as well as in the other narratives contributed to define the individuals through the problems they were confronted to. Obama either used the preterit to insist on the bad turn of events that befell them or the simple present to describe their current situation. But he always portrayed them as victims even though the passive form is not always used. Even when they remained the agent of the action and subject of the sentence, their ability to act was reduced to none by the use of the modal auxiliary can or could in the negative form.147 The conservative notion of self-help was undermined because people alone could not overcome their problems no matter how hard they tried. Using the examples of people facing several serious problems was a way to insist on peoples vulnerability to social dysfunctions for which they were not responsible and arouse pity and empathy for them. People are never portrayed as idlers wishing to rely on the State but as individuals suffering from a series of misfortunes with which they could not cope despite their efforts and determination. In the Protestant work ethic as Max Weber defined it, people who did not work were often scorned and labeled as lazy people. Obama focused on the deserving poor as they were called in Victorian England. Instead of a multiplication of narratives, Obama focused on a number of defined narratives which enabled people from different walks of life to identify at least partly with one or another of the narratives. The small number of prefabs used is directly related to the complex stories told: each narrative encompasses a number of wider issues. The student who works the night shifts illustrates the issue of students living standards and the lack of financial help to support underprivileged students having to work to pay for their studies. But the story is also related to Health Care as the student also works to help her sick sister. Another frequently repeated story is that of the Maytag workers who lost their jobs because their factory was relocated overseas and were then competing with their sons for under-paid

146. Speech to the AFL-CIO (Philadelphia, April 2, 2008). 147. There's the young woman I met who works the night shift after a full day of college and still can't afford medicine for a sister who's ill; or the man I met who almost lost his home because he has three children with cystic fibrosis and couldn't pay their health care bills; who still doesn't have health insurance for himself or his wife and lives in fear that a single illness could cost them everything. Speech on Health Care (Bristol, June 5, 2008)

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jobs at the local store. Each problem like industrial relocation here is hence set in a wider perspective, suggesting that each problem is compounding others and that people are all interrelated by the consequences of a de-structured economy. Obama very often focused on family relationships to illustrate the effects of the lack of a reliable and comprehensive health care system or the consequences of industrial relocation. By evoking workers competing with their sons, Obama could insist on the absurdity of the system and its immorality as they stood in sharp contrast with Christian principles. His most-often quoted reference to the Bible was I am my brothers keeper, I am my sisters keeper.148 Obamas individual narratives do not just show how individual Americans are affected by health care problems or the economy, they show how families are affected and metaphorically how the whole social fabric is being unraveled.

2.1.2. The Ashley Baia story149

The Ashley Baia story is not the only one fairly long story150 but it is the longest and it was repeated twice. The Ashley Baia story was told by Barack Obama to close the speech he delivered at Ebenezer Church on January 20, 2008.151 The anecdote was taken up and repeated to close A more perfect union two months later. It is the only story to deal with interracial relationship. The original version is fairly longer than the second one, in which a number of details have been removed. During the previous presidential election, there had been another Ashley story, which according to some had played a key-part in Bushs re-election. Ashley Faulkner was a sixteen-year-old young American who lost her mother in the 9/11 attacks. Her father, an outspoken Republican, took a picture of President Bush hugging his daughter to comfort her
148. Answering Cains question to God: Am I my brothers keeper? (Genesis 4:9). 149. We shall focus here on the structural and symbolical aspects of the story. See 3.1.2.2. The use of hypotyposis p.88 for the stylistic analysis. 150. The other fairly long stories refer to a meeting Obama had unsuccessfully organized in Chicago (Super Tuesday Speech, Chicago, June 3, 2008), the story of a letter sent to him by a little girl, Robyn (Last Week Speech, Canton, October 27, 2008) and the encounter with a woman in South Carolina who chanted Fired up? Ready to go? to welcome him (Final Election Speech, November 3, 2008). Obama refers to a 106-year-old black woman, Ann Dixon Cooper, to assess the progress accomplished by the black community in his Election Night Victory Speech. The reference to Cooper provided a frame to the story of America over the last hundred years. 151. Obama delivered a speech to honor Martin Luther King the day preceding Martin Luther Kings Day (the third Monday of January to celebrate Kings birthday). Ebenezer Church was the church where King was preaching as a minister.

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on May 6, 2004. The photo was soon turned into a TV ad campaign in favor of Bush and was broadcast over 30,000 times in swing states.
The unique, 60-second commercial that Faulkner's photo spawned, "Ashley's Story," blanketed swing states during the final weeks of the election. And in a campaign known for its negative tone [] the commercial, with its heartfelt 9/11 connection, turned out to be an exception: a memorable, motivating, feel-good ad. Exit poll results that indicate "moral values" was a driving force among voters [] help explain the effectiveness of the ad, which showed Bush as a protective, 152 compassionate father figure.

At the same time, Democrats aired an ad featuring a 9/11 victims next-of-kin which appealed to voters' logic about the terrorist attacks, while Ashley's Story appealed to their emotions.153 That is a mistake Obama did not make during his campaign four years later and he chose to conclude two of his main speeches with his own Ashley story. The Ashley Baia story is by far the longest story told by Obama during the campaign. It lasts approximately four minutes. Here is a transcript of the second version:
There is a young, twenty-three year old white woman named Ashley Baia who organized for our campaign in Florence, South Carolina. She had been working to organize a mostly AfricanAmerican community since the beginning of this campaign, and one day she was at a roundtable discussion where everyone went around telling their story and why they were there. And Ashley said that when she was nine years old, her mother got cancer. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care. They had to file for bankruptcy, and that's when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom. She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so Ashley convinced her mother that what she really liked and really wanted to eat more than anything else was mustard and relish sandwiches. Because that was the cheapest way to eat. She did this for a year until her mom got better, and she told everyone at the roundtable that the reason she joined our campaign was so that she could help the millions of other children in the country who want and need to help their parents too. Now Ashley might have made a different choice. Perhaps somebody told her along the way that the source of her mother's problems were blacks who were on welfare and too lazy to work, or Hispanics who were coming into the country illegally. But she didn't. She sought out allies in her fight against injustice. Anyway, Ashley finishes her story and then goes around the room and asks everyone else why they're supporting the campaign. They all have different stories and reasons. Many bring up a specific issue. And finally they come to this elderly black man who's been sitting there quietly the entire time. And Ashley asks him why he's there. And he does not bring up a specific issue. He does not say health care or the economy. He does not say education or the war. He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama. He simply says to everyone in the room, "I am here because of Ashley."154

The episode has in fact two different levels: it consists of a story embedded in another story. Obama tells the story of Ashley Baia, a twenty-three-year-old white woman who
152. Eric BOEHLERT, The TV ad that put Bush over the top, Salon, November 5, 2004, http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2004/11/05/bush_ads/print.html . 153. Eric BOEHLERT, op. cit. 154. A more perfect union (Philadelphia, March 18, 2008).

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organizes Obamas campaign in South Carolina, in a mostly black area and who had gathered Obamas supporters at a roundtable to know what had led them to get involved in the campaign. The intradiegetic level consists of the story Ashley told at the roundtable, saying that when she was nine, her mother fell seriously ill (cancer), and subsequently lost her job and health care. To help her mother save money, Ashley ate relish sandwiches for a year, until her mother got better. Because of the particular construction of Obamas anecdote, the occurrences of speech verbs are fairly numerous and so are complement clauses. Interestingly enough, Ashleys personal story is framed by a speech verb followed by a complement clause, beginning with And Ashley said that when she was nine years old []. and closing with, And she told everyone at the roundtable []. Ashleys story is important because it helps establish who she is, what kind of person she is, that is to say a sort of ordinary heroine. The mention of everyone at the roundtable helps shift back to the metadiegetic level, which corresponds to the roundtable discussion. The story is then told using a number of speech verbs associated to Ashley and an elderly black attending the discussion. It gives the impression that Obama is talking to his audience about something he had directly witnessed although it was not the case.155 Obama is rewriting the anecdote, giving more focus to the two people he considers the most important: Ashley and the elderly black man. The other people present are grouped into the personal pronoun they and are never singled out. Their reasons for supporting the campaign are synthesized in two brief sentences, quickening the pace before arriving at the last person: the elderly black man. But before stating the elderly black mans reason for being there, Obama uses delaying techniques and builds up suspense. He first gives the reasons the old man does not give and which are related to the four main issues developed by Obama in his campaign: education, health care, the war and the economy. And even when he announces the answer, he delays its delivery again by giving details: he simply says to everyone in the room, I am here because of Ashley. Obama impersonates the old man by using direct speech and thus shifting voices by using the pronoun I, which he had never used before while telling this story. At its very end, the story suddenly shifts from he/she/then/there to I/here/now. Ashley and the elderly black man symbolize the beginning of a new era for Obama and they also symbolize his campaign. The elderly black man never gets named. He stands as the anonymous representative of his community, hence fulfilling a symbolical function. This anonymity gives him a generic function. He could almost be any elderly black man. For the
155. This will be discussed more at length in 3.1.2.2. The use of hypotyposis p.88.

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sake of the argument, he cannot be named otherwise he would become a specific old black man. The only details given to portray him are his sex, age and race, 156 which stand in sharp contrast with the physical portrait made of Ashley, a young, twenty-three year old white woman.157 Ashley and the old black man are direct opposites as regards sex, age and race but can see themselves in the face of the other.158 The underlying message conveyed is that Obamas campaign can bring together people who could not be more different, implying that visual differences are superficial and not fundamental. By bringing together people like Ashley and the elderly black man, Obama has already managed to cross bridges; his supporters are representatives of Obamas America. The anecdote is also relevant for the message it sends to white voters. If the elderly black man can speak for a white young girl and not to voice his own interests, then Obama can speak for white voters. This reversed mirror effect (white speaker to black audience vs. black speaker to white audience) raises the question of representation and disconnects it from ethnic and racial considerations. It is a crucial point for Obama who has to convince voters that he can represent them all and that he is not just the candidate of African Americans. Ashley is symbolically rewarded for her commitment by the elderly black mans gratitude and unexpected recognition, just as white voters might be symbolically rewarded for their commitment.

2.1.3. Obamas personal narratives

My story is a quintessentially American story. 159

Although Obama often repeated that the election was not about [him],160 the campaign was particularly centered on him. According to Evan Cornog, Professor of

156. Race is here used according to its American meaning and is therefore particularly relevant when discussing American race relations and as they are represented by politicians. 157. Her physical description actually precedes her name: There is a young, twenty-three year old white woman named Ashley Baia who organizes for our campaign in Florence, South Carolina. She's been working to organize a mostly African-American community since the beginning of this campaign. 158. Earlier in the speech, Obama had pointed at the moral deficit, empathy deficit that characterized American society and which he defined as the inability to recognize ourselves in one another. Speech at Dr Kings Church (Atlanta, January 20, 2008). David A. Frank analyzed the influence of Lvinass philosophy on Obama in The Prophetic Voice and the Face of the Other in Barack Obama's "A More Perfect Union" Address, March 18 2008, Rhetoric & Public Affairs, Vol. 12, 2009. See also 2.2.4.2. A more perfect union p.63. 159. Associated Press Annual Luncheon (Washington D.C., April 14, 2008).

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journalism at Columbia University, "Presidential life stories are the most important tools of persuasion in American political life.161 Obama gained public recognition with the speech he delivered to support John Kerry at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. The speech, entitled The Audacity of Hope, can be seen as the matrix to most of his subsequent campaign speeches. One of the key passages is devoted to Obamas personal story: his mixed roots, education and professional experience and a self-portrait as the embodiment of the American Dream. The narrative was often used during the presidential campaign but Obama also included the stories of his relatives. It was mostly the case at the end of the primaries and afterward. Like the narratives of anonymous Americans, Obamas own story as well as those of other members of his family enabled him to point out a number of issues: upward social mobility through hard work, single mothers, working women, health care (mother with cancer):
After my grandfather served in World War II, the GI Bill gave him a chance to go to college, and the government gave them a chance to buy a home. They moved West, worked hard at different jobs, and were able to provide my mother with a decent education, to help raise me, and to save enough to retire.162

The narratives were often given in the same order, following the generational succession: grandparents, then parents and finally his own story, sometimes evoking his own daughters. Obamas stories stood as a case for still believing in the American Dream, contrasting sharply with George Bushs personal story of the political dynasty. To emphasize the contrast, Obama often declared that he was not born into a lot of money.163 Obamas personal stories were always related to a sense of progress made possible through the years by personal hard work and perseverance but also by political action and/or assistance (food stamps for his mother,

160. The expression was used in several speeches in April 28, 2007, before at the California Democratic Convention and afterward, in the Final Primary Night Speech. This expression can be found in Obamas autobiography. After being congratulated by a friend shortly after he delivered his first speech, Obama told her that he would never again make a speech because it had been pointless, pretty words dont make things change and it had just made [him] feel important. But his friend urged him to continue because it [was] just not about him. It was about people who needed his help. Barack OBAMA, Dreams from My Father, (New York City: Three Rivers Press, 2004, 2nd edn), pp.108-109. 161. Evan CORNOG, op. cit., p.5. 162. Reclaiming the American Dream (Bettendorf, November 7, 2007). The stories of his relatives can be found in A more perfect union (March 18, 2008), the Indiana Jefferson Jackson Dinner (Indianapolis, May 4, 2008), The America We Love (Independence, June 30, 2008) and the American Promise or Acceptance Speech (Denver, August 28, 2008). The references to his origins are sometimes reduced to his parents and his mixed origins, as in the Iowa Caucus Night Speech (Des Moines, January 3, 2008), the Potomac Primary Night Speech (Madison, February 12, 2008), the Wisconsin Primary Night Speech (Houston, February 19, 2008) and the Speech on Education (Dayton, September 9, 2008). 163. Associated Press Luncheon (Washington D.C., April 28, 2008). See also, I was not born into money or status. Potomac Primary Night (Madison, February 12, 2008).

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the GI Bill and the FHA loan164 for his grandfather). Unlike the narratives of anonymous Americans which were aimed at describing the current social situation, Obamas personal narratives were about the past and always ended as an apology of America and indirectly the American federal government. All the stories about Obama and about his relatives focused on a sense of sacrifice, be it a sacrifice for the country (his grandfather and his participation as a soldier in Europe or for his grandmother as a worker sustaining the war effort), for ones children (Obamas mother who raised her kids alone and Obamas sick father-in-law who had to work hard to support his family) or the community (Obamas mother though no details are provided and Obamas own choice to help organize destitute people in Chicagos South Side). Like the narratives of anonymous Americans, Obamas personal stories revolve around his family, which was presented as a typical, emblematic American family, a metonymy of the wider American community. References to his father were rare and brief. Obama preferred to focus on his American origins because he was raised by his grandparents but also to show that his story was deeply-rooted in American soil. His family also symbolized todays America when he made direct connections between todays individual Americans with members of his family: drawing parallels between the young Americans who are in Iraq with his grandfathers participation in Pattons army, between a young woman who works hard and his mothers experience as a single mom and between women wishing to start business and his grandmother.165 The stories of his relatives were not always told in the same way but they always focused on what they did (predominance of action verbs), never what they thought. According to the speech in which they were included, Obama was more or less concise and insisted on different details. The stories were the same but adapted to make a particular point. In A more perfect union, he mentioned the color of every member of his family. At the Indiana Jefferson Jackson Dinner, which is a Democratic event, he emphasized the part played by the federal government in helping his family make progress (This is a country that repeated several times). The stories were basically the same but were much more detailed in the speeches devoted to praising America and American values.166 Obamas own story was indeed used to stress Americas exceptionalism as he declared emphatically and
164. The measure, aimed at helping people buy a home, was introduced at the time of the New Deal. 165. The Acceptance Speech (Denver, August 28, 2008). 166. See Reclaiming the American Dream (Bettendorf, November 7, 2007) and The America We Love (or Speech on Patriotism, Independence, June 30, 2008).

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hyperbolically, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.167 Obama sought to present his story as a quintessentially American one, with the upward mobility as in Horatio Algers typical rags-to-riches stories. Perhaps to counter attacks on his lack of patriotism and on his being a true American, Obama rewrote the familys story into a typically American myth with the move westward, the hard work and the progress made despite the odds and circumstances. His relatives were depicted as everyday heroes.168 His grandmothers prejudices against blacks were only mentioned in A more perfect union when he had to dent the clear-cut image he had previously given of her, insisting on her bias against young black men and her stereotypes. It was the first time Obama mentioned what his grandmother thought and uttered instead of solely focusing on what she did. Christian Salmon defined Obamas story as a global hero whose story was embedded in American history:
David Axelrod has built a true legend: that of a global man in a global world. He staged the journey of the hero: from Hawaii, through Djakarta, Los Angeles, Chicago to Washington. It is also a journey through time, punctuated by references to Abraham Lincoln or Martin Luther King which make him part of American history.169

Thanks to his journey through space and time and his biracial roots, Obama can bridge gaps between races, places, times and embody unity, hence giving more weight to his call for national unity. Precisely because Obama is a metaphor of Americas core values and notion of progress, he helped rebuild and revive Americas fundamental beliefs,170 which explains why his personal story as well as that of his family were given such focus in his speeches. Yet,
167. A more perfect union (Philadelphia, March 18, 2008). The declaration echoes one he had made in The Audacity of Hope (July 27, 2004). Obama said on January 3, 2008 that his story could only happen in the United States of America. 168. Indeed, Obama defines his relatives as being his heroes in his Acceptance Speech (Denver, August 28, 2008). 169. David Axelrod, son conseiller a cr une vritable lgende: celle dun homme global lre de la globalisation. Il a mis en scne le voyage du hros : Hawa, Djakarta, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington Cest aussi un voyage dans le temps, jalonn par les rfrences Abraham Lincoln ou Martin Luther King qui linscrivent dans lhistoire amricaine. Interview of Christian Salmon to Sophie BOURDAIS, Obama, cest lart du storytelling port son incandescence, Tlrama, posted on November 21, 2008, http://television.telerama.fr/television/christian-salmon-obama-c-est-l-art-du-storytelling-porte-a-sonincandescence,35081.php. 170. Obama tend une Amrique dsoriente un miroir o se recomposent des lments de sens fragments depuis le 11 septembre. Obama constitue un vnement symbolique au sens strict. Cest--dire un vnement non pas fondateur ou historique mais sminal, performatif. [] Obama incarne une nouvelle gnration d'hommes politiques qui mritent d'tre qualifis de smio-politiciens, porteurs de signes, vecteurs de signes... Christian Salmon interviewed by Marjorie PAILLON and Julien LANDFRIED. Posted on June 6, 2008 on www.ilovepolitics.info (www.ilovepolitics.info/avec-obama-c-est-toute-une-amerique-qui-retrouve-ses-reperesperdus-depuis-le-11-septembre_a617.html).

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unity was not only evoked through symbols, it was the whole purpose of his campaign and the main object of his discursive strategy.

2.2. Forging unity through words

2.2.1. Redefining Americas national identity
Out of many we are truly one.171

As we have seen in 1.2.2 Praise of America and Americans, Obama devoted large sections of his speeches to praise America and the American spirit but he also redefined American identity. The use of the BE copula is paramount in such contexts of (either positive or negative) definition and redefinition. The matrix for all his speeches is the keynote address he delivered at the 2004 DNC Convention. It is in that speech that his definition of American identity can first be found:
Now even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters, the negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes. Well, I say to them tonight, there's not a liberal America and a conservative America; there's the United States of America. There's not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America. The pundits - the pundits like to slice and dice our country into red states and blue States: red states for Republicans, blue States for Democrats. But I've got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the blue states, and we don't like federal agents poking around in our libraries in the red states. We coach little league in the blue states and, yes, we've got some gay friends in the red states. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq, and there are patriots who supported the war in Iraq. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.172

Obama rejected the divisions as being un-American, This is not America. This is not who we are.173 To establish this sense of unity, Obama insisted on a rhetoric of unity, by combining the verb to share, the adjective common, the adverb together or the quantifier all which abolishes all differences. It was the case in particular in the Announcement Speech
171. The sentence was first used in The Audacity of Hope (Boston, July 27, 2004) and again in the 2008 campaign, generally in the epilogue: South Carolina Primary Night Speech (Columbia, January 26, 2008), Potomac Primary Night Speech (Madison, February 12, 2008), A more perfect union (Philadelphia, March 18, 2008) and in The American Promise(Denver, August 28, 2008). 172. The Audacity of Hope (Boston, July 27, 2004). 173. A New Beginning (Chicago, October 2, 2007).

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(February 10, 2007) in which Barack Obama declared that he would be running for President. It was also the case in the speech in which Obama sought to redefine the American Dream174 and in the speech delivered after the first highly symbolical victory in the Iowa caucus. Obama offered a consensual definition of what bound Americans together, the American Dream was redefined as being not just an individual pursuit but a collective pursuit: Because in this country, that dream is worth fighting for - not just for ourselves, but for each other.175 In the epilogue, Obama also insisted on collective responsibility as being the essence of American identity,
America is the sum of our dreams. And what binds us together, what makes us one American family,176 is that we stand up and fight for each other's dreams, that we reaffirm that fundamental belief - I am my brother's keeper, I am my sister's keeper - through our politics, our policies, and in our daily lives.177

Americans are interconnected and depend on one another as in one huge family: fight for each others dreams and I am my brothers keeper, I am my sisters keeper. Redefining American identity as being an essentially collective enterprise178 enabled Obama to redefine the American Dream along progressive lines and assert that the values people label with the L-word are actually American values.179 This allowed Obama to include episodes of workers collective action as being fundamentally American, while they were seen by conservatives as socialist anti-American actions.180 I is only used and defined in its interrelation with others. Obama insists on reciprocal responsibility with the use of the compound pronoun each other and the genitive used in a sentence with generic meaning, 181 I am my brothers keeper, which implies that he is my keeper. Obamas definition of American identity and as a corollary of American patriotism is based on core values that are moral and consensual, not partisan. One of Obamas most
174. Reclaiming the American Dream (Bettendorf, November 7, 2007). 175. Reclaiming the American Dream (Bettendorf, November 7, 2007). See p.24 for the analysis of the contrast between ourselves and each other. 176. The expression is used in The American Promise (or Acceptance Speech): It is that promise that's always set this country apart, that through hard work and sacrifice each of us can pursue our individual dreams, but still come together as one American family, to ensure that the next generation can pursue their dreams, as well. 177. Reclaiming the American Dream (Bettendorf, November 7, 2007). 178. According to Gary Wills, a US journalist and historian, this reflects an approach which is typical of the Black Church. Gary WILLS, Two Speeches On Race, The New York Review of Books, Vol.55, No.7, May 1, 2008. For more on this, see 3.1.3. Looking at the world through the prism of Black Church values p.89. 179. George LAKOFF in David WINER, Obama as told by George Lakoff, The Huffington Post, posted on February 27, 2008 on http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-winer/obama-as-told-by-george-l_b_88772.html. 180. It was the call of workers who organized. New Hampshire Speech (Nashua, January 8, 2008). It's what sent my grandfather's generation to beachheads in Normandy, and women to Seneca Falls, and workers to picket lines and factory fences. Kentucky Oregon Night Speech (Des Moines, May 20, 2008) 181. The pronoun I here has a generic meaning and represents anyone.

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frequent sentences to define Americans was: We are one nation, all of us proud, all of us patriots.182 This is another way to define Americans, using the copula BE to equate the plural we to the singular one nation, which symbolizes unity. Moving beyond the question of patriotism used by the Republicans to define who is and who is not American, Obama delineated a definition of the nation that is closer to the French Republican definition than the traditional American one.183

2.2.2. Use of the personal pronoun we (and possessive determiner our)

2.2.2.1. Determining who we refers to
I believe in the power of the American people to be the real agents of change in this country.184

Among the other discursive strategies to create unity through words is the use of the personal pronoun we. As Vanessa Beasley points out, the use of the personal pronoun we is directly connected with the performative function of creating a sense of national unity: For there to be an American nation, or an American we, or even an American presidency at all, U.S. presidents must find ways of breathing life into the otherwise abstract notion of American political community.185 This oracle effect as Bourdieu defines it186 is given special prominence in Obamas speeches because of the political strategy associated to it.

182. Last Week Speech (Canton, October 27, 2007) and Final Campaign Speech (Manassas, November 3, 2008). The expression one nation was taken up in many other speeches. 183. The idea is further developed in 2.2.4.1. References to race prior to A more perfect union p.60. 184. Our Moment is Now (Des Moines, December 27, 2007). This partly echoes in substance John F. Kennedys address to Americans: Dont ask what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. (Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961) 185. Vanessa BEASLEY, You the people: American national identity in presidential rhetoric (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2004), p.8, quoted in Ryan Lee TETEN, op. cit., p.674. As for Walter Fischer, he explains that the presidents efforts to go public are a way to promote the idea of the American people to the American people. Walter FISCHER, Rhetorical Fiction and the Presidency, Quarterly Journal of Speech, Vol.66, April 1980, p.120. 186. Leffet doracle est un de ces phnomnes que nous avons lillusion de comprendre trop vite [] et nous ne savons pas le reconnatre dans lensemble des situations dans lesquelles quelquun parle au nom de quelque chose quil fait exister par son discours mme. [...] Leffet doracle, cest lexploitation de la transcendance du groupe par rapport lindividu singulier opre par un individu qui effectivement est dune certaine faon le groupe. Pierre BOURDIEU, Langage et pouvoir symbolique (Paris : Seuil Essais, 2001), pp.269-270.

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George Lakoff noted that Obamas speeches were characterized by we, we, we while Hillary Clintons speeches focused on I, I, I. 187 In Obamas speeches, people were seen as agents, embedded in historys journey.188 While in Hillary Clintons speeches, she defined herself as the solution to the crisis; with Obama, we represent the solution because it depended upon the choices that the American people made, The American experiment has worked in large part because we guided the markets invisible hand with a higher principle.189 Because Obama sees people as the real agents of change, he often associated action verbs with the pronoun we. The verb was in fact often combined with the modal auxiliary will or can to refer to what would be done after the election was over:
We can bring doctors and patients, workers and businesses, Democrats and Republicans together; and we can tell the drug and insurance industry that while they'll get a seat at the table, they don't get to buy every chair. [] And when I am President, we will end this war in Iraq and bring our troops home, we will finish the job against al Qaeda in Afghanistan, we will care for our veterans [].190

Except in the speeches delivered in front of Democrats, as in the Jefferson Jackson Dinners191 or in front of exclusively African American audiences as was the case on January 20, 2008 when Obama was invited to speak in Martin Luther Kings Church, Obama exclusively used an all-inclusive we, reaching to Republicans and Independents alike.192 In fact, even in the specifically homogenous audiences mentioned, Obama shifted between an exclusive we referring to African Americans or Democrats and an inclusive we, whose occurrences were more frequent than the exclusive we. Obamas inclusive we here clearly encompasses groups of people opposing each other. This shows that even in front of specific audiences he feels a part of, Obama sought to reach out to all Americans.

187. Rhetoric: From Aristotle to Obama (Yes We Can) http://motherpie.typad.com/motherpie/2008/rhetoricfrom-a.html. 188. John M. MURPHY, Political Economy and Rhetorical Matter, Rhetoric and Public Affairs, Vol.12, No.2, 2009, p.303 ff. 189. Renewing the American Economy (New York, March 27, 2008). Obama gave that speech in Cooper Union, where Lincoln had delivered his anti-slavery oration in 1860. For many, it was thanks to that speech that Lincoln had been elected. 190. New Hampshire Primary Speech (Nashua, January 8, 2008). 191. In Iowa (Des Moines, November 10, 2007), Virginia (Richmond, February 9, 2008) and Indiana (Indianapolis, May 4, 2008). 192. In his first Inaugural Address, Lincoln, who was often seen as a reference by Obama, chose a different strategy to address his countrymen. He explicitly used the personal pronoun you to refer to the Southerners, In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. The context was obviously widely different as the secession was well under way. Jefferson Davis had been inaugurated President of the Confederation two weeks before Lincoln was sworn in as President of the United States. The use of the pronoun we in the speech clearly implied the existence of two opposite sides, We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. (March 4, 1861).

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In The Audacity of Hope, Obama uses the pronoun we in a special way: We worship an awesome God in the blue states, and we dont like federal agents poking around in our libraries in the red states. The identification is fairly complex. Obama is explicitly referring to two different and opposed sections of the society. It is therefore surprising that Obama used the personal pronoun we to refer to both groups instead of the partisan opposition between we (Democrats) and they (Republicans). By using we in this exclusive sense, Obama can discursively (and symbolically) join both groups. We here could actually be replaced by some of us. It is more effective however to use the personal pronoun we than the expression some of us as it expresses a fragmentation, a separation with the extraction from the group. The pronoun we is used to represent Americans and enabled Obama to identify with both Democrats and Republicans.

2.2.2.2. Opposing we to they

Obama frequently and harshly criticized the lobbyists and special interests in Washington who control America. In his analysis of Obamas stump speech, Gerald R. Schuster from the University of Pittsburgh explained that it was important for Obama to emphasize the argument for separation, stating that he [was] not one of them.193
I have done more than any other candidate in this race to take on lobbyists and won. They have not funded my campaign, they will not get a job in my White House, and they will not drown out the voices of the American people when I am President. 194

For Obama, lobbyists and special interests are seen as threats to democratic principles. They are anti-democratic forces and hold real power in Washington, favoring their own interests at the expense of the public good. Although the word is never mentioned, a form of corruption, or at least collusion, is here pointed at. Obamas discourse is anti-elitist in nature. To some extent, Obamas discourse resonates with Jacksonian echoes, defending the common man against special interests. Obama also used the personal pronoun they to refer to the cynics, the skeptics, and those who are preparing to divide us195 who were never identified by name and they

193. Alec MacGILLIS and Gerald R. SHUSTER, Anatomy of a Stump Speech, The Washington Post, 26 February 2008. 194. Iowa Jefferson Jackson Dinner (Des Moines, November 10, 2007). 195. The Audacity of Hope (July 27, 2004). It was taken up with variations during the 2008 campaign.

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were never clearly defined. The most famous use of the pronoun they by Obama was in the opening lines of the Iowa Caucus Night Speech:
You know, they said this day would never come. They said our sights were set too high. They said this country was too divided, too disillusioned to ever come together around a common purpose.

They is later specified as representing the skeptics, those who believe that race was still a barrier in America although this is never said explicitly. By remaining a vague, ambiguous reference, it is open to various interpretations without pointing at anyone in particular. 196 The racial reference is stronger for not being explicit. Does our refer to Democrats (or people) supporting him? African Americans? The Obama campaign team? Though this possessive determiner is clearly exclusive, it is immediately followed by an inclusive reference (country [coming] together) so that anyone in the audience can feel directly addressed to. Sometimes, the pronoun they was not even pronounced but was strongly implied when Obama used the passive form as in, Were divided into Red States and Blue States, and told always to point the finger at somebody else the other party, or gay people, or immigrants.197 Obama can not mention the agent because it is not necessary. Anyone knows who he is referring to. Then, it is more subtle and it enabled him to focus on the object of his criticism: the attitude of pointing at scapegoats, not the people responsible for fostering such attitude. To mention the agent would have put emphasis on it (end-focus).

2.2.2.3. Shifting back and forth between we and I

As most candidates and Presidents in office, Obama often shifted between we and I. It was clearly the case in Obamas stump speech as he started with the pronoun I to introduce himself and the reasons why he was running for president and then shifted to the all-inclusive we to reach out to his audience and unite to them, then back again to the pronoun I to respond to criticisms leveled at him and to tell his personal story. He concluded by urging his listeners to join him and win together. The shifts correspond to the various parts of Obamas speeches which alternate between the personal perspective (personal story and

196. For more on this deliberate ambiguity, see n.215 p.63. 197. Turn the page speech, (San Diego, April 27, 2007).

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political commitment) and a larger perspective (account of the problems faced by Americans, praise of America and Americans). As Ryan Lee Teten pointed out in his analysis of George W. Bushs 2000 Inaugural Address, the President shifts from I to we to identify himself as one of the people and also identify himself as the leader of the country.198 The pronoun I enabled Obama to present what his actions as President of the United States of America would be. Indeed, the pronoun I was often used in combination with the modal auxiliary will but hardly ever with a performative verb. Though not yet elected, the shifts between the pronouns we and I allowed Obama to appear as one of them and also as their potential and prospective leader. The fact that Obama chose the pronoun I instead of an exclusive we to refer to his Administration might suggest that he intended to claim full responsibility for the tasks he would be in charge of. Obama used the pronoun you to put special emphasis on Americans and dissociate them from him:
But this campaign that were running is not about me, it's about you, it's about your hopes, and your dreams, and what you will do. Because there are few obstacles that can withstand the power of millions of voices calling for change. 199

As was pointed out earlier, Obama sees people as the real agents of change and that is why he used an action verb combined with the modal auxiliary will to insist on the part they would have to play after the election, not just for the election. Obama somehow echoed Kennedys famous quote in his Inaugural Address on January 20, 1961: Dont ask what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.200 Generally, presidential candidates use the pronoun I to set themselves forward. It was the case in Hillary Clintons speeches as it had formerly been the case in Reagans speeches when he was campaigning. As we pointed out in 1.2.1.2, Hillary Clinton often focused on the first personal pronoun. When she did use the pronoun we, it was an inclusive we which she associated with state verbs, for example we know. With action verbs, she used more generally an exclusive we to refer to her team or later her Administration. You referred to the voters who were not considered as agents of change by Clinton:

198. Ryan Lee TETEN, op. cit., pp.669. 199. Turn the Page Speech (San Diego, April 28, 2007). 200. For more parallels between John Kennedy and Barack Obama, see Franck RICH, Ask Not What J.F.K. Can Do for Obama, The New York Times, op-ed, February 3, 2008.

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We came back tonight because you spoke loudly and clearly. You want this campaign to be about you because there is so much at stake for our country.201

When she associates you with an action verb, it is clearly with the election in mind, not about what will be done after the election. Obama and Clinton offered different approaches and their discursive strategies reflected how they saw themselves and how they saw Americans in the campaign and after the campaign. Obamas notion of unity was predominant and was delineated into a cohesive discursive strategy.

2.2.3. The functions of the toponyms

Barack Obama used the expression the United States of America, that is to say the full institutional name of the country, especially at the beginning of the campaign and then in speeches delivered at key-moments: in the Final Primary Speech, which marked the beginning of the campaign against McCain, in the Acceptance Speech, in which Obama officially accepted to be the Democrats candidate in November 2008 as well as in the speeches focusing on one of the major topics (health care and education). It was used each time Obama explained why he had decided to run for President. The words President was hence often coalesced with the expression the United States of America.202 It lent more solemnity to the function. It is interesting to note that Obama never used the acronym. To repeat the entire name is a way to emphasize the adjective united which is not reduced to an initial letter and bore a contrastive stress when it was opposed to Red States and Blue States. In addition to focusing on the notion of unity, it was also a way to sacralize the country by not reducing it to a combination of initial letters. Luc Benot la Guillaume explains that the reference America has become more frequent in American presidential discourse since the mid-20th century because it echoes the name of the continent and recalls the countrys universalist, if not imperialistic, calling.203 It is indeed more frequent in Obamas speeches than the United States. Obama generally used the United States in association with the title: president of the United States of America.

201. Hillary Clinton, New Hampshire Primary Night Speech (January 8, 2008). 202. The full name was hardly ever used by Senator McCain during his campaign. 203. Luc BENOT LA GUILLAUME, Le discours dinvestiture des prsidents amricains ou les paradoxes de lloge (Paris : Harmattan, 2003), p.76.

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When he had to mention the country, he used either our country, this country or America. Apart from these imperialistic undertones, America can more easily refer to the nation than the institutional designation of the United States of America can. The fact that it is possible to use America as a metonymy for Americans reinforces the reference to the American nation. Obama sometimes used that metonymy: America, our moment is now.204 For Georgeta Cisleru, such a use of a countrys name operates as a semantic integrator205 which permits to represent the nation as a unitary entity. It therefore helps reinforce the idea of unity. Obamas speeches sought to overcome, at least with words, partisan divisions. Through his discursive strategies, he sought to stand at a superior level. That was also the case with racial divisions but in that case, it was even more delicate.

2.2.4. A post-racial discourse?

There's not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America.206

As America is a country where official censuses classify people according to racial criteria, the representation of the country as a divided, fragmented nation prevails even at the institutional level and has therefore a paramount influence on how Americans view their country. If Obama presented America as a united country, it was not just to defend a political vision but to convince voters that, although he belonged to a visible ethnic minority, he could represent them all, the identification was possible. For Obama, the stakes of presenting a unitary vision of the country were hence also very personal.

204. Iowa Jefferson Jackson Dinner (Des Moines, November 10, 2007). It was also used in the speech against the war in Iraq (October 2, 2007) and in The Acceptance Speech (Denver, August 28, 2008). The metonymy was also used to introduce the epilogue of The Audacity of Hope in 2004: America, tonight, if you feel the same energy that I do, if you feel the same passion that I do [] then I have no doubt that all across the country, from Florida to Oregon, from Washington to Maine, the people will rise up in November, and John Kerry will be sworn in as president. 205. Georgeta CISLARU, Le nom de pays comme outil de reprsentation sociale, MOTS, Les langages du politique, March 2008, p.53. 206. The Audacity of Hope (Boston, July 27, 2004).

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2.2.4.1. References to race prior to A more perfect union

Obamas positioning as regards race relations in America was made more delicate by the fact that his family had not shared the experience of African Americans in the U.S. with the trauma of slavery and segregation. Unlike most blacks in the U.S., he is an African American with a direct connection with both Africa and America. In the speech that gained him public recognition at the 2004 Democratic Convention, he emphasized his bi-racial roots and his experience as a community organizer in the South Side of Chicago, a particularly underprivileged African American area as well as his successful professional career. Obama never mentioned any direct references to color, though. The reference is implicit in the places he mentioned (Kenya, South Side of Chicago). Even when he listed the obstacles that might have hampered his social ascension, the mention of his skin color is strangely missing:
My parents shared not only an improbable love; they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation. They would give me an African name, Barack, or "blessed," believing that in a tolerant America, your name is no barrier to success. They imagined me going to the best schools in the land, even though they weren't rich, because in a generous America - you don't have to be rich to achieve your potential.

The autobiographical lines sound more like the praise of a mythical America, depicted as a magic land than as a realistic account of his life. The uses of the noun faith and the verbs believe and imagine are quite telling. Obama mainly focused on the hope and the common goals, common ideals and common future uniting all Americans, without giving any special focus to the past traumas and present grievances of the African Americans and overlooking white responsibility. The only reference to slavery came at the end of the speech: It's the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs. For McPhail, Obama here romanticizes the historical realities of black suffering and borders on the stereotypical image of the happy darkie of traditional racism.207 In addition, the sentence is one item in a list in which Obama evoked other traumatic experiences (immigrants, soldiers). The epilogue was lyrical with a rhythm heightened by the use of anaphora and the use of alliterations (s, f, r and g in the sentence on slavery). By reducing slavery to a trauma among others, Obama sought to recognize the past and present hardships of all those he was addressing and

207. Marc Lawrence McPHAIL, Obamas Menexenusian Message in David A. FRANK and Mark Lawrence McPHAIL, Barack Obama's Address to the 2004 Democratic National Convention: Trauma, Compromise, Consilience, and the (Im)possibility of Racial Reconciliation, Rhetoric & Public Affairs, Vol.8, No.4, Winter 2005, p.583.

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tone down the specificity of any group.208 It is not surprising therefore that the 2004 speech has not been received in the same way by David A. Frank, a white scholar who considered it as a successful discursive strategy of consilience209 to achieve reconciliation and Lawrence McPhail, a black scholar who considered it revealed an old vision of racelessness influenced by the whites dominant rhetorical tropes: innocence, race neutrality, positive selfpresentation.210 Obama could have a political credibility on the national level only if he rose above his community and addressed and encompassed everyone. Being identified as the candidate of the African Americans would prevent the other communities from identifying with him. Because Obama insisted so much on the common future, it was a necessary corollary for him to redefine the past (and present) as a common and shared experience. This was the strategy delineated for the campaign in 2007-2008:
When I came back from that celebration,211 people tapped me on the back and said, oh, what a wonderful celebration of African-American history that must have been. And I said, no, you don't understand, that wasnt African-American history we were celebrating. That was American history that we were celebrating.212

Obama developed the same approach when addressing the Hispanic community later in the campaign:213
It's about making sure that we have a government that knows that a problem facing any American is a problem facing all Americans. It's about making sure our government knows that when there's a Hispanic girl stuck in a crumbling school who graduates without learning to read or doesn't graduate at all, that isn't just a HispanicAmerican problem, that's an American problem. When Hispanics lose their jobs faster than almost anybody else, or work jobs that pay less, and come with fewer benefits than almost anybody else, that isn't a Hispanic-American problem, that's an American problem. When twelve million people live in hiding in this country and hundreds of thousands of people cross our borders illegally each year, when companies hire undocumented workers instead of legal citizens to avoid paying overtime or to avoid a union, and a nursing mother is torn away from her baby by an

208. Obama conflates these traumas with those of other Americans in a manner that undermines their historical specificity in order to construct a politics of hope. McPHAIL, op. cit., p.582. 209. Consilience is seen as an approach in which disparate members of a composite audience are invited to jump together out of their separate experiences in favor of a common set of values or aspirations. David A. FRANK and Mark Lawrence McPHAIL, op. cit., p.572. 210. McPHAIL, op. cit., p.583. 211. i.e., the 42nd anniversary of the march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, in Selma. On March 7, 1965, peaceful civil rights demonstrators were violently attacked by the police. The aim of the attack was to prevent the marchers from reaching Montgomery, the Alabama state capital. 212. Turn the Page speech (San Diego, April 28, 2007). The section can be found at the end of the speech just before the lyrical outburst of the epilogue. 213. The Latinos had heavily supported H. Clinton during the primaries but gradually shifted to Obama once the primaries were over. Ed HORNICK, Poll: 'Sharp reversal' for Obama with Latino voters ,CNN, July 24, 2008. http://articles.cnn.com/2008-07-24/politics/pew.latino.poll_1_obama-latino-voters-full-poll?_s=PM:POLITICS.

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immigration raid, that is a problem that all of us black, white, and brown must solve as one nation.214

Obama used in both cases contrasts to oppose the general approach (that wasnt AfricanAmerican history we were celebrating or that isn't a Hispanic-American problem) before saying what it was (that was American history, thats an American problem). Obama redefined American history (use of the BE copula) after denying the common assumption and representation (use of the BE copula with the negation). In the speech delivered at the LULAC Convention, the idea was given more weight as it came as a leitmotiv at the end of each sentence (epistrophe). Obama developed the same idea at the South Carolina Primary Night Speech on January 26, 2008 but he also articulated it with a symmetrical approach to blacks and whites as he would do in A more perfect union:
[Were up against] the assumption that African-Americans can't support the white candidate; whites can't support the African-American candidate; blacks and Latinos can't come together. But we are here tonight to say that this is not the America we believe in. I did not travel around this state over the last year and see a white South Carolina or a black South Carolina. I saw South Carolina. I saw crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children. I saw shuttered mills and homes for sale that once belonged to Americans from all walks of life, and men and women of every color and creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under the same proud flag. I saw what America is, and I believe in what this country can be.

By using the verb see, Obama played on the perception which could be visual but also intellectual. The two notions are here combined and intertwined. Obama shared a personal experience (use of I which can here be rightfully reinterpreted as his eye) and offered at the same time his political vision. Interestingly enough, Obama never addressed the question of his own biracial roots directly but always indirectly. When he spoke about race, he did so by referring to the different ethnic communities precisely to say that such classifications were irrelevant and divisive but he skillfully evaded the issue of his own color. Obama was primarily defined in the media as the first major black candidate. The contrast he used to reject the classifications of Americans and promote the color-blind idea of being just Americans had to be applied to him. If there was not a white America and a black America, but the United States of America, then there was not a black candidate and white candidates but just American candidates. The
214. Speech at the LULAC Convention (Washington D.C., July 8, 2008). The section is used at the beginning of the speech to describe the problems the community is facing. It is interesting to note that when Obama is specifically addressing the black community (Speech at Ebenezer Church and at the NAACP Convention), he mainly focused on the issue of responsibility and in particular individual responsibility, hence adopting a conservative approach.

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only, yet indirect reference to the color of his skin is made in the opening lines of the Iowa Caucus Night Speech which he won: They said this day would never come.215 The symbolical victory by a black candidate in a mostly white state made his candidacy credible. The meaning of this day is ambiguous216 even though Obama somehow specified its sense as: for Americans to ever come together. The racial references were only implied and soon swept over by references to unity. Obamas stated ambition was not to become the heir to Martin Luther King as a leader of the black community; he was no activist of the black cause. This explains why Lawrence McPhail had been more enthused by the activists tone of Al Sharpton at the 2004 Democratic Convention than by Obamas conciliatory tone.217 By rejecting racial classifications, Obama offered a post-racial view of the country and set common goals by stressing Americans common ideals. Although Obama tried as best he could to evade the issue of race, he declared in A more perfect union (March 18, 2008) that race was an issue we cannot ignore. It was in fact an issue he could no longer evade because of the rising controversy over his former pastors anti-American and racist comments.

2.2.4.2. A more perfect union

The very choice of the Constitutional Center in Philadelphia for the delivery of A more perfect union was highly symbolical and suggested that the Constitution would be at the core of the message Obama intended to deliver. Obama would not just be addressing and responding to the controversy aroused by his former pastors incendiary language. The staging reinforced the symbol of the venue with US flags on either side of Obama to operate identification with the nation and announce that this was not a partisan or ordinary campaign speech. The patriotic symbols visually framed the scene. The opening line of the speech consists in a quote from the preamble of the constitution: We the People in order to form a

215. Jon Favreau, Obamas chief speechwriter, explained that the opening sentence deliberately sounded open to interpretation: The first line was simply, 'They said this day would never come', says Favreau. Even when we do speeches to African-American crowds, it's hinted at and it's understood. It's not hammered over the head. Richard WOLFFE, The Mother and the Orator, Newsweek, January 6, 2008. 216. See the analysis made in 2.2.2.2 Opposing we to they p.55. 217. Sharptons speech embodied the very best of the African American tradition of civil rights discourse, oppositional yet inclusive, affirming of fundamental values yet agitating uncompromisingly for their achievement in practice as well as principle. Lawrence McPHAIL, op. cit, p.584. V.P. Franklin warned that Obamas election was only a smokescreen which tended to conceal the prevailing injustices from which African Americans suffered. See V.P. FRANKLIN, Commentary: The Election of Barack Obama The Debt Has Not Been Paid, The Journal of African American History, Vol. 94, 2009.

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more perfect union. The quote is used again to close the speech, hence providing a circular structure that frames the speech lexically. Obama analyzes the Constitution with expertise as he used to teach constitutional law at the University of Chicago. The whole speech is actually a reflection on those very first words of the Constitutions preamble with twelve occurrences of PERFECT (often re-categorized) and ten of the noun union.218 Boyd shows that the speech aims at re-contextualizing the first line from the Constitution. The pronoun we used in this preamble was exclusive and did not include slaves, women, average workers.219 Obama never uses the pronoun we in the section he devotes to analyzing the Constitution but only when he shifts back to the present, using an all-inclusive we then.220 The references to the union also evolve: Obama uses the words our union in the epilogue, hence reclaiming it, making it everyones, without any exclusion. The rhetorical evolution reflects the historical evolution narrated by Obama in the course of the speech. He explains that the Constitution was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished and perfected over the years by generations of citizens. Using the Constitution as a topic is a way to focus on the document, hence reinforcing the staging, but it is also a way to evade mentioning those responsible for its original imperfection221 (frequent use of the passive form in the section devoted to the Constitution). As for Reverend Wright, Obama skillfully balances praise and blame by clearly dissociating the man from his comments. Obama never quotes the controversial statements, one of which defined the USA as the U.S. of KKK-A. He harshly criticizes Wrights remarks but never blames their author directly and as Boyd explained, it creates a focus on the object of criticism [] rather than on the agency.222 Obama uses the expressions the statements of Reverend Wright, the remarks, Reverends Wright comments which were wrong, expressing a profoundly distorted view of this country and worse of all divisive. To justify his association with Wright, Obama recalls his first experience at Trinity Church and the first sermon he heard there, The Audacity of Hope, implying that he disagrees with
218. For an in-depth and brilliant analysis of the speech, see Michael S. BOYD, De-constructing Race and Identity in US Presidential Discourse, ATLANTIS, Journal of the Spanish Association of Anglo-American Studies, Vol.31, No.2, December 2009, pp.75-94. 219. Sacvan BERCOVITCH insisted on this exclusive use of the personal pronoun we: Through the ritual of the jeremiad, the leading patriots recast the Declaration to read all propertied Anglo-Saxon Protestant males are created equal. Quoted in Luc BENOT LA GUILLAUME, op. cit., p.75. Hillary Clinton reflected on the exclusive sense of the pronoun we, Neither Senator Obama nor I nor many of you here were fully included in that vision, but it could and should be. Pennsylvania Primary Night Speech (April 22, 2008). 220. For a more detailed analysis, see Michael S. BOYD, op. cit., p.86. 221. Obama recalled that the original sin of slavery was embedded within it. 222. Michael S. BOYD, op. cit., p.87. As he did with McCain, Obama respects the person but rejects the message.

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Wrights present anger precisely because he agrees with Wrights past call for hope.223 Obama was careful to introduce a contrastive opposite to Reverend Wright by rejecting Geraldine Ferraros statements, hence creating a mirror effect. Ferraro had declared a few days before that Obama was doing so well because he was black. She was a prominent Clinton supporter and had been John Kerrys VP appointee in 2004. Obama adopted the same discursive strategy to reject her statements: attack the message, not the messenger. Although Obama absolutely needed to reject Wrights remarks, he could not disown the man without alienating black voters. Obama makes an account of his relationship with Wright and praises his qualities. Boyd remarks that Obama used the personal pronoun he as a topic to speak favorably of Reverend Wright, relating Wright to him (use of me/my/I)224 with statements such as, He strengthened my faith.. Obama depicted his former pastor using non-defining restrictive relative clauses: a man who. He might have used restrictive relative clauses, saying the man who. Yet, by using the indefinite article, Obama can make him a representative of his community, someone who contains within him the contradictions the good and the bad of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.225 Wright became a metonymical figure for the entire black community.226 Reenacting the mirror effect, Obama then introduces his grandmother with a transition that anticipates on the balanced portrait he would make of her: I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother. He portrays her as a metonymical figure for the white population. Obama used the same discursive strategy as for Wright, with parallel structures: a woman who. Like Wright, his white grandmother contains inner contradictions. Obamas focus on inner, endogenous contradictions is a counter-argument against the conservatives division between Americans and the out-group of anti-Americans.227 In an article published in The Boston Globe, Sacha Issenberg insisted on Obamas speech being an essentially self-referential speech.228 The predominance of the pronoun I (as well as me and the possessive determiner my) reinforces the self-referential quality of
223. Obama used the same intertextual strategy with McCain. See 1.2.1.3. John McCain p.19. 224. Michael S. BOYD, op. cit. p.88. 225. Obama describes Trinity as a mirror socially reflecting the Black community: Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety. For more on the social composition of Black Church congregations, see Mary PATTILLO-McCOY, op. cit., p.768: The Black church [] challenges the popular notion that the black middle class is extensively dissociated from the black poor. 226. This idea is taken up again in the speech with the sentence: I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. 227. In his portrait of Wright, Obama recalls the years he served as a Marine in order to stress his patriotism. 228. Sacha ISSENBERG, Obama Calls for End to U.S. Racial Stalemate, The Boston Globe, March 19, 2008.

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Obamas speech. The mirror effect created by juxtaposing and confronting Wright to his own grandmother puts Obama at the centre of the symmetrical approach, making him the axis (or rather centre) of the symmetry. Obama in fact insists on his close connection with Wright, who is like family and therefore makes the reflection with his grandmother even more relevant. Because Obama is at the centre of the symmetry, he can embody the contradictions of the two communities, and on a wider scale, the contradictions of America: These people are part of me. And they are part of America, this country that I love. The use of the deictics this/these reinforces the self-referential strategy used by Obama. The section devoted to Wright and Obamas grandmother ends with a declaration of patriotism. Lawrence McPhail blamed Obamas 2004 Keynote Address for failing to address the specific problems the black community was confronted to.229 According to Mary E. Clark, reconciliation can only be effective if it involves: First, to address the past as seen by each side; second, to identify common goals for the future; third, to develop concrete projects to meet these goals and begin together to implement them.230 In A more perfect union, Obama recognizes the past and present231 hardships of the black community and calls on to the whites to do the same: In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people. But echoing Wrights urge to self-help, Obama also calls on the blacks own responsibility: For the African-Americans community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming the victims of our past. Obama can only appear impartial if he directly addresses the two communities in their failings (use of parallel structures: In the white community and For the African-American community) but also if he recognizes their specific past and present difficulties. Obama again uses the mirror effect to give voice to the two sides grievances.232 By using this polyphony, Obama recognizes their specific difficulties but also expresses the usually secret stereotypes and
229. [Obamas] lack of discussion of race, except to illustrate the ways in which black people are implicated in racism when expressing the belief that a black youth with a book is acting white, is troubling []: it ignores the structural and historical conditions that gave rise to such attitudes. Lawrence McPHAIL, op. cit., p.583. 230. Mary E.CLARK, In Search Of Human Nature (London: Routledge, 2002), p.368, quoted in David A. FRANK and Mark Lawrence McPHAIL, op. cit., p.583. 231. To insist on how much the past determines the present, Obama quotes Faulkner, The past isnt dead and buried. In fact it isnt even past. 232. Obama had already used that mirror structure previously: Bill Clinton disarmed race for blacks by inviting them to talk about it. Obama disarms race for white people by largely avoiding the topic. When he does talk about race, he makes sure to juxtapose the traumas experienced by nonblacks with those experienced by AfricanAmericans, but without ever equating the two. It was in particular the case in a speech delivered on February 21, 2005 to honor Rep. John Lewis, a former key-leader of the Civil Rights Movement and former chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (NSCC). Jack SHAFER, How Obama Does That Thing He Does, Slate, February 14, 2008.

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anger that are only heard in hush parlors233 and widen mutual misunderstanding. For David A. Frank, Obamas speech has a clear therapeutic purpose, trying to overcome and work through234 past trauma instead of acting it out as is the case in hush harbors.235 Obama considers that episodes like segregation are over while for Wright, such features of white racism against blacks are transhistoric, permanent features or racial relations in the US.236 He never mentions the agents of the discriminations blacks have to suffer. Obama sees the problems as common political problems, hence requiring unity and political solutions. He develops once more the rhetoric of unity that he has developed since he announced his candidacy: use of the adjective common, the adverbs all and together. Unlike The Audacity of Hope, A more perfect union responds to the three requirements Mary E. Clark had defined to make reconciliation effective. To close his speech, Obama uses an anecdote to illustrate his urge for Americans to find that common stake we all have in one another. The anecdote is the one he used to close the speech he had delivered two months before at the Ebenezer Church, it is Ashley Baias story. The story urges people to see themselves in the face of the Other, however different they are. That story of recognition of an elderly black man in a young white woman is, according to David A. Frank, strongly influenced by both Lvinas and by the prophetic voice of MLK,237 although for both Lvinas and King, recognition in the face of the Other is mediated through the image of God. The anecdote which illustrates and calls for pure empathy 238 gives a last, optimistic tone to the speech. Even the two people involved in the anecdote are connected to Obama as they are defined as supporters from South Carolina. That reinforces the self-referential essence of the speech and gives credibility to what he suggests.

233. Hush parlors are places like the barber shop or the Church where people from a community feel free to say exactly what they think, uttering prejudices against the other community they would not generally dare express in public. 234. Obama actually uses the expression in the speech. 235. David A. FRANK, The Prophetic Voice and the Face of the Other in Barack Obamas a More Perfect union Address, March 18, 2008, Rhetoric and Public Affairs, Vol.12, No.2, 2009, p.167ff. 236. David A. FRANK, ibid. 237. One of Lvinass key-ideas: God is found in the face of the other. This echoes an idea developed by King in a sermon he delivered on December 5, 1957, No matter how bad [white Southerners] are, no matter what they do to us, no matter what they said about us, we must still believe that in the most recalcitrant segregationist there is the image of God. For a more detailed analysis, see David A. FRANK, ibid. 238. George LAKOFF, Much More Than Race : What Makes a Great Speech Great, http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryld=4751.

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2.2.4.3. What the tone reveals beyond the message

Interestingly enough, the tone with which he told the story is different from the tone he used when he had told the story in Dr Kings Church two months before. The tone he used this time was in keeping with the general tone of the speech: one of calmness and self-control which contrasts sharply with the turmoil he was facing. The variations of pitch are fairly homogeneous while there are a number of his characteristic, sudden upward intonations along the delivery at Dr Kings Church. It is in fact fairly striking to analyze the differences between the delivery at Dr Kings Church and at the Constitutional Center. A comparison between the two presentations of Ashley Baia shows that Obama maintains a lower, fairly monotonous voice when delivering A more perfect union; the pauses are less frequent and much shorter than the first time he told the story.

Fig.1 Presentation of Ashley Baia at Dr Kings Church (January 20, 2008)239 - PRAAT

239. The blue line indicates the variations of pitch; the yellow line the variations of intensity.

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Fig.2 Presentation of Ashley Baia in A more perfect union (March 18, 2008) - PRAAT

It takes 5.1 for Obama to say Ashley has been working to organize mostly black folks. and 5.2 to say Shes been working to organize a mostly African-American community since the beginning of this campaign. The marked pauses in the speech delivered at Ebenezer Church occurred between each functional unit: between subject and verb, the verb and the causal infinitive clause and between the infinitive verb and its direct object complement while the first significant pause occurs after community in A more perfect union. But the pauses are not enough to account for the longer delivery. A closer analysis of shorter units like has been working and to organize reveals that even those segments are delivered at a significant slower pace at the Ebenezer Church: 0.77 second for has been working but only 0.58 second in A more perfect union (no contraction being made to quicken the pace).240 The slower rhythm is here due to a significant lengthening of the vowels. Danielle Duez, who studied how French politicians in power and in the opposition speak, showed that pauses were symbolic markers of power. They were characteristic of the symbolic, hierarchical distance between those in charge and ordinary citizens.241 In the case of Barack Obama, however, the pauses characterize the black pulpit influence.242 Obamas
240. For to organize, the delivery lasts 0.64 second in the speech given at Dr Kings Church while it only lasts 0.55 second in A more perfect union. 241. Danielle DUEZ, La fonction symbolique des pauses dans la parole de lhomme politique, Faits de langues, Vol.7, No.13, 1999, http://aune.lpl.univ-aix.fr/~fulltext/895.pdf. 242. This will be discussed in 3.2.2.1. The tone of a preacher p.96.

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delivery of the race speech was much less stylistically and ethnically marked: no significant variations or specific pauses.243 The lexical modification from black folks to the AfricanAmerican community reveals a rewriting of the anecdote to fit the wider audience he was addressing, not just black folks but all Americans. As it was intended as a solemn speech, Obama had to use the language of mainstream politics when addressing virtually all Americans. Obamas switching from the black-cent (as linguist John McWorther defines the fact of sounding black244) to a polished American English (which comes from the background he grew up in) has to do with code-switching.245 Professor John Dyson insisted on the specific way Obama sometimes addressed the black community, using signifiyin, which consists in the use of words that have a different meaning for African Americans.246 Using the black-cent and signifyin when addressing black audiences conveyed a sense of belonging, which had to be specifically established given his college education and white upbringing. For Dennis Broder, a staff writer of The Washington Post, A more perfect union was a presidential address.247 By adopting a serene and controlled voice, Obama effectively attained a superior position and talked like a statesman thanks to his capacity to sound calm, emotionless and in control at a time of fierce and raging controversy. The speech mostly received positive comments248 and enabled Obama to boost his campaign. For George Lakoff,
243. Jennifer Jackson, a specialist in linguistic anthropology at the University of Toronto, explained that the story in the [Ebenezer Church] was more fitting, stylistically, because [Obama] was in a church with the intonation and lift. Kent GARBER, Rhetoric and Speaking Style Affect the Clinton-Obama Race, U.S. News, March 25, 2008. 244. For John McWorther, what characterizes the black-cent is the contours of the vowels and aspects of the intonations. Interview of John McWORTHER, Humeur vagabonde, France Inter, November 17, 2010. The black-cent is different from Black English (or Ebonics), which is considered as a dialect with its syntactic specificities (double negatives). 245. American actress Sarah Jones wrote and performed a theatrical show entitled Bridge and Tunnel in which she performed several different characters. The show was based on code-switching; her ability to change voice enables her to impersonate Americans from various ethnic communities. For more on code-switching, listen to the discussion between Sarah Jones and linguist John McWorther: http://www.studio360.org/2008/oct/24/sounding-black/. 246. Michael Eric DYSON, A president-preacher from anaphora to epistrophe The Sydney Morning Herald, January 19, 2009. 247. All year long, he has been writing and giving exceptionally effective addresses. But almost without exception, these speeches have been campaign rhetoric. This, however, was largely a presidential address - and on the touchiest issue in American life. Dennis BRODER, The Real Value of Obamas Speech, The Washington Post, March 23, 2008. 248. Many commentators pinpoint the "A More Perfect Union" speech, made in March 2008 in the aftermath of a scandal about his former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, as one of Mr.Obama's finest. Evidence of Rev Wright's inflammatory sermons risked irrevocably damaging Mr.Obama's candidacy but his response managed to tackle the question of race in US society with delicacy. It was a speech which wrapped the experience of different races together, expressing understanding for the deep-seated, lingering resentments of each and presenting himself as the embodiment of unity. Stephanie HOLMES, Obama: Oratory and Originality BBC News, posted on November 19, 2008, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7735014.stm.

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A more perfect union is a great speech because, like any other great speech, it transcends its immediate occasion and addresses [] the most vital of issues: what America is about; who we are, and are to be, as Americans; and what politics should be fundamentally about.249 Garry Wills uses the speech to establish a connection with Abraham Lincoln who also decided to make a major address during his first presidential campaign to respond to rising charges of his being connected to violent radicals.250

2.2.5. The manifold parallels with Lincoln251

He tells us that there is power in words.252

The major political figure to which Obama kept looking to during the campaign is Abraham Lincoln. The two men were both lawyers whose oratorical skills are widely praised today253 ; both were Senators representing Illinois and both were candidates at a time where the nation was deeply divided.254 According to Luc Benot la Guillaume, Lincoln is a key source of inspiration in times of crisis. It was the case in particular for Roosevelt.255 References to Lincoln were either non-verbal or verbal with expressions echoing Lincolns most famous speeches and were particularly frequent at the very beginning and at the very end of the campaign.

249. George LAKOFF, Much More Than Race : What Makes a Great Speech Great, http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryld=4751. 250. Gary WILLS, op. cit. 251. For more parallels between Barack Obama and Abraham Lincoln: Anne JOCTEUR MONROZIER La rfrence Lincoln, France Info, January 13, 2009. 252. Barack Obama about Abraham Lincoln, Announcement Speech (Springfield, February 10, 2007). 253. If Lincoln is now widely seen as a great orator, it was not the case at the time he delivered the Gettysburg Address, which received mediocre if not downright negative reviews then. Lois J. EINHORN, Abraham Lincoln, the Orator: Penetrating the Lincoln Legend (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1992), p.94. 254. This awareness of the country being at a pivotal moment (Chicago, October 2, 2007) is frequently stressed in Obamas speeches and is directly connected to the idea that it was necessary to act very quickly, a frequent idea in Martin Luther Kings speeches. See 3.3.1 Using MLKs words p.106. 255. Luc BENOT LA GUILLAUME, op. cit., p.65.

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2.2.5.1. Non-verbal references

They mainly consist in symbolic dates and places chosen for the staging of the keyspeeches which were delivered at the beginning and closure of the campaign. Obama decided to announce his candidacy in front of Springfields old State Capitol,256 precisely where Lincoln gave one of his most famous speeches A House divided against itself cannot stand.257 The date chosen by Obama, February 10th, was also symbolic as the speech was given on the eve of the 198th anniversary of Lincolns birth. Sometimes, however, Obama used symbols that do not refer to Lincoln directly but to Lincolns times, in particular the Civil War. Obama chose to deliver his last speech of the campaign, on the eve of the election, at Manassas (also known as Bull Run) in Virginia where the Civil War is considered to have started and ended. The entire speech bears no mention of the Civil War nor of the two major battles that occurred there and yet it was undoubtedly for its symbolic value that that fairly small city258 was chosen to stage that speech. Direct references to Lincoln actually became more frequent after the campaign was over, when Obama symbolically followed in Lincolns footsteps with a sort of re-enactment of the Whistle-Stop Tour organized by Lincoln just before his first Inauguration. Obamas journey lasted only one day, January 17, and instead of departing from Springfield, like Lincoln,259 Obama set off in Philadelphia and then headed for Washington, only stopping at Wilmington where Biden lived and got on the train and then Baltimore.260 The journey, which had a symbolic function (from President-elect to President), added a ritual to the official ceremonies and were popular events, encounters between the President-elect and his citizens. Among the direct non-verbal references to Lincoln is the Bible on which Obama swore on Inauguration Day and which had belonged to Lincoln.

256. It was also the place chosen by Obama to introduce his VP pick publicly on August 23, 2008. The announcement of Joe Biden as VP appointee was made via text messaging. 257. The speech was delivered on June 16, 1858. 258. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the population of Manassas City is under 37,000 inhabitants. http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/51/51683.html. Compared to the size of the citys population, Obama attracted and gathered a huge and impressive audience of 100,000 people. 259. Obama announced his candidacy in Springfield, hence making it the starting-point of the historic journey which led him to the White House. 260. Interestingly enough and contrary to the initial plan, Lincoln crossed Baltimore at night and did not deliver a speech in the city. He reluctantly had to do so because of rumors of assassinations. Baltimore is where many emancipated slaves came to settle.

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Symbolic, non-verbal elements played a critical part in Obamas campaign. They framed the campaign which started on a place which still resonates with Lincolns presence and ended by reenacting Lincolns journey to the White House. The connection established exophorically provided a key to interpret Obamas discourse.

2.2.5.2. Verbal references

During the campaign, Christopher B. Duncan261 who impersonated Obama in Jay Lenos Tonight Show on NBC often insisted on Obamas repeated references to his political elders, once going as far as making the fake Obama utter a series of plagiarisms. 262 These were much exaggerated performances but Obama did not always specify he was quoting. As was mentioned earlier on, references to Lincoln became again more frequent toward the end of the campaign. He quoted the expression that government of the people, by the people, for the people from Lincolns Gettysburg Address (November 19, 1863)263 in several speeches: once at the very beginning of the campaign on October 2, 2007 in a speech focused on the war in Iraq, and then after the campaign was over on Election Night. The expression was rephrased into a condensed version a government of, by and for the people in the speeches delivered during the Whistle-Stop Tour in Philadelphia and Baltimore. For none of the quotes was Lincolns authorship stated: the expression was sufficiently famous for people to trace the source. Another major reference to Lincolns words was the rephrasing of Lincolns the better angels of our nature264 from his first Inaugural Address into the much condensed our better angels. Lincoln first Inaugural Address (March 4, 1861) was delivered at a time when the civil war was no longer preventable and actually broke out the day after. Jefferson Davis had been inaugurated President of the Confederation two weeks before. Obama used the

261. Christopher B. Duncan was considered as the best fauxbama (fake Obama) according to a CNN report. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlhWmCTOWOU. 262. See http://www.christopherbduncan.com/christopherb.duk.html# (clip 1): a fake Obama quoting MLKs I Have A Dream. 263. The expression came initially from a Unitarian minister and reformer Theodore Parker, a close connection to Lincolns law partner. Lincoln avoided contact with him as he was an outspoken abolitionist and secretly funded John Brown (the slave who took up arms against US troops). 264. In the draft Secretary of State Seward prepared for Lincoln, the original expression used was the guardian angel of the nation which Lincoln modified into the better angels of our nature, hence choosing to stress peoples individual responsibility instead of Providence. Roy P. BASLER, Abraham Lincolns Rhetoric, American Literature, Vol.11, No.2, May 1939, pp.181-182.

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expression our better angels in the Last Week Speech he delivered in Canton on October 27, 2008, and then again after the campaign was over, during the Whistle-Stop Tour. He used a variation of the expression, our better history, in the Last Week Speech and his Inaugural speech. Lincoln was not mentioned as the source of the original expression. Obama used the expression in contrast with the expressions worst instincts and easy instincts, referring to Bushs constant tactics of fuelling fear and insisted on the notion of choice: The time has come [] to choose our better history. (Inaugural Address, January 20, 2009). Lincoln was only once openly quoted in Election Night Victory Speech. Obama used the opening sentence of the peroration of Lincolns first Inaugural Address: We are not enemies, but friends.265 This use of intertextuality was a characteristic feature of Obamas speeches. It reinforced the identification of Obama to figures such as Lincoln and to what they symbolize in Americans collective memory. Obamas Inaugural Address partly echoed Lincolns first Inaugural Address as the following two excerpts suggest:
It is seventy-two years since the first inauguration of a President under our National Constitution. During that period fifteen different and greatly distinguished citizens have in succession administered the executive branch of the Government. They have conducted it through many perils, and generally with great success.266 Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. 267

A similar historic perspective is adopted in both speeches, hence focusing on the continuity and past stability of the country precisely at a time when the country was anything but stable. The references to the Founding Fathers help reinforce that memorializing process. Such references can be found both in Lincolns speeches and in Obamas. They become more frequent after Obamas election. The expressions first patriots, our American journey and the date 1776 can be found in the speech delivered in Philadelphia and Baltimore on January 17, 2009. The speech was entitled A New Declaration of Independence, which is a way to stress continuity with the founding era and therefore legitimacy but in an updated form

265. The quote was put in by Jon Favreau who was in charge of preparing the draft of the victory speech. After Obama read the first draft, David Axelrod, Obamas chief strategist, advised Favreau to figure out a good Lincoln quote to bring it all together," and suggested looking at the end of Lincoln's first Inaugural Address. The quote ultimately chosen by Favreau were actually words written by Lincolns Secretary of State, William Seward. Evan THOMAS, Obamas Lincoln, Newsweek, November 15, 2008. 266. Abraham Lincoln, first Inaugural Address (March 4, 1861). 267. Barack Obamas Inaugural Address (Washington D.C., January 20, 2009).

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to adapt to the present circumstances. References to our founding fathers and our founding documents can be found in the Inaugural Speech. The references to the past hence fulfill two functions: make Obama appear as a spiritual and loyal heir to Americas past leading political figures but also emphasize his faith in America and its capacity to overcome the challenges, however huge, it has to face. They serve to praise American values. The many historical references make Obamas key-speeches rise above and transcend partisan politics. With the ceremonial of Whistle-Stop Tour, the repetitive historic references aim at restoring the sacred nature of the function in a period of political wanderings (military stalemates overseas and deepening economic crisis). Intertextual references to Lincolns rhetoric reinforced that sense of the sacred: superior purpose, sophisticated language.

The metaphor of the American family developed by Obama somehow made him appear as a patriarch, which was reinforced by the stories he told as they mostly focused on women, the references to Lincoln who was seen as a father figure for the rebirth of the nation but also by the preachers tone. Partly breaking with the anti-intellectual tendencies at play, Obamas brilliant rhetoric restored the stylistic grandeur of Americas greatest presidential figure in collective memory. Obama is also very modern in the sense that he uses the tools that enabled Reagan to refresh political discourse and develop consensual communication (use of story-telling and praise of the country). Rising over divisions, Obama sought to achieve national unity, which he viewed as the key to overcoming the challenges to meet. To do so, Obama developed a rhetoric of unity which was rooted in his political and historical references and also in his Christian legacy, inspired by the Constitution and the Bible, by the figures of Lincoln and Martin Luther King. What is specific about Obama is that he manages to combine old traditions with modern trends effectively.

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3. Obama the Preacher

Let me not try to preach today. But I do wanna read a passage from Scripture. That is how Barak Obama, who was Senator at the time, opened his eulogy of Rosa Parks268 at the memorial service held on November 2, 2005 in Detroit. The statement is both an acknowledgement of Obamas self-conscious preaching style and a paraleipsis, that is to say starting to do what he just said he would not. Obamas rhetorical and oratorical styles are deeply influenced by the Black pulpit tradition as Michael Eric Dyson, Professor of Theology at Duke University and an ordained Baptist minister, pointed out when writing that Obamas rhetoric was firmly rooted in black soil.269 The legacy proves even more salient when Obama speaks in particularly religious contexts as was the case in Dr Kings Church on January 20, 2008. According to Dyson, the influence was already patent in the keynote address he delivered at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.270 It is therefore relevant to define what the Black preaching tradition actually consists in in terms of rhetorical style and

268. Rosa Parks is the black seamstress who in December 1955 disobeyed the Jim Crow (or segregation) laws and refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a city-bus in Montgomery (Alabama). Her rebellious act sparked a protest (including boycotts and peaceful marches) that led to the end of segregation in America. 269. Michael Eric DYSON, His Way With Words Begins At The Pulpit, The Washington Post, January 18, 2009. See also Michael Eric DYSON, A President-Preacher from anaphora to epistrophe, The Sydney Morning Herald, January 19, 2009. 270. Michael Eric DYSON, His Way With Words Begins At The Pulpit, The Washington Post, January 18, 2009 and 3.2.1 The building-up of a crescendo in the overall structure p.92.

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oratorical specificities, what exactly Obama took up from that pastoral tradition and also gauge the extent of Martin Luther Kings influence.

3.1. The influence of black church rhetoric

3.1.1. The structure and main components of the sermon
3.1.1.1. A clearly defined yet not-so-rigid pattern

The main studies on the framework of sermons by Henry Mitchell and Gerald Davis presented two very different, partially contradictory views.271 Henry Mitchell considered that it was impossible to define a typical sermon outline, as sermons heavily depended on the preachers individual imagination and spontaneity. Instead, he defined two major and essential components: the gospel had to be adapted to the culture and language of the congregants and it had to be adapted to the congregants and their needs. In his work, he focused on describing such aspects as cultural context, reasons for use of Black English in sermons, and descriptions of a sermons climax.272 Gerald Davis, on the contrary, distinguished five components precisely ordered:
(i) Preacher tells the congregation that the sermon was provided by God; (ii) preacher identifies the theme, followed by a Bible quotation; (iii) preacher interprets the scripture literally and then broadly ; (iv) each unit of the sermon contains a secular-versus-sacred conflict and moves between concrete and abstract; (v) closure is absent, and the sermon is left open-ended.273

For Baptist preacher Sherman Haywood Cox II, the structure of a sermon is generally made up of a number of points which are each developed in a number of sub-points to be more effective: First, define the point;

271. For more on the different and contrastive approaches of Mitchell and Davis, see Cheryl WHARRY, Amen and Hallelujah Preaching: Discourse Functions in African American Sermons, Language in Society, Vol.32, No.2, April 2003, pp.205-6. Wharrys analysis is based on Henry MITCHELL, Black Preaching (Philadelphia: Lippincott Publishers, 1970) and Gerald DAVIS, I got the word in me and I can sing it, you know (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1987). Interestingly, todays various American websites about sermon writing reflect those contrastive approaches. 272. Cheryl WHARRY, op. cit., p.205. 273. Synthesized by Cheryl WHARRY, op. cit., p.206.

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Then, illustrate the point with an extract from the Scriptures and/or other possible sources (hymns, gospel songs, episodes of history, African American history in particular, current events or mundane life); Thirdly, apply the point to show how they can be applied in peoples daily lives; Finally, connect the point to Scriptures to give it religious legitimacy.274 Sherman Haywood Cox II insists that all subpoints are not always necessary and can be re-ordered and/or mixed. In any case, it clearly appears that an effective sermon consists in constantly interconnecting the Bible, peoples individual or collective behavior with elements from the communitys shared culture to contrast what people sometimes or often do with what they should. Though the sermon is divided into a number of points, what characterizes it is its topical unity275 as all the points are used to evoke an overall idea which has a transformative purpose. As Henry H. Mitchell explained, The preacher is used by the Holy Spirit to achieve the transformation of the hearer in [] the behavioral purpose of the sermon.276 The whole sermon is constructed to make people change behavior. Obamas stump speech encompasses a variety of political topics as he needed to answer criticisms and state his ideas. In most cases, Obama never quoted from scripture, apart from the oft-repeated we are our brother's keeper; we are our sister's keeper,277 which was mostly used in February and March 2008 when the race for the primaries was very tight. It should certainly and partly be seen as a moral caution proving that he is a Christian defending Christian values and not a Muslim as rumors had it. Such rumors were spread in November 2007 and then again in early March 2008, sustained by Hillary Clintons awkward declaration during an interview for CBSs 60 minutes that Obama was not a Muslim as far as [she knew].278

274. See http://sermonideas.com/begin.asp and especially http://www.soulpreaching.com/expand-a-sermonoutline-into-a-sermon. 275. See also Cheryl WHARRY, op. cit., p.206: Theme [...], not meter, is what primarily provides cohesion in African American sermons. 276. Henry H. MITCHELL, African-American Preaching, Interpretation, Vol. 51, No.4, 1997, p.380ff. 277. The sentence was not mentioned in the stump speech but in more important speeches: in the 2004 Keynote Address, in the speech Reclaiming the American Dream (Bettendorf, November 7, 2007), at Dr Kings Church (Atlanta, January 20, 2008), in the Potomac Primary Night Speech (Madison, February 12, 2008), in the Texas Primary Night Speech (San Antonio, March 4, 2008), A more perfect union (Philadelphia, March 18, 2008), the Speech at the LULAC Convention (Washington D.C., July 8, 2008) and the Acceptance Speech (Denver, August 28, 2008). 278. See http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/03/clinton-says-ob.html ; the sentence was actually often reproduced out of context when taken up and spread in the media. Hillary Clinton actually goes on saying,

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It is however significantly different with the speech Obama delivered at Dr Kings Church which starts with a direct reference to the Bible, Scripture tells us that when Joshua and the Israelites arrived at the gates of Jericho, they could not enter. The overall point is later explicitly defined: unity thanks to God can make everything possible and tear down barriers, a relevant story with an obvious political reinterpretation. To illustrate his point further, Obama recalls the episodes of the Civil War Era and MLKs urge to unite, Unity is the great need of the hour. The speech delivered at the Ebenezer Church is wholly devoted to that particular and key-idea. The sentence itself is repeated three times, the third time being a slight variation replacing the with this, hence connecting the Civil Rights Era to the present day. Unity does not appear as an end in itself but as the means to achieve success and overcome the essential deficit that exists in [the] country. The political candidate then lists all the kinds of deficits that plague America.279 It is extremely relevant to use the example of Dr Kings own battle for freedom in the church in which he had been a pastor for years because it lends symbolical emphasis to the point. The second point developed by Barack Obama is how to achieve unity, using once again the example of MLK who could love his jailor. This second point clearly states that people have to change their "hearts and minds and look past what divides [them] to achieve this hard-earned unity. Unity requires and involves a change of attitude and mindset, a broadening of their spirits. This inclusion of behavioral transformation into the speech reinforces its sermon-like style. All the points are developed by interconnecting the Bible, African American history with todays situation and peoples own responsibility in it, stressing how individual and collective change is possible. On but one occasion does the overall structure of one of Obamas campaign speeches strongly reflect that of a sermon, including the forceful reference to scripture. In the period stretching from January 2008 to the end of the Primaries, the epilogue is fairly characteristically patterned on the ending of sermons both topically as it usually consisted in a definition of hope and formally with the use of the typical call-and-response technique.280 Yet, it is not really the structure of Obamas speeches that recalls sermons. Let us now focus on the nature of black church discourse and the analogy between church values and Obamas rhetorical frame.

having been the target of so many ridiculous rumors... I have a great deal of sympathy for anybody who gets, you know, smeared with the kind of rumors that go on all the time. 279. This financial metaphor echoes Martin Luther Kings check yet to cash in I Have a Dream. 280. For more on the call-and-response technique, see 3.2.2.2. Call-and-response p.104.

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3.1.1.2. Obamas rhetorical frame: where the religious meets the political

The direct references to Scripture may be few and occasional, the theme of the campaign is however directly framed by Christian values. The two words used to define the spirit and sense of his campaign are hope and change, which soon came to sum up what his candidacy stood for. Hope is one the three theological virtues in Christian religion along with faith and charity. Hope is the key-word of Obamas 2004 keynote address at the Democratic National Convention and was strongly influenced by Jeremiah Wrights sermon The Audacity of Hope.281 As for change, it is the possibility of effective behavioral change that is at stake in each sermon as was seen in 3.1.1.1. A clearly defined yet not-so-rigid pattern, the whole campaign is hence framed by a strongly religious rhetoric which is redefined in political terms in Our Moment is Now and the Iowa Caucus Night Speech. Here are the two relevant extracts from those speeches:
In the end, the argument we are having between the candidates in the last seven days is not just about the meaning of change. It's about the meaning of hope. [...] Hope is not blind optimism. [] I know that hope has been the guiding force behind the most improbable changes this country has ever made. [] That's the power of hope - to imagine, and then work for, what had seemed impossible before. That's the change we seek. And that's the change you can stand for in seven days.282 [Our emphasis] Hope is that thing inside us that insists, despite all evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us if we have the courage to reach for it, and to work for it, and to fight for it. Hope is what I saw in the eyes of the young woman in Cedar Rapids who works the night shift after a full day of college and still can't afford health care for a sister who's ill, a young woman who still believes that this country will give her the chance to live out her dreams. Hope is what I heard in the voice of the New Hampshire woman who told me that she hasn't been able to breathe since her nephew left for Iraq, who still goes to bed each night praying for his safe return. Hope is what led a band of colonists to rise up against an empire, what led the greatest of generations to free a continent and heal a nation, what led young women and young men to sit at lunch counters and brave fire hoses and march through Selma and Montgomery for freedom's cause. Hope-hope-is what led me here today - with a father from Kenya, a mother from Kansas, and a story that could only happen in the United States of America.283

The notion is reinterpreted as being the catalyst, dynamic and essence of progress in American history. Yet, before developing what hope means for him, Obama uses contrast and starts giving negative definitions of what it is not. After finally giving his definition, Obama often adds a list of examples to illustrate it. This is a pattern frequently used by Obama when
281. Also the title given by Obama to the book in which he stated his political views. The full title is: The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream (New York: Crown Publishers, 2006). 282. Our Moment is Now (Des Moines, December 27, 2007). 283. Iowa Caucus Night (Des Moines, January 3, 2008).

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he needs to (re)define a notion. The negative definitions enable him to respond to his critics. They also add an element of suspense by delaying the time when the expected information is finally given. For Obama, hope can characterize both individual and collective entities, mixing examples of what hope achieved in the past for him and for Americans with the present stories of unprivileged people. The religious word is redefined in a political and historical context. Urging people to hope is more consistent with religious discourse and somehow departs from the traditional political discourse of a candidate campaigning for an election. Though Obama insists that hope is derided by his rivals as being blind optimism, his own multiple definitions of hope actually vary according to the examples given. For the rebellious colonists and segregated Americans, hope was an active force which spurned them into action, by questioning legitimate authority and even disobeying laws when necessary. As for the two women mentioned, hope is passive and only appears as a spiritual solace. It consists in relying on the state to help them solve their problems, the State here replacing God as a somewhat deus ex machina. Obama creates an analogy between the various examples by stating them in the same list (proximity) and reinforces the overall unity with the use of anaphora: Hope is, introducing a cataphoric definition of hope. On occasions, Obama closes the section on hope with a final, anaphoric definition: Thats what hope is.284 The section is given a somewhat circular structural as it opens and ends with the two same words: Hope is. This frame helps signal the end of the section to the audience and adds additional emphasis on the definition. As for change, it is a crucial word in the mouth of the challenger in a political contest. It is also religious in the sense that the aim of sermons was transformative and required people to change mindset and attitude. The word may not be used as often as in politics, but change is implicitly at the core of all sermons. It is the case for example with individual responsibility for underachieving communities. It is subtly formulated by Obama because it transforms a negative criticism into a call for more self-confidence. The number of occurrences of the noun change remains significant throughout the campaign with five to a dozen occurrences depending on the length of the speech. The number peaks however just before the primaries started with twenty-four occurrences in the speech delivered on December 27, 2007 and it
284. It is the case for example in the speech delivered at Dr Kings Church (Atlanta, January 20, 2008), in the Wisconsin Primary Night Speech (Houston, February 19, 2008) and his Last Week Speech (Canton, October 27, 2008).

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peaks again as the primaries end and a new campaign begins with sixteen occurrences in the Final Primary Speech (St Paul, June 3, 2008), at the DNC Convention (Denver, August 28), 2008 and finally again just before the election. Obama embodies change because of the color of his skin. He is different, visually different. That aspect, though the most obvious one, is never used directly but is implied in the motto, Change is possible in America.285 Obamas mottoes are not exclusively Christian. Unlike George W. Bushs frequent reliance on and appeals to God, Obama only mentions God at the end of some of his speeches, using the blessing call: God bless America. He can reach out to a wider audience. Besides, using words that are both strongly connoted religiously and politically enable him to stand on the grey zone where the two areas merge, hence reaping the benefits of the moral and allinclusive vision without appearing as a zealot. Obama played the religious card in a way that was not divisive but inclusive. Obama also uses the hypothetical clauses, If you believe, which are repeated four times in the epilogue of the speech Our Moment is Now286 as if political victory actually depended on an act of faith. In fact fourteen occurrences of the verb believe 287 can be found in that speech, forcefully urging people to be more self-confident. He was also addressing people who do not turn out to vote because they distrust politics. The repeated use of the verb believe echoes Lyndon B. Johnsons 1965 Inaugural Address which contained eight occurrences of believe (and believers). One of Johnsons key-sentences was: For we are a nation of believers. According to S. Bercovitch, Johnsons 1965 Inaugural Address was a perfect example of jeremiad.288 It was centered on the ideas of Americas destiny and the American covenant and ended with a quotation from the Bible. Obamas own Inaugural Address developed the sacred origins of the American experiment:
We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit, to choose our better history, to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given 285. This is as ambiguous as they said this day would never come. Change in having a black President as it is implied. It could just as well be a change of Administration with the Democrats replacing the Republicans in the White House. For more on the ambiguity in Obamas subtle references to race, 2.2.4.1. References to race prior to A more perfect union p.60. 286. Our Moment is Now (Des Moines, December 27, 2007). 287. In Obamas most famous speech, the keynote address delivered in 2004, he pronounced the verb ten times: five times in the expression John Kerry believes and three times in the expression I believe. In all these cases, the expressions were used to delineate paragraphs. See Obamas use of macrostructural anaphora in 3.1.2.1. The use of repetition p.85. 288. Quoted in Luc BENOT LA GUILLAUME, Le discours dinvestiture des prsidents amricains ou les paradoxes de lloge (Paris : LHarmattan, 2003), p.75.

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promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness. [our emphasis]

Yet, contrary to Johnson or Reagans speeches, the reference to a God-inspired destiny is marginal and limited to the universal and political ideals developed in the Constitution, not to the exclusive and religious experiment of the colonial period. In addition, by referring to families in his examples, Obama articulated the shift from individual families to the metaphorical religious family which encompasses the whole society with the expression: I am my brothers keeper. I am my sisters keeper.

3.1.1.3. The nature of religious discourse in black churches

Apart from the injunctions to and the rationale for behavioral change, the sermons heavily rely on stories. As Henry H. Mitchell explained, African American preachers often engage in a sermon that is story-telling, sometimes they even change into the character that they are preaching and preach a first-person story. 289 Martin Luther Kings famous speech, Ive Been to the Mountaintop is an example of preaching in the first-person, in that case connecting his own experience with that of Jesus. Storytelling is in fact an essential characteristic of biblical style, which is characterized by the use of many parables. As was seen in the first part, one of the characteristic features of Obamas style was the use of stories: his own, that of anonymous average Americans and that of Ashley Baia. The analysis of the overall structure of sermons revealed that it was directed to achieve behavioral change, stating what was and what should be. Obamas stories stand in two categories: those that illustrate the situation as it is (the narratives of individual Americans) and those whose function is to illustrate that change has taken place: Obamas own career and Ashley Baias dedicated commitment. Obama however does not indulge excessively in the art of storytelling as is the case in sermon delivering. As was stated in 2.1.1 Use of personal narratives of anonymous Americans, Obama usually preferred to deliver a series of very short stories which reflected a variety of issues instead of narrating vivid, lengthy, much-detailed

289. Henry H. MITCHELL, Black Preaching : The Recovery of a Powerful Art (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1990) quoted by Sherman H. COX II on www.soulpreaching.com/story-telling-and-role-playing.

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stories. When he did tell long stories, they had a didactic function290, being illustrations of how people can individually and/or collectively help to make things change. In the following example which is taken from the Super Tuesday Speech (St Paul, February 5, 2008), Obama tells a personal story which illustrates his determination even at a time of defeat:
I was a young organizer then, intent on fighting joblessness and poverty on the South Side, and I still remember one of the very first meetings I put together. We had worked on it for days, but no one showed up. Our volunteers felt so defeated, they wanted to quit. And to be honest, so did I. But at that moment, I looked outside and saw some young boys tossing stones at a boarded-up apartment building across the street. They were like boys in so many cities across the country - boys without prospects, without guidance, without hope. And I turned to the volunteers, and I asked them, "Before you quit, I want you to answer one question. What will happen to those boys?" And the volunteers looked out that window, and they decided that night to keep going - to keep organizing, keep fighting for better schools, and better jobs, and better health care. And so did I. And slowly, but surely, in the weeks and months to come, the community began to change.

Obamas repeated use of the expression so do I suggests he felt like the volunteers. It constitutes a sentence in its own right with significant pauses before and after its delivery to give it more emphasis. The expression suggests that Obama identified with his volunteers when they wanted to quit and when they decided to go on and that they are the source of the action. It is important to imply that they made the decision and that they influenced Obama because the decision to finally go on despite the setbacks can indirectly convince people in Obamas audience to act likewise. Yet, a closer attention to the context shows that it was Obama who initiated the reversal of position (use of action verbs) and convinced the volunteers to go on: I looked, I turned and I asked and only then they looked and they decided. The kids playing outside seem to work as an epiphany for the volunteers, but it was not an unexpected sight; they were invited to look at the kids and think again about their initial decision by Obama. Obamas manipulative account of the story aims to present the volunteers as role-models, people whose attitude can and should be imitated, as Obama seems to have done. As was seen in 3.1.1.1 A clearly defined, yet not-so-rigid system, the sermon has a transformational purpose and so do Obamas stories by offering illustrative rolemodels.

290. This aspect is stressed by Evan Cornog : Stories, we discover, have morals, lessons that we can incorporate into our understanding of life. Evan CORNOG, The Power and the Story: How the Crafted Presidential Narrative Has Determined Political Success from George Washington to George W. Bush (New York, Penguin, 2004), p.3. See also Henry Mitchell who wrote, Stories teach more effectively than abstractions. Henry H. MITCHELL, African-American Preaching, Interpretation, Vol.51, No.4, 1997, p.371ff. See also for storytelling in sermons, 3.1.1.3. The nature of religious discourse p.83 and 3.1.2.2. The use of hypotyposis p.88.

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The stories in sermons often merge the time present and the past, connecting the sacred and the profane,
The process of identifying with the hardships and the eventual triumphs of Daniel, Jonah, David, Noah, and especially the enslaved Hebrews provided blacks a method of self-understanding: their lives resembled those of Old Testament heroes who faced grim odds and oppression but who finally achieved resplendent success. In this sacred universe, one locates and defines a self by consulting Biblical narrative and by expecting an eventual Biblical-style liberation either on earth or in heaven. 291

In Obamas speeches, the identification is suggested with the past generations which have made America progress and overcome hazardous hardships. What unifies and guides this sacred universe in sermons is God; in Obamas speeches, it is the American dauntless and pioneering spirit that ordinary people can do extraordinary things.292 Apart from storytelling or comments on Scripture, preachers often embed lyrics and Scripture in their oratory.

3.1.2. Using the motifs and stylistic devices used in sermons

3.1.2.1. The use of repetition

Repetition is a necessary device in oral culture, whatever the nature of the discourse. The repetition consists in formulating a similar key-idea in identical form or various modes to help listeners remember it but it is also a stylistic device to hammer in an idea or a set of ideas more forcefully. For James A. Snead, it is central in black church culture.293 The most frequent rhetorical devices are anaphora and epistrophe, which help sustain a particular and steady rhythm and are characteristic features of the pastoral rhetorical style. These devices are very frequent in sermons and can be microstructural (within a sentence) or macrostructural (to shape the construction of a paragraph). Macrostructural anaphora can be used at anytime throughout the sermon to make it more dynamic and create a rhythmic crescendo. It is very often used in the last lines to help impress the audience thanks to heightened rhythm.

291. For more on this aspect, see Keith D. MILLER, Epistemology of a Drum Major: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Black Folk Pulpit, Rhetoric Society Quarterly, Vol.18, No.3/4, Summer-Autumn 1988, p.226. 292. The sentence comes as a leitmotif in Obamas speeches: Turn the Page Speech (San Diego, April 28, 2007), Iowa Caucus Night Speech (Des Moines, January 3, 2008), Super Tuesday Night Speech (St Paul, February 5, 2008). 293. The black church must be placed at the center of the manifestations of repetition in black culture, at the junction of music and language. James A. SNEAD On Repetition in Black Culture, Black American Literature Forum, Vol.15, No.4, Black Textual Strategies, Vol.1: Theory, Winter 1981, p.151.

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Barack Obama often uses anaphora, epistrophe or even a combination of both (symploce). Many such repetitions can be found within a sentence and are usually combined to the tricolon for a better balance of the phrase: we are also struggling against our own doubts, our own fears, and our own cynicism.294; all of them with a story to tell, all of them seeking a seat at the table, all of them clamoring to be heard.295 They are usually found at the end of sentences for additional focus (end-weight) and to prepare the audience for applause.296 As is shown in the two examples just given, the part which is repeated can be given additional emphasis either lexically: the adjective own which reinforces the possessive determiner our or syntactically with the use of the quantifier all in the analytic structure all of them. The following representation of the phrase all of them with a story to tell, all of them seeking a seat at the table, all of them clamoring to be heard is balanced in its delivery even if the three parts are not equally long. The first part of the list being shorter is slowed and Barack Obama even marks a pause after all of them while he does not pause after the following two occurrences of the expression. On the contrary he speaks more quickly and as a result as there were more words in those segments, it takes Obama approximately the same time to utter each segment. Each of these Intonational Phrases has a relatively equal length.297

294. South Carolina Primary Night Speech (Columbia, January 26, 2008). 295. Announcement Speech (Springfield, February 9, 2007). 296. See 1.4. The flourishing rhetorical imagery and characteristic stylistic devices p.35. 297. The same conclusion was made in a previous unpublished study of the epilogue of the 2004 Keynote Address. The Intonational Phrases were pronounced with more or less the same length: Its the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs; the hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores; the hope of a young naval lieutenant bravely patrolling the Mekong Delta; the hope of a millworkers son who dares to defy the odds; the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too.

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Fig.3 Equilibrium and tricolon (Announcement Speech, Springfield, February 10, 2007) PRAAT Structural anaphora is more frequent and more easily noticeable by the audience. It is generally repeated several times and some speeches are constructed as series of paragraphs that can be delineated through the anaphora used. It is the case for the speeches delivered in early January 2008 after the Iowa Caucus and New Hampshire Primary. The Iowa Caucus Night Speech for example can be divided into five sections that are clearly delineated by the anaphora used: a contrast between They said and then you said ; a definition of the prospective President he would be: Ill be a President who ; the expression of awareness, humility and sense of responsibility toward American citizens: I know. ; the focus on the crucial, historic moment: This was the moment when ; and finally the definition he gives to the word hope: Hope is what. The definitions are often both cataphoric (Hope is) and anaphoric (Thats what hope is.) and serve to structure the paragraph. In addition, the sections are alternately made up of very short or longer paragraphs, which helps alternate the pace of delivery of each section. Obama also alternates the syntactic structure of the elements repeated to avoid monotony, using verbs like SAY or KNOW which are

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followed by complement clauses while some structures are a bit more complex including a non-defining restrictive relative clause: a President who. Obama sometimes uses anadiplosis, consisting in repeating at the beginning of a phrase (or sentence) the final words of the previous clause (or sentence). It therefore consists in the immediate repetition of a group of words which are only separated orally by a pause as in This is our time. Our time to turn the page (Final Primary Night Speech, St Paul, June 3, 2008) and in By itself, that single moment of recognition between that young white girl and that old black man is not enough. It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children. (A more perfect union, Philadelphia, March 18, 2008). It is a deliberate way to insist on key words which do not necessarily have to be repeated in fact. Instead of two sentences (one to state a fact with the use of the BE copula and the second to state the aim to reach), it would have been possible to have only one sentence This is our time to turn the page. and that single moment of recognition [] is not enough to give healthcare to the sick []. Obamas frequent and various uses of repetitive devices fulfilled the same functions as in sermons. At the macrostructural level, they acted as a kind of handrail through the course of the sermon, orienting the listener in moving from one thing to the next. 298 At the microstructural level, the repetitive forms help convey a certain rhythm and build verbal reassurance.299

3.1.2.2. The use of hypotyposis

Another stylistic characteristic of sermons is the use of hypotyposis. Henry H. Mitchell, a specialist in Black preaching, defines the Black preachers capacity for vividness and communication from the depths as being typical of the African-American tradition, dating back to the times of slavery when preachers could not read and write and crafted their sermons from a phenomenal memory of scripture and a culturally enriched imagination.300 Conjuring up scenes through vivid descriptions aims at arousing emotion because the

298. James R. NIEMAN and Thomas G. ROGERS, Preaching to Every Pew: Cross-Cultural Strategies (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2001), pp.102-3. 299. James R. NIEMAN and Thomas G. ROGERS, op. cit., p.103 300. Henry H. MITCHELL, African-American Preaching, op. cit., pp.372-4.

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transformative purpose of the sermon has to address body and mind as Sherman Haywood Cox II explained, Emotion must be a part of real preaching if it is to affect the whole person and not just the mind.301 As indicated in 2.1.2. The Ashley Baia story, Ashleys story is one of the very few fairly long stories told by Obama, and so is the case with the story of the failed meeting organized by Obama while working in the South Side (Super Tuesday Speech). Only the second of these two stories is a personal story, but listening to the Ashley anecdote, one has the impression that Obama has actually attended the scene and was present at the roundtable discussion Ashley had organized. The impression comes from the details302 given by Obama in the description of peoples position as for example, this elderly black man who's been sitting there quietly the entire time which could have been reduced to a more ordinary presentation like an elderly black man. By using the deictic this, the listener has the impression that the scene is being revived; the reference is the storyteller (I/now/here) and the narrated time merges with the narration time. What reinforces this impression that Obama attended the roundtable discussion is the use of speech verbs to introduce what people said. As Obama never says that he heard the story from someone else, one gets the impression that it is not hear-say but words Obama heard directly. Both stories are not action scenes but discussions between people who support Obama and both are centered on the sense of their commitment. The action is past (Ashleys eating sandwiches for a year to save money) or outside (kids tossing stones outside). Unlike the parables in which a story is told to give people a moral lesson or make them understand an idea at a superior level, 303 Obamas stories illustrate the change of attitude he wants to foster by using empathy (for Ashley or the unprivileged kids) that made other people stand up. Being incorporated in a political speech delivered in front of an audience, which reproduces the meeting form described in the stories, creates a mise en abyme. Obama arouses empathy with his stories, but instead of letting his listeners deduce the conclusions they should draw, he bluntly tells them. To arouse more empathy, Obama uses people who are vulnerable. The kids are young boys tossing stones at a boarded-up apartment building across the street. They were like boys in so many cities across the country - boys without prospects, without guidance, without
301. See www.soulpreaching.com/emotionnecessary. 302. H. Mitchell insists on the importance of details: The story becomes vivid when there are concrete details the hearer can envision, and almost anyone can make a hearer see it. [...] For the most part people remember pictures better than they remember words. Henry MITCHELL, op. cit. 303. While providing overarching forms easily recognized by churchgoers, the durable narrative imagery clarifies many immediate examples of oppression, spiritual vexation, revival, and liberation. in Keith D. MILLER, op. cit., pp.225-236.

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hope. And Ashleys mother had cancer and then lost her job and her health care when Ashley was nine. Obama uses exaggerations to make the situation as dark as possible with an accumulative effect created by the two repetitions of the preposition without (tricolon and anaphora). The hopeless and defenseless people in his stories are particularly unprivileged. Obama is addressing adults and plays on the parents instinct of protection and sense of responsibility. Black Church preachers are usually renowned for their stylistic skills. Yet, Baptist minister Sherman Haywood Cox II explains that Black Church tradition is often reduced to those stylistic concerns, hence overlooking other major characteristics like the specificities of the outlook expressed.304

3.1.3. Looking at the world through the prism of Black Church values
Sherman Haywood Cox II tries to make the tradition and specificities of the Black Church better known. He insists on the tendency to look from the angle of the underdog and those who have their backs against the wall, as well as a tendency to see the practical rather than a theoretical angle.305 This also results from the political role that the Black Church has played from its very beginning. The church has always been the place where the grievances of slaves and then segregated African Americans were spoken out. It explains why religion and politics are so congruent in the black community,306 and why the point of view traditionally adopted is that of the oppressed. It also accounts for the emphasis laid on collective salvation, which is specific to the Black Church. Journalist and historian Gary Wills insists on the religious roots of this approach:

304. See www.soulpreaching.com/is-that-black-preaching. 305. See www.soulpreaching.com/is-that-black-preaching. 306. See Sylvie Laurent, les hommes politiques amricains sont souvent des pasteurs lorsquils sont AfricainsAmricains puisque cest l que sexprimaient les revendications politiques des Noirs. Sylvie LAURENT, Le style Obama : un ton de pasteur, mtin de rythmnblues, http://www.telerama.fr/idees/le-style-obama-un-tonde-pasteur-matine-de-rythm-n-blues,35616.php.

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That has always been a mark of black religion in America. Unlike the Calvinist stress on individualism, on the private experience of being saved, blacks thought in terms of the whole people being saved-all of them riding on the Ark, all reaching the Promised Land. 307

This leads to the privileged use of the personal pronoun we, which is precisely the predominant pronoun in Obamas speeches. The Democratic Party addresses the economically and socially disadvantaged. They target the underprivileged categories of people: single parents, working women, ethnic minorities, factory workers and therefore seek to defend their interests and give them a voice. But the Democrats also defend the middle-class against HMOs (Health Maintenance Organizations) and other lobbyists. There is this idea in Obamas speeches of defending ordinary citizens against powerful forces (special interests, lobbyists). And there is also the idea in Obamas speeches that all Americans must move together forward. Obamas redefinition of the American Dream308 reflects that approach of a collective enterprise. That explains also why Obama defines the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s as the last great stage in American history by representing the last item in the list as if no major event had taken place since that time:
Hope is what led a band of colonists to rise up against an empire, what led the greatest of generations to free a continent and heal a nation, what led young women and young men to sit at lunch counters and brave fire hoses and march through Selma and Montgomery for freedom's cause. 309

Obamas belief in the collective power of Democrats, Independents and Republicans310 to make things change explains the appeal to fight for the election but also after the election.

307. Garry WILLS, Two Speeches on Race, The New York Review of Books, Vol.55, No.7, May 1, 2008. See also Mary PATTILLO-McCOY, op. cit., p.773: Prayers often focus not on individual salvation but on the needs of the family, the neighborhood, and even African Americans as a racial group. 308. See in 1.1.2. Praise of America and Americans p.22. 309. Iowa Caucus Night Speech (Des Moines, January 3, 2008). 310. New Hampshire Primary Night Speech (Nashua, January 8, 2008).

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3.2. Acting as a preacher

3.2.1. The building-up of a crescendo in the overall structure
Analyzing Obamas 2004 keynote address, Baptist preacher Michael Dyson claimed that, On that occasion, he obeyed the black preachers dictum: Start low, go slow, rise high, strike fire and sit down. In a more detailed analysis of the steady crescendo reaching final climax, Dyson explained,
After telling the story of his biracial roots, applauding the aspirations of ordinary Americans and praising the virtues of democracy, all in measured tones, he built steadily and rhythmically, with shifting cadences and varied registers, to a climax that exploded in lines of warning to cynics who would divide the country into blue and red states.311

Obamas speeches generally ended with a climax (lyrical outbursts), which is an essential component of sermons for Henry Mitchell.312 Yet, they did not necessarily start low and were more alternations of lyrical outbursts and quieter sections. The only speech that came fairly close to that steady building-up was the speech delivered at Dr Kings Church. This speech does not represent a steady crescendo, however, as the pace quickens and then slows down alternately. Yet, the overall movement is one of gradual build-up. Here are a few sentences from that speech to illustrate the gradual increase of pitch and intensity. The four sentences selected are representative, or so we believe, of the general movement of the speech. It takes half of the speech for Obama to really get warmed up. The first sentence selected is the opening sentence of the speech, the second is taken from the crescendo or warming-up part, the third illustrates the second part of Obamas speech and presents a characteristic of black preaching and the fourth sentence is one of the last.

311. Michael Eric DYSON, His Way With Words Begins At The Pulpit, The Washington Post, January 18, 2009. 312. See 3.1.1.1. A clearly defined yet not-so-rigid pattern p.77.

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Fig.4 Ebenezer 1 - PRAAT The first sentence uttered lasts 10. The pauses are fairly long (1 for the shortest, 1.65 for the longest) and the vowels are lengthened. This rhythm is fairly slow in the middle of the sentence, which starts and ends at a fairly high pitch-level (slightly above 200Hz while the rest is below 175Hz). As for the intensity, it remains below 75dB throughout.

Fig.5 Ebenezer 2 - PRAAT

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The second sentence selected is pronounced after 811 of speech and lasts 8.7. It comes after a lyrical outburst. Obama resumes a quieter voice (mostly below 70dB) and lower tone (mostly below 225 Hz) except for the stresses on unity (274 Hz) and cheap at the end of the sentence (289 Hz). The pace is significantly quicker than in the opening sentence (shorter vowels, fewer and shorter pauses). The other significant difference with the opening line is that it is said with a higher pitch.

Fig.6 Ebenezer 3 - PRAAT The sentence is pronounced after 1857 and lasts 10. The sentence is taken from a section which is characterized by the use of epistrophe. In the two previous sentences Obama had talked about his father and then his mother, ending each time the sentence with I needed some hope to get here. This a very interesting section because Obama imitates preachers whooping. This is what Black preachers often do to close their sermons. It is very close to singing and according to Henry H. Mitchell, it uses the tonality of African languages, which has greater dramatic power and appeal, partly because of its function as a nostalgic ethnic marker and affirmer of identity.313 Pitch is significantly higher than in the two previous examples (mostly between 280 and 342 Hz) though this example is not significantly higher in intensity (mostly 67-79dB). The sentence is almost solely made up of one-syllable words,

313. See Henry H. MITCHELL, op. cit., p.374ff. For more on whooping and audio and video examples, John BLAKE, Black preachers who 'whoop' -- minstrels or ministers?, CNN, October 20, 2010, http://edition.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/10/20/whooping/index.html. The aim is to make people feel the sermon, not just hear it. For the influence of African culture, see also 3.2.2.2. Call-and-response p.104.

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which helps quicken the pace and help produce a very regular rhythm which alternates with fairly significant pauses. The special musicality it creates is based on the use of iambs:314 I got in trouble when I was a teenager and later a succession of trochees: folks dont like to talk about. Henry Allen insisted in The Washington Post on the parallels between Martin Luther King and Obamas cadenced rhythm. Martin Luther King used iambs for the first sentences of the section about the dream he had: I have a dream that one day down in Alabama while Obama used dactyls (metrical foot starting with a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed ones): We are the ones weve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.

Fig.7 Ebenezer 4 - PRAAT This sentence is at the end of the speech (3307-3711) and part of the final lyrical outburst. The intensity is mostly at the same level as in the previous example but the pitch is less high (mostly between 240 and 297Hz). The sentence is also situated in a section based on repetitions (epistrophe). The sentence sounds like a consensual slogan, focusing on general and universal ideas, which can only be applauded by all. To insist on these key-words, the vowels are lengthened. The indirect appeal to people with we cannot walk alone prepares for their interaction. As was stated in 3.1.1.1. A clearly defined yet not-so-rigid pattern, Obamas speech at Dr Kings Church was the only one of the entire campaign whose outline and rhetoric were so
314. Henry ALLEN, op. cit.

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strongly inspired by sermons. It is also the case thus for the tone used and the various specific characteristics (overall crescendo, whooping). Yet, this is the only example in which Obama fully fits the requirements of sermon-making. As was the case for the general outline of the written sermon, this one example is too marginal in Obamas speeches to account for the analogy frequently made between Obamas speeches and sermons, between Obama and preachers.

3.2.2. Adopting the techniques of the Black Church

For Mary Pattillo-McCoy, a sociologist who specialized in social constructionism and African American studies, that is to stay studying how social action is constructed in AfricanAmerican communities: Black church culture constitutes a common language that motivates social action.315 Her studies illustrate the power of church culture as cultural tools for facilitating local organizing and activism among African Americans. Interestingly enough, she worked in Chicagos South Side. For politicians or local organizers working in black communities, adopting black church culture codes is essential.

3.2.2.1. The tone of a preacher

One of the main characteristics of Obamas speaking features is his baritone voice, as was the case of MLK. A baritone voice is a natural asset for a leader, whether spiritual or political, for it is the the voice associated with authority according to opera coach Rick Harrell.316 The cultural conceptions associated with the different types of voices unconsciously influence the listeners, either positively (for Obama) or negatively (for

315. Mary PATTILLO-McCOY, Culture as a Strategy of Action in the Black Community, American Sociological Review, Vol.6, No. 6, December 1998, p.768. 316. Quoted in Frank BROWNING, Does Obamas baritone give him an edge? Salon, February 28, 2008. Jonathan Atler explains that Obamas commanding baritone could make his most ordinary utterances sound profound. Jonathan ATLER, The Promise: President Obama, Year One (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010), p.139.

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Clinton). It makes what is being said more powerful and puts Obama at an advantage against Hillary Clinton, who was often associated to a shrilling mother.317 All those who have sought to analyze Obamas speaking style agree on the strong religious and pastoral influence that actually defines and characterizes it. For Philip Collins, former speechwriter of Tony Blair, His style of delivery is basically churchy, it's religious: the way he slides down some words and hits others - the intonation, the emphasis, the pauses and the silences."318 As was seen in 2.2.4.3. What the tone reveals beyond the message, Obama can use the black-cent to sound black when he wants. Analyzing Obamas catchphrase yes we can, American linguist John McWorther explains that it worked precisely because it was delivered with a black-cent, which conveyed more warmth and made him sound more accessible. As regards the utterance of yes we can, the black-cent is characterized by a shortening of we and the specific, musical black intonation: instead of falling, this doubly-assertive319 expression starts at a high level and ends high. The following prosograms320 indicate the prosodic difference between a black-cent rendition of yes we can and a standard American rendition. The prosograms were made from John McWorthers oral comparison of those two ways of pronouncing the sentence.

317. Says Lynn Meyer, a former political consultant, Every time [Hillary Clinton] changes her register, people use that awful, sexist word 'shrill' and that's really code for the voice of the scold. Quoted in Frank BROWNING, op .cit. See also linguistic anthropologist Jennifer Jacksons analysis of Hillary Clintons voice: If, when Hillary speaks, she starts to sound like all of the negative gender monikers associated with women, thats not good for her. She has to find unmarked space where she is androgynous. Quoted in Kent GARBER, Rhetoric and Speaking Style Affect the Clinton-Obama Race, U.S. News, March 25, 2008. Edith Cresson, who was the first Frenchwoman to become Prime Minister in 1991, had to suffer from similar criticisms. 318. Quoted in Stephanie HOLMES, Obama: Oratory and Originality, BBC News, posted on November 19, 2008 on http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7735014.stm. For Philip Collins, the range of his delivery, the way he alters his pace, tone and rhythm is closer to song. For the pastoral influence, see also Sylvie LAURENT, La bonne parole dObama, ESPRIT, December 2008. 319. Absence of negative marker and presence of the adverb yes. 320. Prosograms present pitch contour stylizations by simulating tonal perception of speech. It is based on an algorithm. The green line indicates the variations of intensity, the blue one those of F0.

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Fig.8 Prosograms of how Blacks and Whites pronounce yes we can

The following prosograms made from Obamas utterances of the gimmick present outlines which are not as clear and precise as those from McWorthers interview. Unlike McWorther who was interviewed by a journalist in excellent conditions, Obama was speaking in front of large audiences whose oral reaction it was important to record as well. The poorer quality of the audio files from Obamas New Hampshire Speech partly explains why the contours of the intonations are less sharp.

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Fig.9 Prosograms of four of Obamas utterances of yes we can during the New Hampshire Primary Night Speech (Nashua, January 8, 2008) As in McWorthers oral representation of the black-cent, Obamas utterances are fairly high both in intensity (mostly above 90dB) and in pitch (generally above 150Hz) while the standard utterance is both lower in intensity (at and below 80dB) and pitch (below 150Hz). The vowel of the auxiliary modal is lengthened. It bears contrastive emphasis because the verb is not mentioned and to stress the idea of capacity conveyed by CAN. In fact, the verb was not mentioned before and therefore the elliptic sentence is open to interpretations. McWorther states that Obama uses the black-cent to pronounce his catchphrase but it seems in fact that it depends on the utterances and in some cases, the intonation is closer to the standard pattern, especially for the first utterances when it is pronounced several times. The successive utterances are more and more patterned on the black-cent rendition. This can demonstrate that, although some of the characteristics of the black-cent are present (higher pitch and higher intensity), it takes some time and possibly warming-up for Obama to adopt the expected intonation. In addition, Obama sometimes pronounces the words as if they were disconnected, marking pauses between each one (which was often rendered in official

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transcripts by using full stops between the words) and stressing all them. Except at the beginning of his enumerations, Obamas rendition of the phrase is generally musical. As Philip Collins pointed out, He is close to singing, just as preaching is close to singing. All writing is a rhythm of kinds and he brings it out, hits the tune. It's about the tune, not the lyrics, with Obama.321 No wonder that American singer and musician Will.I.Am (from the The Black Eyed Peas) decided to make a song to support Obama based on the Yes We Can catchphrase. The cretic foot (101) is here based on the strong form of the modal auxiliary can, . To arouse emotion, Obama also uses repetitions (anaphora in particular) to build up a crescendo. There are usually at least three elements but sometimes more. Such sections are sometimes found at the beginning of certain speeches as is the case with the Iowa Caucus Night Speech which is a Victory Speech. They can also be found in the course of the speech to provide for a change of rhythm and have the audience interact and they can almost always be found toward the end of the speech with the final lyrical outburst. Commenting on the exordium of the Iowa Caucus Night Speech, body language specialist Patti Wood analyzed the magical power of Obamas voice and tone:
He builds and builds and builds his voice up 322he also has long, long pauses. Then he gives time for the audience to respondIt doesnt really matter what hes saying because his voice tells you what you should be feeling about what hes saying. The words are irrelevant. You might not even remember the word message after the speech, but youll remember the feeling.323

The following representations in PRAAT of the three utterances of they said shows that the second and third utterances are higher-pitched (respectively 270-280Hz and 290Hz compared to 245Hz for the first utterance); the intensity is also higher (from 70-75dB to approximately 80dB for the second and third utterances). The first utterance of the verb said is much shorter than the second and third utterance (almost four times as long). The vowel is hence considerably lengthened. All these elements help convey a sense of building-up.

321. Quoted in Stephanie HOLMES, op. cit. 322. The three occurrences of the verb builds correspond to the initial three sentences of the Iowa Speech: They said this day would never come. They said our sights were set too high. They said this country was too divided, too disillusioned to ever come together around a common purpose. 323. Patti Woods online comment is available at www.pattiwood.net/program.asp?PageID=5396.

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Fig.10 They said 1 Iowa Caucus Night Speech (Des Moines, January 3, 2008)

Fig.11 They said 2 Iowa Caucus Night Speech (Des Moines, January 3, 2008)

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Fig.12 They said 3 Iowa Caucus Night Speech (Des Moines, January 3, 2008)

Patti Wood insists on the use of pauses to let the audience respond and they therefore function as an invitation to interaction. Pauses often punctuate Obamas sentences. This has stood out as a major characteristic feature of his spoken style, largely taken up by imitators.324 In that case, pauses perform a different function. They reflect the pastoral tone. It is interesting to listen to Lyndon B. Johnsons 1965 Inaugural Address. His very frequent and fairly long pauses recall Kings delivery of I Have A Dream. Obamas pauses are never as long. According to Pierre Lon, pauses can also be used to emphasize a word. They precede the important word and the pause is a sign sent by the speaker to the people he is addressing to pay attention to what is going to be said.325 It is the case for example in Obamas Speech on Patriotism (Independence, June 30, 2008): I will never --- question the patriotism of others in this campaign. (pause for applause) But I will not stand idly by when others question mine.326 Or in the same speech: I think it is fitting to reflect --- on the meaning of patriotism, --- theirs and ours. In this second example, the two pauses have different

324. See Sylvie LAURENT for the analysis of Obamas use of scansion, Le style Obama: un ton de pasteur, mtin de rythmnblues, http://www.telerama.fr/idees/le-style-obama-un-ton-de-pasteur-matine-de-rythm-nblues,35616.php. See also Christophe B. Duncans website (http://www.christopherbduncan.com/christopherbduncanisbarack.html) who has been imitating Obama in the Jay Leno Show on NBC since the 2008 campaign. 325. Pierre LON, Prcis de Phonostylistique (Paris : Nathan, 1993), pp.143-4. Lon speaks of emphasis by expressive juxtaposition (emphase par joncture expressive). 326. There is also in fact a contrast as regards the pace of delivery of those two sentences. The first one is delivered at a fairly slow pace while the second one is uttered much faster (and also more loudly).

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functions. The first one is used to delay the moment for Obama to say what they should reflect upon. It lets people time to wonder what they should ponder about. As for the second pause, it seems to mark the end of the sentence, but Obama unexpectedly adds a precision. The long pause in the first example to let people applause also functions that way. The paragraph seems to have reached its end, but Obama suddenly centers the argument back on him (the sentence starts and closes with 1st-personal pronouns).327 Obama actually alters pace of delivery, rhythm and intonation according to what he is saying just as the preacher alters as he needs to adopt the appropriate tone and pace to tell a story, comment on the Scripture or appeal to his congregants emotional reaction as the sermon ends. When he is not building up a crescendo, Obama often speaks with a regular rhythm. For Patti Wood, [In Obamas speeches] the cadence and the rhythm are hypnotic. He actually speaks on a beat. Its a model of the Baptist preacher.328 Obama adapts his tone to the section of the speech, using the most adequate preachers oratorical tools. Obamas style combines the characteristic features of the black preachers speaking style. For Peter Prober, director of George Mason University's forensics team, Obamas shift from politician to preacher can be determined very precisely:
With Obama, there's a shift in tone from being a politician in Iowa to a preacher in New Hampshire. He has a new religiosity in his tone when he talks about "three words that will ring." He's embracing the pulpit. He really does hearken back to Martin Luther King a lot.329

Yet, most of the characteristic features were already present before: the building-up of crescendos (often combined with anaphora), the frequent pauses. What changes with the New Hampshire speech is that he uses the call-and-response technique to close his speech with the catchphrase Yes We Can.

327. This function of pauses in Obamas spoken style is fairly frequent. The additional idea, which seems to come as an afterthought, is carefully orchestrated. See n.126 p.37 for another example of this two-time construction. 328. Patti Woods online comment originally broadcast on the History Channel, www.pattiwood.net/program.asp?PageID=5396. 329. Quoted in Jennie YABROFF, The Mother and the Orator, Newsweek, January 10, 2008.

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3.2.2.2. Call-and-response

Call-and-response consists in an interaction between the preacher and group of congregants with the preacher calling for his congregants reply. 330 Its function is to unite preacher and congregants and achieve communion. Using the call-and-response style, the preacher and the congregation, in musical and verbal cooperation, make the journey toward freedom in one body.331According to anthropologist Melville Herskovits, call-and-response is rooted in the African oral tradition; it is a survival of African tradition in the United States.332 Interestingly, Henry Mitchell defined Chicagos Trinity Church which Obama attended for decades as one of the strongest black churches in commitment to the spiritual strengths of indigenous culture.333 From 1971, Trinity slowly adopted a more ethnic-oriented approach, which was reinforced in 1972 with the arrival of Jeremiah Wright. Wright increased call-and-response and introduced gospel music (with a youth choir). The motto of the Church which has not changed since 1971 affirms black pride: Unashamedly black Unapologetically Christian334 and among the slogans to define its identity: Imagine where Africa is a part of ones theology.335 It is therefore not surprising that Obama who attended Trinity Church for decades took up the call-and-response to create that same sense of unity with his audience. The most famous example of call-and-response in Obamas speeches is with the use of the motto Yes we can, which he first used in his New Hampshire (Defeat) Speech to galvanize and remobilize his supporters at the end of his speech.336 The speech had in fact originally been drafted as a victory speech and was rewritten by Favreau in the three hours preceding its
330. That the audience shall play a central role in the performance is a characteristic feature of oral cultures. Cheryl WHARRY, op. cit., p.204. 331. Mary PATTILLO-McCOY, op. cit., p.770. 332. Melville J. HERSKOVITS, The Myth of the Negro Past (Boston: Beacon Press, 1958), quoted in Cheryl WHARRY, op. cit., pp.203-4. 333. Henry MITCHELL, op. cit., p.371 ff. 334. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, more and more African Americans considered Christianity as the religion of the whites and many converted to Islam like Malcolm X. Trinity lost many congregants and the 1971 turningpoint (reaffirmation and enhancement of Black identity) was decided as a response to that situation. There was also an evolution in the Churchs social approach under Wright. From being a middle-class Church, Trinity increasingly helped and supported the poor. 335. See Trinitys website: http://www.trinitychicago.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=114 where the Church presents itself as follows: We are an African people, and remain "true to our native land," the mother continent, the cradle of civilization. God has superintended our pilgrimage through the days of slavery, the days of segregation, and the long night of racism. 336. The Clinton team developed a counter-slogan which first appeared during her Texas and Ohio Primary Night Speech on March 4, 2008: yes she will. As noted before, while Obamas campaign centered on Americans (use of the personal pronoun we), Clintons campaign revolved around her (use of the personal pronoun she).

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delivery.337 The sentence was used at the end (epistrophe) of each sentence of the epilogue and after the third occurrences, people started to take it up. The repetitions enabled Obama to build up as more and more people joined him. At the end of the speech, it had reached a climax and become a chant taken up by all his supporters.338 For Jennifer Jackson, linguistic anthropologist, Obama called for the call-and-response by elongating his vowels or doing a lilt in his intonation. These phonological modifications worked as interactional cues.339 Cheryl Wharry, a sociolinguist, studied discourse markers in sermons to determine their functions and noticed that sermon discourse markers were rarely a call for response (one out of 112) but were generally used to mark textual boundaries. According to Cheryl Wharry, the calls for response were mostly phonological and had to do with rhythm and intonation.340 This shows that Obama masters the technique and uses it very similarly to how a preacher does, not trying to imitate but reproducing it. In the studies led by Wharry, the call for response came from a direct interrogative question in only one out of the 112 cases she had recorded. It was however what Obama used in the other example of call-and-response that can be found in his campaign. A tired Obama used the technique in the last speech he gave before the election. Sounding clearly exhausted,341 Obama started to deliver his stump speech mechanically, stumbling at times. Yet, fairly suddenly Obama switched to a fairly long personal campaign anecdote about an encounter with an elderly woman he met at a meeting in Greenwood, South Carolina. To welcome Obama, the woman had started shouting Fired up? Ready to go? and the other supporters attending the meeting had repeated her chant. After finishing the anecdote, Obama ended his speech in a climax by taking up the chant and interacting with his huge audience. Obama mainly echoed preachers as regards the frequent pauses and building-up of crescendos. What reinforced the analogy with preacher was the many parallels with Martin Luther King that Obama deliberately sought to establish.
337. Ashley PARKER, What would Obama say?, The New York Times, January 20, 2008. 338. The gimmick was also used to conclude the South Carolina Primary Night Speech (Columbia, January 26, 2008), Super Tuesday Night Speech (Chicago, February 5, 2008), Texas and Ohio Primary Night Speech (San Antonio, March 4, 2008), Final Campaign Speech (Manassas, November 3, 2008) and the Election Night Victory Speech (Chicago, November 4, 2008). 339. Quoted in Kent GARBER, op. cit.. 340. This may indicate that the preacher has other strategies for calling. Most often, the preachers in this study appeared to rely more on phonological prominence; the congregation is well attuned to the preachers rhythm and can interact accordingly, without the need for a direct call to say Amen. Cheryl WHARRY, op. cit, pp.2212. 341. The speech was delivered late at night (approximately 11 pm) in front of a huge crowd of 100,000 people. See Ewen MacASKILL, Tired Obama addresses huge Virginia crowd at final campaign rally, The Guardian, November 4, 2008.

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3.3. Echoing MLK

He led with words, but he also led with deeds.342

There is typically and frequently a strong political message in Black church sermons and hence no clear-cut frontier between the realms of politics and religion in the Black church tradition. It is deeply rooted in a long-standing political struggle for liberation from oppression and a strongly-held belief in spiritual liberation. Today, combining politics and religion is seen as a matter of fact among black ministers as Mary Pattillo-McCoy pointed out, Over 90 percent of the clergy [] believed that churches should express their views on political and social matters.343 Martin Luther Kings life epitomizes this close-knit interrelation between politics and religion. A minister at Ebenezer Church in Atlanta, MLK was also a vigorous and unyielding political leader on the national stage. Barack Obama often referred to MLK, both directly and indirectly, seeking to establish a connection, if not a legacy between them two, and heavily relying on symbols. The Acceptance Speech was for example delivered on August 28th, on the forty-fifth anniversary of MLKs I Have A Dream speech.

3.3.1. Using MLKs words

Barack Obama often uses well-known expressions from King so as to emphasize the historical and political connection. Shortly before the primary season started, Obama directly quoted King by using the expression the fierce urgency of now, a key-expression from the I Have a Dream speech.344 The expression was used by Obama at the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner organized in Iowa on November 10, 2007, and again on December 27, 2007, also in Iowa.345 The whole speech was actually devoted to that idea of urgency. The last days before the first caucus reveal a certain tension. That sense of urgency was also mentioned later on in the campaign, for example in the speech delivered in Dr Kings Church on January 20, 2008
342. Barack Obama about Martin Luther King, Speech at Dr Kings Church (Atlanta, January 20, 2008). 343. Mary PATTILLO-McCOY, op. cit., p.770. 344. The expression was also used in MLKs fierce diatribe against the Vietnam War delivered on April 4, 1967. The speech was entitled Beyond Vietnam. 345. Obama multiplied events in Iowa prior to the caucus. Iowa is by far the state where the Obama team organized the highest number of events: 178; nearly all of those 178 events were scheduled before the caucus. The strategy was to win the first symbolical caucus at all costs to gain legitimacy and credibility and set a momentum. The caucus was also symbolical because Iowa is a mostly white state and therefore it was a victory that would make all the others possible.

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but it is a recurrent topic and often appears in a number of lexical variations: we are at a crucial moment (October 2, 2007), we are at a defining moment in our history, our moment is now346 and this is the moment (December 27, 2007) for example. Obama emphasizes either the assessment of the present and overwhelming difficulties (repeated use of the deictic this, which is generally stressed) or the historic chance of taking over, the optimistic belief that peoples victory is at hand (use of the possessive determiner our). Hence, from the fierce urgency of now, Obama subtly shifts to the fierce urgency of us. In some cases, he even defines the projected upcoming victory as a past turning-point in American collective and popular history and a moment of pride. This is in particular the case in the epilogue of the Final Primary Speech as Obama launches the campaign against McCain:
Because if we are willing to work for it, and fight for it, and believe in it, then I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on Earth. This was the moment this was the time when we came together to remake this great nation so that it may always reflect our very best selves, and our highest ideals.

The sense of pride is developed through the use of a number of superlatives which serve to characterize both America and Americans. This confidence in ultimate victory also echoed the epilogues of Martin Luther Kings major political speeches.347 It is also the case with expressions that were repeated several times in MLKs speeches through anaphora. For example, the expression Something is happening which is repeated twice in the speech Ive Been to the Mountaintop (April 3, 1968, the day before he was slain), one of MLKs most famous speeches. This expression is slightly modified by Obama by using the same words but with a different syntactic pattern, the words something and happening being given special focus as they are juxtaposed and set apart. Theres something happening is repeated five times - including a false start due to overwhelming applause - in the speech delivered after his first defeat in the New Hampshire Primary and
346. The expression is actually used as a title for the speech delivered on December 27, 2007. Obamas speech is mostly based upon those words by MLK. 347. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land! (Martin Luther King, April 3, 1968). Obama echoed those words in his Election Night Victory Speech: The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America - I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you - we as a people will get there. (Chicago, November 4, 2008). Interestingly, this quote also contains one of Obamas very few uses of a performative verb. It is worth noticing that it comes after the final victory. I have personally not found any occurrences before, which proves in any case that even if he used any before, this was extremely marginal.

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was never used afterward. The indefinite pronoun something is not immediately defined; after several repetitions to build up suspense and sustain the audiences attention, it is ultimately defined as Change is what happening in America. It has often been said that Barack Obama recalled Martin Luther King as an orator. It is not the case however in all his speeches but it is the case in some key-speeches as is the New Hampshire Primary speech. It is not surprising that Barack Obama has willingly multiplied the references to MLK in that particular speech. In addition to the macrostructure which is clearly delineated through anaphora/epistrophe,348 Barack Obama sought to appear as a political leader carried by MLKs spirit. Though the speech is delivered after his first defeat, it resonates with optimistic undertones (what weve accomplished) and the awareness of a movement on the way (use of the gerund happening). The indefinite something never gets precisely defined, but the point is elsewhere; the point is to make Kings words resonate through the ages. It is the same with the expression, Unity is how we shall overcome,349 which echoes the battle cry of the civil rights movement. Two other occurrences of the verb overcome can be found in the South Carolina Primary Night Speech delivered less than a week later (Columbia, January 26, 2008), but hardly ever afterward in the campaign. There is clearly an attempt to revive the spirit of the civil rights movement to woo voters in the South, in particular African Americans. Yet, while Martin Luther Kings rhetoric used to revolve around the fight for freedom, Obama hardly ever pronounces the word. Beyond the different thematic approaches, however, there are undeniable common features in the form of addressing people and the way of delivering.

3.3.2. Sounding like MLK?

It is mostly when Obama had to deliver a crucial speech that he sought to establish a greater identification with Martin Luther King, using MLKs very words in combination with the repetitive patterns commonly used by preachers. The words taken up are generally famous words or expressions that should be easily identified as MLKs words and suggest an
348. See 3.1.2.1. The use of repetition p.85. 349. Speech at Dr Kings Church (Atlanta, January 20, 2008).

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immediate connection between Obama and King. It is especially the case in the lyrical outburst which precedes the epilogue of the speech delivered in Dr Kings church with the use of symploce (anaphora combined with epistrophe).
Brothers and sisters, we cannot walk alone. In the struggle for justice and for equality, we cannot walk alone. In the struggle for opportunity and justice,350 we cannot walk alone. In the struggle to heal this nation and repair this world, we cannot walk alone.

Interestingly enough, Obama begins the lyrical outburst by shifting to a religious semantics. He addresses his brothers and sisters, which is heavily connoted religiously, instead of addressing his fellow citizens. His rhetoric here forcefully echoes that of Martin Luther King: the repeated reference to a struggle as though 2008 recalled the civil rights movements and fights of the 1960s and the expression we cannot walk alone, which was pronounced by Martin Luther King in I Have a Dream.351 Yet, the topic is different; the key-word in MLKs speeches was freedom. It was indeed at the core of the struggle; the expression Let freedom ring was indeed repeated eight times and appeared as a forceful leitmotiv in I Have a Dream. The analysis of the respective prosograms of Kings utterance of the sentence We cannot walk alone and of Obamas repetitions of the phrase shows that Kings delivery is marked by a fairly long pause between the modal auxiliary and the verb (approximately 0.8s) and a significant lengthening of the vowels. The intonation remains high and only lowers on the final syllable. In Obamas speech, that section represents the main and final clause of the sentence. Obamas numerous repetitions develop a sense of crescendo (in intensity) and each utterance is longer than the previous one. The first utterance is the most dissimilar to Kings delivery but each new utterance reveals greater similarity by gradually lengthening the vowels. The second, third and fourth utterances reveal a slow fall. The last utterance presents a significant pause between cannot and walk just as in Kings speech, yet not as long. And even if the vowels are lengthened, the utterance still remains shorter than in Kings speech.

350. According to the final draft as prepared for delivery, the expressions were supposed to be peace and justice and then opportunity and equality. Taken up by the impetus, Obama mixed up the notions. 351. Obama uses it again in the epilogue of his Acceptance Speech at the Democratic National Convention (August 28, 2008).

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Fig.13 Prosograms: Barack Obama and Martin Luther Kings utterances of We cannot walk alone.352

Like Martin Luther King in his renowned speech on Vietnam,353 Obama often concluded his speeches with a series of sentences or one very long sentence containing a
352. The recording of Kings I Have a Dream, including the loud participation of the audience, being of relatively poor quality, the obtained prosogram is partly faulty: King does not say anything between 0.8s and 1.6s. That interval should therefore be considered as a pause. The seconds are indicated on the horizontal line. 353. The epilogue of the speech on Vietnam, A Time to Break Silence delivered on April 4, 1967; the epilogue of I Have a Dream is characterized by clauses introduced by when.

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series of hypothetical clauses.354 It was especially the case with the speeches at the beginning of the campaign, at Dr Kings Church and at the very end of the campaign, just before the election. The pattern of the protasis was generally the same, except for the speech delivered at Dr Kings Church. It consisted in conditioning the victory on peoples mobilization and volition. According to the speeches, it was played in three different variations: if you want, if you will and if youre willing to which are repeated several times whereas in Martin Luther Kings speech, the condition rests on an inclusive we, hence involving everyone: If we will. In Obamas epilogues, it is different. It is the voters who can put Obama in a position to act. Interestingly enough, the pattern as regards the apodosis evolves in the course of the campaign and then I, becomes then we, adding further cohesion to the epilogue and maintaining the focus on people instead of shifting it to Obama alone. Depending on the speeches, the intonation is either rising to convey energy (Announcement Speech, Springfield, February 9, 2007) or falling to convey solemnity (Turn the Page, San Diego, April 28, 2007).

354. It is the case in fact with the epilogue of the speech that pushed Obama into the limelight at the 2004 DNC Convention.

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CONCLUSION

Dont tell me words dont matter. Barack Obama (February 17, 2008)

Using a sentence from Margaret Atwoods The Handmaids Tale, it might well be said about Obamas style that its genius is synthesis. The various components of Obamas rhetorical and oratorical styles reveal multiple sources of inspiration in the form as well as in substance. The richness of his stylistic devices is combined with the now prevailing feature of storytelling and the more traditional praise of the country and nation. By adopting the tone of a preacher, Obamas powerful voice gains an even greater sense of authority. Through the use of call-and-response, he naturally managed to impose the upbeat catchphrase yes we can that soon replaced the shouting of his name, what supporters traditionally chant. It is fitting that he used interaction (and thus polyphony) to impose that message of collective action. This is symbolic of the whole strategy: centering the whole discourse on America and Americans, not on a specific agenda. Even the self-referential anecdotes about his life function to illustrate how intrinsically American his own experience is. Obama is not the first,

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however, to have used a preachers tone: Lyndon Johnson did, and according to Jennifer Jackson, so did also George W. Bush.355 Obama also used the great voices of the past to stress the historical continuity with those respected elders. The trumpeted and recurrent references to Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King overshadow the tacit discursive influence of Reagan. The connection with Lincoln and King is more symbolical than truly historical and has more to do with what the two represent in American collective (and partial) memory. That simplistic approach helps conjure up a mythical America through words. For Catherine Steel, Professor of Classics at the University of Glasgow, they also fulfill another function. Drawing a parallel with Cicero, she considered that Obamas compensatory talent for the lack of family backing and the absence of a military record was a skill at setting up a genealogy of forebears not biological forebears but intellectual forebears. For Cicero, it was Licinius Crassus, Scipio Aemilianius and Cato the Elder. For Obama, it is Lincoln, Roosevelt and King.356 This particular and specific combination of rhetorical and oratorical elements provides us with a detailed guideline of Obamas idiolect and spoken style. Yet, the measure of some specific components like the black-cent, the preachers tone or the use of call-and-response was adapted to circumstances, audiences and venues, depending partly on the distance Obama would seek or need to establish from the black community. The closer he got to an ethnic group, the further he moved away from the others.357 Whatever the exact measure of those specific components, which mainly had to do with his oratorical skills, the rhetorical characteristics of the speeches remained unchanged. It is therefore both ironical and quite unexpected to hear Obamas characteristic phrases and slogans such as Change we can all believe in in the voice of his former Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton in the speech she delivered to give him her endorsement.358 Some ideas like the invisible Americans that Hillary Clinton developed as a major theme of her campaign are present in the Reconciliation Speech; the speech also includes a storytelling section which, by focusing on her connection

355. [George W. Bush] also handled the register of the sermon. It was not the African-American sermon; it was the Protestant southern sermon. He was never quoting scripture, but he did a warped register of the sermon. He was using the language of a preacher. Interviewed by Kent GARBER, Rhetoric and Speaking-Style Affect the Clinton-Obama Race, U.S. News, March 25, 2008. See also Deborah CALDWELL, George W. Bush: Presidential Preacher, The Baptist Standard, February 17, 2003. 356. Charlotte HIGGINS, The new Cicero, The Guardian, November 26, 2008. 357. Jennifer Jackson addresses the problem of indexing a specific group in the interview given to Kent Garber. Kent GARBER, op. cit. 358. It is also ironical as Hillary Clinton had accused Obama of plagiarizing the phrases of others. See n.6 p.6.

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with individual ordinary Americans, sounds much as it did in her campaign speeches.359 Yet, the beginning of the speech echoes Obamas usual introductory account of the journey travelled so far; there is also a dramatization of the stakes of the 2008 election, presenting it as the beginning of a new era.360 The attack on McCain also echoes the strategy used by Obama when attacking the Republican candidate: start by honoring the war hero and then attack his political ideas.361 On February 9, 2008, just after it became clear that McCain would be the Republican nominee, Clinton criticized him without praising his military service. She hardly ever mentioned him in her speeches afterward and until the end of the primary season. When she did, it generally amounted to a rhetorical question to ask who could most surely defeat him in November. Unlike Obamas speeches which began to focus on McCain very early in the campaign, Clinton kept fighting the primary season as an internal Democratic contest all along.362 Many key-expressions from Obamas speeches have sneaked into Clintons Reconciliation Speech: the country we love, Americans who love this country, We are one America. ; I know hell work for you, hell fight for you and hell stand up for you every single day in the White House.363 There is obviously a deliberate wish to show with and through words that Clinton is fully in tune with Obama. So, Obama: speechwriter of Clinton? What Obama successfully managed to do throughout his campaign is to show that he could inspire the country with his words, restore a damaged confidence by praising the unique American experiment. As was seen in the introduction and in Patti Woods comments,364 Obamas speeches manage to produce a feel-good effect, which is both
359. Obama sometimes implied a direct connection with the anonymous Americans he mentions with the use of verbs like see or tell but never uses direct speech in the short narratives. Clinton usually reinforces the dramatic effect produced by using direct speech as she did in the Reconciliation Speech. Here is one example among others: Were standing for the mother who grabbed my hand and asked me, what youre going to make sure you do so I have health insurance? and began to cry because even if she works three jobs, she cant afford insurance. (Unity, June 27, 2008). 360. This election is one of the most important in our nations history. See also the frequent use of this in that speech to insist on the urgency of the moment. In Clintons campaign speeches, change was hardly ever set into historical perspective but meant a change of Administration with the Democrats replacing the Republicans in the White House. 361. Now Barack and I both have a great deal of respect for Senator McCain and his heroic service to our nation but in the end, after eight years under President Bush, Senator McCain is simply offering four years more. Interestingly, Clinton refers to John McCain here as Senator McCain as Obama usually did. In her speeches, she usually just called him McCain. 362. In fact, before the Primary season actually started, Clinton concentrated her campaign speeches on putting forward her experience and attacking the Republicans. She took on Barack Obama for his lack of experience: Change, change is just a word if you do not have the strength and experience to make it happen. Hillary Clinton at the Iowa Jefferson Jackson Dinner (Des Moines, November 7, 2007). She changed strategy as the Primaries appeared much tougher than expected. 363. See n.114 p.35 for Obamas use of the expression. 364. See p.8 and p.100.

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inspirational and therapeutic. His speeches were not only about building a new future, they also provided an immediate positive effect. New Yorker journalist George Packer evokes how he personally felt after attending one of Obamas rallies, Within minutes, I couldnt recall a single thing that he had said, and the speech dissolved into pure feeling, which stayed with me for days. 365 By praising America and Americans, Obama also managed to reconstruct a nation whose self-confidence had seriously faltered after 9/11 and the stalemates in Afghanistan and Iraq.366 This inspirational force helped cast Obama as a presidential figure and a would-be rhetorical president.367 That rhetorical aspect of the presidential function has now become intrinsic to it, all the more so with the ever-developing communication tools which require the President to go public as much as possible and establish a direct link with the population that is sometimes used to undermine the influence of the Congress. 368 For Elvin T. Lim who promotes the necessary rehabilitation of presidential rhetoric, the president should have pedagogical leadership; Lim insists on the difference between great communicator and great teacher.369 President Obama got personally involved in the complex and fiery debate on healthcare legislation and delivered a major speech to Congress on September 9, 2009 to present and defend his plan. It would in fact be fairly relevant to prolong this research and extend it to Obamas presidential speeches, to see how his style has evolved and how the visionary rhetoric has adapted to political responsibility and accountability. The Inaugural

365. George PACKER, The Choice, The New Yorker, January 28, 2008. Packer quoted in this article former Secretary of Labor Robert B. Reich who found Obama particularly inspiring, Obama is to me very analogous to Robert Kennedy. The closer you got to him, the more you realized that his magic lay in his effect on others rather than in any specific policies. For some, however, the magic did not last long, see Robert SAMULESON, Inside Obamas Rhetoric, The New York Sun, February 20, 2008. 366. This idea is largely developed by Christian SALMON: Obama constitue une tentative de faire rebondir le rcit amricain mis mal et de reconstruire narrativement une identit amricaine en renouant avec ses archtypes. Christian Salmon interviewed by Marjorie PAILLON and Julien LANDFRIED. Posted on June 6, 2008 on www.ilovepolitics.info (www.ilovepolitics.info/avec-obama-c-est-toute-une-amerique-qui-retrouve-sesreperes-perdus-depuis-le-11-septembre_a617.html). 367. The concept of rhetorical president was developed by Jeffrey K. Tulis and is directly associated to President Reagan, his mastery of communication and his power of conviction. Jeffrey K. TULIS, The Rhetorical President (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988). After A more perfect union, David Broder made an analogy between Obama and Reagan, In recent decades, few presidents other than Ronald Reagan have been able to lead the nation by the power of their words. What Obama showed in Philadelphia [with the race speech] is the potential similarly to inform, educate and inspire people. David BRODER, The Real Value of Obamas Speech, The Washington Post, March 23, 2008. 368. See in particular Bill Clintons showdown with the Republican Congress in 1995-6. Non-essential services were suspended for over two months (November 1995-January 1996). Clinton managed to have the Republicans (and Congress) blamed for the crisis. 369. Elvin T. LIM, The Anti-Intellectual Presidency: The Decline of Presidential Rhetoric from George Washington to George W. Bush (New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), pp.119-120.

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Speech provided a first glimpse at the solemn tone President Obama would use; it echoed the tone he had used to deliver A more perfect union. When the situation requires though, Obama revives the rhetoric of unity and sounds very much as the presidential hopeful used to sound. Obamas televised announcement of bin Ladens death on May 2, 2011 provides many echoes with the campaign speeches that this dissertation sought to analyze and characterize. Obama included in that announcement pathos and storytelling370, recalled the sense of national unity that prevailed after the 9/11 attacks when people united as one American family and concluded the announcement by praising America and defining who we are. Come 2012, Obama might well need to rely on the same rhetorical tools he used in 2008 to capitalize on his record, provided the economic situation improves. After taking on the cluster of Republican hopeful candidates at the 2011 Annual White House Correspondents Dinner, comedian Seth Meyer addressed President Obama and told him, I can tell you who can definitely beat you in 2012: 2008 Barack Obama. Whatever happens at the 2012 presidential election, Obamas 2008 victory will remain historic for its symbolical meaning. By recounting the past century through the eyes of a 106year-old black woman, Ann Dixon Cooper, in his Election Night Victory Speech, Obama helped measure how much progress had been made by African Americans since the Jim Crow era. Hailed by some as a new black Moses371 or as the prophesied,372 Obama sought however to deliberately evade the issue of race throughout the campaign. When forced to address it, he presented himself as the metaphor of the American unity he had always been promoting. His major campaign achievement was precisely to convince voters to look at him and see an American. Someone who could represent them all.

370. We know that the worst images are those that were unseen to the world. The empty seat at the dinner table. Children who were forced to grow up without their mother or their father. Parents who would never know the feeling of their childs embrace. Nearly 3,000 citizens taken from us, leaving a gaping hole in our hearts. 371. Collin Craig, quoted in David A. FRANK, The Prophetic Voice and the Face of the Other in Barack Obama's A More Perfect Union Address, March 18 2008, Rhetoric & Public Affairs, Vol. 12, No.2, 2009. 372. David REMNICK, The Joshua Generation, The New Yorker, November 17, 2008.

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APPENDIX

The personal narratives used by Barack Obama: Speech Political issues Prefabs (the paradigms analyzed in the dissertation are in bold characters) Our Moment is Now (Des Moines, December 27, 2007). The elderly, health care
I've heard from seniors who were betrayed by CEOs who dumped their pensions while pocketing bonuses, and from those who still can't afford their prescriptions because Congress refused to negotiate with the drug companies for the cheapest available price. I've met Maytag workers who labored all their lives only to see their jobs shipped overseas; who now compete with their teenagers for $7-an-hour jobs at Wal-Mart. I've spoken with teachers who are working at donut shops after school just to make ends meet; who are still digging into their own pockets to pay for school supplies. Just two weeks ago, I heard a young woman in Cedar Rapids who told me she only gets three hours of sleep because she goes to bed at ten and gets up at one because she works the night shift after a full day of college and still can't afford all the health care that she needs for a sister who has cerebral palsy. She spoke not with self-pity but with determination.[] I've spoken to veterans who talk with pride about what they've accomplished in Afghanistan and Iraq, but who nevertheless think of those they've left behind and question the wisdom of our mission in Iraq; the mothers weeping in my arms over the memories of their sons; the disabled or homeless vets who wonder why their service has been forgotten.

Industrial relocation, low wages Teachers, low wages, education

Health care, students standard of living

Veterans, Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq

Iowa Caucus Health care, Night Speech students standard of living (Des Moines, January 3, 2008). War in Iraq

Hope is what I saw in the eyes of the young woman in Cedar Rapids who works the night shift after a full day of college and still can't afford health care for a sister who's ill; a young woman who still believes that this country will give her the chance to live out her dreams. Hope is what I heard in the voice of the New Hampshire woman who told me that she hasn't been able to breathe since her nephew left for Iraq; who still goes to bed each night praying for his safe return.

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Potomac Low wages Primary Night Speech (Madison, Health care, February 12, students standard of 2008) living

It's the dream of the father who goes to work before dawn and lies awake at night wondering how he's going to pay the bills. [] It's the dream of the woman who told me she works the night shift after a full day of college and still can't afford health care for a sister who's ill. [] It's the dream of the senior I met who lost his pension when the company he gave his life to went bankrupt. [] It's the dream of the teacher who works at Dunkin Donuts after school just to make ends meet. [] We're here because there are workers in Youngstown, Ohio, who've watched job after job after job disappear because of bad trade deals like NAFTA, who've worked in factories -- who've worked in factories for 20 years, and then one day they come in and literally see the equipment unbolted from the floor and sent to China. [] We're here because of the mother in San Antonio that I met just today, just this afternoon. She's got 2year-old twins who are legally blind. She somehow entered into a predatory loan and saw her mortgage payments double in two weeks and has paid thousands in fees to try to stave off foreclosure. She told me she was on the verge of packing and didn't know where her family would go next. [] We're here because of the mother that I met in Green Bay, Wisconsin, who gave me this bracelet that I'm wearing. Inscribed on it is the name of her son, Ryan. He was 20 when he was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq. And next to his name, it says, "All gave some, but he gave all." They should know that there's nothing empty about the call for affordable health care that came from the young student who told me she gets three hours of sleep because she works the night shift after a full day of college and still can't pay her sister's medical bills. There's nothing empty about the call for help that came from the mother in San Antonio who saw her mortgage double in two weeks and didn't know where her two-year olds would sleep at night when they were kicked out of their home. There's nothing empty about the call for change that

The elderly, industrial bankruptcies

Wisconsin Industrial Primary relocation/unemploy Night Speech ment (Houston, February 19, 2008). International trade agreements

Bankruptcy, housing

War in Iraq

Texas and Health care, Ohio students standard of Primary living Night Speech (Houston, March 4, 2008) Bankrupty / Housing

The elderly

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Speech to AFL-CIO
(Philadelphia, April 22, 2008) Final Primary Night Speech (St Paul, June 3, 2008)

Health care, students standard of living

came from the elderly woman who wants it so badly that she sent me an envelope with a money order for $3.01 and a simple verse of scripture tucked inside. We're going to finally help folks like the young woman I met who works the night shift after a full day of college and still can't afford medicine for a sister who's ill. Maybe if he went to Iowa and met the student who works the night shift after a full day of class and still can't pay the medical bills for a sister who's ill, he'd understand that she can't afford four more years of a health care plan that only takes care of the healthy and wealthy.

Health care, students standard of living

Speech on Health Care

Health care, There's the young woman I met who works the night students standard of shift after a full day of college and still can't afford medicine for a sister who's ill; or the man I met who living (Bristol, June almost lost his home because he has three children with 5, 2008) Bankruptcy, housing cystic fibrosis and couldn't pay their health care bills; who still doesn't have health insurance for himself or his wife and lives in fear that a single illness could cost them everything. The Acceptance Speech (Denver, August 28, 2008) Treatment of veterans Because, in the faces of those young veterans who come back from Iraq and Afghanistan, I see my grandfather, who signed up after Pearl Harbor, marched in Patton's army, and was rewarded by a grateful nation with the chance to go to college on the G.I. Bill. In the face of that young student, who sleeps just three hours before working the night shift, I think about my mom, who raised my sister and me on her own while she worked and earned her degree, who once turned to food stamps, but was still able to send us to the best schools in the country with the help of student loans and scholarships. When I -- when I listen to another worker tell me that his factory has shut down, I remember all those men and women on the South Side of Chicago who I stood by and fought for two decades ago after the local steel plant closed. And when I hear a woman talk about the difficulties of starting her own business or making her way in the world, I think about my grandmother, who worked her way up from the secretarial pool to middle management, despite years of being passed over for promotions because she was a woman.

Health Care, students standard of living

Unemployment, industrial crisis

Sex discrimination (glass ceiling, lack of opportunities)

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TIMELINE OF KEY-SPEECHES

Before the 2007-8 campaign

July 27, 2004

The Audacity of Hope,373 Boston (MA): key-address delivered at the Democratic National Convention to support the Kerry-Edwards ticket; the speech that propelled Obama into the limelight.

During the campaign

The primary campaign

373. The Audacity of Hope, A More Perfect Union, A World that Stands as One and The American Promise are the official titles of these speeches. For the other key-speeches, the name used in the media was either based on the function of the speech (Announcement or Candidacy Speech for example) or on the event (Final Primary Night Speech).

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February 10, 2007

The Announcement Speech, Springfield (IL): Obama announced he is running for President.

January 3, 2008

Iowa Caucus Night Speech, Des Moines (IA): Obama wins the first caucus in a mainly white state, hence demonstrating that he is no token candidate.

January 8, 2008

Yes We Can: New Hampshire Primary Night Speech, Nashua (NH): Obama is defeated by Hillary Clinton in the first primary. The speech he delivered that night, though, will prove a powerful battle cry and urge to go on.

February 5, 2008

Super Tuesday Night Speech, Chicago (IL): Obama still has the lead but he has not won in a decisive way yet.

March 18, 2008

A More Perfect Union, aka The race and unity speech Philadelphia (PA): attacked by the media and his opponents over the highly controversial anti-white declarations made by Jeremiah Wright, his minister, Obama responds to the criticisms with a speech that proves a carefully-written reflection on race in the U.S. Obama intends to get over the past racial divisions.

June 3, 2008

Final Primary Night Speech, St Paul (MN). The race with Hillary Clinton is over: Barack Obama will be the Democratic candidate against John McCain.

The campaign against McCain

Apart from a series of speeches to develop his views on women, ethnic minorities, the economy, energy, etc., Obama delivered the following key-speeches: June 27, 2008 July 24, 2008 Reconciliation with Hillary Clinton, Unity (New Hampshire). A World That Stands as One, Berlin (GERMANY). Obama defines the part America should play in the world.

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August 23, 2008

VP Announcement Speech, Springfield (IL). Joe Biden is introduced as Obamas prospective VP.

August 28, 2008

The American Promise or Acceptance Speech, DNC Convention, Denver (CO). Barack Obama is officially nominated as the Democratic Partys candidate for the presidency. The speech is delivered on the forty-fifth anniversary of Martin Luther Kings I Have a Dream.

November 4, 2008

Yes We Did: Election Night Victory Speech, Chicago (IL). Barack Obama delivers his first speech as President-elect.

After the campaign and onto the Inauguration

January 17, 2009

A New Declaration of Independence, Philadelphia (PA): part of the Whistle-Stop Tour performed on January 17th which took Obama from Philadelphia to Washington. A similar tour was performed by Abraham Lincoln before being first sworn in as President in 1861.

January 20, 2009

Inaugural Speech, Washington D.C. Obama delivers his first speech as President after swearing on Lincolns Bible.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

BOOKS

ATLER Jonathan, The Promise: President Obama, Year One (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010). ARISTOTLE, On Rhetoric: A Theory of Civic Discourse (New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991). BEASLEY Vanessa B., You the People: American National Identity in Presidential Rhetoric (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2004). BENOT LA GUILLAUME, Luc, Le discours d'investiture des prsidents amricains ou les paradoxes de l'loge (Paris : Harmattan, 2003). BOURDIEU Pierre, Langage et pouvoir symbolique (Paris : Seuil Essais, 2001). BULL Peter, The Microanalysis of Political Communication: Claptrap and Ambiguity (New York: Routledge, 2003). CLINTON Bill, My Life (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004). CORNOG Evan, The Power and the Story: How the Crafted Presidential Narrative Has Determined Political Success from George Washington to George W. Bush (New York: Penguin, 2004). CITTON Yves, Mythocratie: Storytelling et imaginaire de gauche (Paris: Editions Amsterdam, 2010). EINHORN Lois J., Abraham Lincoln, the Orator: Penetrating the Lincoln Legend (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1992). LON Pierre, Prcis de phonostylistique (Paris: Nathan Universit, 1993). LIM Elvin T., The Anti-Intellectual Presidency: The Decline of Presidential Rhetoric from George Washington to George W. Bush (New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008).
NIEMAN James R. and Thomas G. ROGERS, Preaching to Every Pew: Cross-Cultural Strategies (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2001).

OBAMA Barack, Dreams from my Father (New York City: Three Rivers Press, 2004, 2nd edn).

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QUINTILIAN,

Institutes

of

Oratory,

Book

IV,

Chapter

1.

http://www.public.iastate.edu/~honeyl/quintilian/contents.pdf (04/10). REBOUL Olivier, Introduction la rhtorique (Paris: PUF, 2001, 4e d.).
ROGERS Thomas G. and NIEMAN James R., Preaching to Every Pew: Cross-Cultural Strategies (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2001).

SALMON Christian, Storytelling, la machine fabriquer des histories et formater les esprits (Paris: La Dcouverte, coll. Cahiers libres , 2007). SALMON Christian, Storytelling Saison 1: Chroniques du monde contemporain (Paris : Les Prairies Ordinaires, 2009). SCHLESINGER Arthur M., The Imperial Presidency (New York, Mariner Books, revised edition, 2004). TULIS Jeffrey K., The Rhetorical President (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988).

ARTICLES AND POSTS ALLEN Henry, Obamas Way with Words: Cadence and Credibility, The Washington Post, January 20, 2009. ALLEN-MILLS Tony and Nina BERMAN, How Barack Obama can win over poor whites The Sunday Times, August 3, 2008. ATKINSON Max, Rhetoric and applause in Obamas Inaugural Speech as a measure of what the audience liked best, posted on January 21, 2009 on

http://maxatkinson.blogspot.com/2009/01/rhetoric-and-applause-in-obamas.html BAI Matt, In the Clinton-Obama Race, Its the Pollster vs. the Ad Man, The New York Times, March 16, 2008. BASLER Roy P., Lincolns Rhetoric, American Literature, Vol.11, No.2, May 1939, pp.167-182. BERMAN Nina and Tony ALLEN-MILLS, How Barack Obama can win over poor whites The Sunday Times, August 3, 2008. BOEHLERT Eric, The TV ad that put Bush over the top, Salon, November 5, 2004, http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2004/11/05/bush_ads/print.html BOYD Michael S., De-constructing Race and Identity in US Presidential Discourse: Barack Obamas Speech on Race, Atlantis. Journal of the Spanish Association of Anglo-American Studies, Vol.31, No.2, December 2009, pp.75-94.

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BRODER Dennis, The Real Value of Obamas Speech, The Washington Post, March 23, 2008. BROWNING Frank, Does Obamas baritone give him an edge? Salon, February 28, 2008. CALDWELL Deborah, George W. Bush: Presidential Preacher, The Baptist Standard, February 17, 2003. CISLARU Georgeta, Le nom de pays comme outil de reprsentation sociale, Les Mots. Les langages du politique, No.86, March 2008, pp.53-64. CLARK Patterson and Larry NIST, Anatomy of a Stump Speech, The Washington Post, February 26, 2008. DE VOOGD, Cicron speechwriter dObama ?: lloquence revient la Maison-Blanche, posted on January 20, 2009, http://www.nonfiction.fr/article-2072-

ciceron_speechwriter_dobama__leloquence_revient_a_la_maison_blanche.htm. DUEZ, Danielle, La fonction symbolique des pauses dans la parole de lhomme politique, Faits de langues, Vol.7, No.13, 1999 (available at http://aune.lpl.univ-aix.fr/~fulltext/895.pdf, 02/10). DYSON Michael Eric, His Way With Words Begins At The Pulpit, The Washington Post, January 18, 2009. DYSON Michael Eric, A president-preacher from anaphora to epistrophe, The Sydney Morning Herald, January 19, 2009. FISCHER Walter, Rhetorical Fiction and the Presidency, Quarterly Journal of Speech, Vol.66, April 1980, pp.119-126. FRANK David A. and Mark Lawrence McPHAIL, Barack Obama's Address to the 2004 Democratic National Convention: Trauma, Compromise, Consilience, and the (Im)possibility of Racial Reconciliation, Rhetoric & Public Affairs, Vol.8, No.4, Winter 2005, pp. 571-593. FRANK David A., The Prophetic Voice and the Face of the Other in Barack Obama's A More Perfect Union Address, March 18 2008, Rhetoric & Public Affairs, Vol.12, No.2, 2009. FRANKLIN V.P., Commentary: The Election of Barack Obama The Debt Has Not Been Paid, The Journal of African American History, Vol. 94, 2009. GARBER Kent, Rhetoric and Speaking Style Affect the Clinton-Obama Race, U.S. News, March 25, 2008. HIGGINS Charlotte, The new Cicero, The Guardian, November 26, 2008. HOLMES Stephanie, Obama: Oratory and Originality, BBC, posted on November 19, 2008, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7735014.stm.
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HORNICK Ed, Poll: 'Sharp reversal' for Obama with Latino voters, CNN, July 24, 2008. ISSENBERG Sacha, Obama Calls for End to U.S. Racial Stalemate, The Boston Globe, March 19, 2008. JOCTEUR MONROZIER Anne, La rfrence Lincoln, France Info, January 13, 2009. KRUGMAN Paul, Franklin Delano Obama?, The New York Times, op-ed, November 10, 2008. LAKOFF George, Much More than Race: What Makes a Great Speech Great, posted on March 24, 2008 on http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=4751. LAKOFF George, The Palin Choice and the Reality of the Political Mind, posted on September 1, 2008 on http://www.huffingtonpost.com/george-lakoff/the-palin-choice-andthe_b_123012.html. LAURENT Sylvie, De LAfrique en Amrique, laviedesidees.fr, April 18, 2008. LAURENT Sylvie, Barack Obama peut-il sduire la classe laborieuse blanche ?, ESPRIT, October 2008. LAURENT Sylvie, La bonne parole dObama, ESPRIT, December 2008. LIM Elvin T., Five Trends in Presidential Rhetoric: an Analysis of Rhetoric from George Washington to Bill Clinton, Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol.32, No.2, 2002, pp.328 ff. LIM Elvin T., Inauguration 2009: Obamas Break with Tradition, posted on January 26, 2009 on http://hnn.us/articles/60544.hml.
MacASKILL Ewen, Tired Obama addresses huge Virginia crowd at final campaign rally, The Guardian, November 4, 2008.

MacGILLIS Alec, Finding Political Strength in the Power of Words, The Washington Post, February 26, 2008.
MacGILLIS Alec and Gerald R. SHUSTER, Anatomy of a Stump Speech, The Washington Post, February 2008, 26.

McPHAIL Mark Lawrence , The Politics of Complicity Revisited: Race, Rhetoric, and the (Im)possibility of Reconciliation, Rhetoric & Public Affairs, Vol. 12, No. 1, Spring 2009, pp. 107-123.
McWORTHER John, A Rhetorical Question, First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life, Issue 186, October 2008, p.45ff.

MILLER Keith D., Epistemology of a Drum Major: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Black Folk Pulpit, Rhetoric Society Quarterly, Vol.18, No.3/4, Summer-Autumn 1988, pp.225-236. MITCHELL Henry H., African-American Preaching, Interpretation, Vol.51, No.4, 1997, p.371 ff.

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MURPHY John M., Political Economy and Rhetorical Matter, Rhetoric & Public Affairs, Vol.12, 2009. NIST Larry and CLARK Patterson, Anatomy of a Stump Speech, The Washington Post, February 26, 2008. NOVAK Michael, Studying Obamas Rhetoric, National Review Online, January 20, 2009, http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NzYzNWExY2FlOTM3ZWRiZDY3ZTdhZThkND RhMzczMTY=. PACKER George, The Choice, The New Yorker, January 28, 2008. PARKER Ashley, What would Obama say?, The New York Times, January 20, 2008. PATTILLO-McCOY Mary, Culture as a Strategy of Action in the Black Community, American Sociological Review, Vol.6, No.6, December 1998, pp.767-784. REMNICK David, The Joshua Generation, The New Yorker, November 17, 2008. RICH Frank, Ask Not What J.F.K. Can Do for Obama, The New York Times, op-ed, February 3, 2008. ROUSSELOT Philippe, Marcus Tullius Obama,

www.tulliana.eu/documenti/marcustulliusobama.pdf. (01/11)

SAMULESON Robert, Inside Obamas Rhetoric, The New York Sun, February 20, 2008. SASLOW Eli, Helping to Write History, The Washington Post, December 18, 2008. SCHAMA Simon, The Making of a President, The Guardian, January 20, 2009. SCHAMA Simon, The great hope Barack Obama, The Independent, January 23, 2009. SCHULTZ Connie, Obama and Working-Class Women The Nation, June 26, 2008. SCHULTZ Connie, Will Obama pass the Waitress Test? The Nation, July 14, 2008. SHAFER Jack, How Obama Does That Thing He Does, Slate, February 14, 2008.
SHUSTER Gerald R. and Alec MacGILLIS Alec, Anatomy of a Stump Speech, The Washington Post, February 26, 2008.

SNEAD James A., On Repetition in Black Culture, Black American Literature Forum, Vol.15, No.4, Black Textual Strategies, Vol.1: Theory, Winter 1981, pp.146-154. TANKERSLEY Jim, To working-class, Clinton talks the talk, The Chicago Tribune, March 31, 2008. TETEN Ryan Lee, We the People : The Modern Rhetorical Popular Address of the Presidents during the Founding Period, Political Research Quarterly, Vol.60, No.4, December 2007, pp.669-682.

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THOMAS Evan, Obamas Lincoln, Newsweek, November 15, 2008. VARROD Pierre, Les trois leviers rhtoriques dObama, ESPRIT, May 2009. WHARRY Cheryl, Amen and Hallelujah Preaching: Discourse Functions in African American Sermons, Language in Society, Vol.32, No.2, April 2003, pp.203-225. WILLS Gary, Two Speeches on Race, The New York Review of Books, Vol.55, No.7, May 1, 2008. WINER Dave, Obama as Told by George Lakoff, The Huffington Post, February 27, 2008. WINTERMAN Denise, Want to know how to handle all of these?, BBC News Magazine, July 14, 2009. WOLFFE Richard, In His Candidates Voice, Newsweek, January 6, 2008, http://www.newsweek.com/id/84756/page/1. WOOD James, Victory Speech, The New Yorker, November 17, 2008. YABROFF Jennie, The Mother and the Orator, Newsweek, January 10, 2008.

INTERVIEWS and DISCUSSIONS

Discussion between Sarah JONES and John McWORTHER, http://www.studio360.org/2008/oct/24/sounding-black/ (05/11) Interview of George LAKOFF, Linguist George Lakoff Interprets Obamas More Perfect Union Speech A Call for a New Politics, posted on April, 7, 2008, http://blog.buzzflash.com/interviews/103 Interview of Sylvie LAURENT, Le style Obama : un ton de pasteur, mtin de rythmnblues, posted on November 11, 2008, http://www.telerama.fr/idees/le-style-obamaun-ton-de-pasteur-matine-de-rythm-n-blues,35616.php Interview of Allan METCALF, http://www.pbs.org/speak/seatosea/standardamerican/presidential/voices/ (05/11) Interview of John McWORTHER, Humeur vagabonde, France Inter, November 7, 2010. Interview of Christian SALMON by Julien LANDFRIED and Marjorie PAILLON, posted on June 6, 2008 on www.ilovepolitics.info/avec-obama-c-est-toute-une-amerique-qui-retrouve-sesreperes-perdus-depuis-le-11-septembre_a617.html

Interview of Christian SALMON by Sophie BOURDAIS, Obama, cest lart du storytelling port son incandescence, Tlrama, posted on November 21, 2008,

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http://television.telerama.fr/television/christian-salmon-obama-c-est-l-art-du-storytellingporte-a-son-incandescence,35081.php

TV NEWS REPORTS

BLAKE John, Black preachers who 'whoop' -- minstrels or ministers?, CNN, October 20, 2010, http://edition.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/10/20/whooping/index.html. MITCHELL Andrea, Clinton, Obama Clash at S.C. Debate, January 22, 2008, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22771568/ns/politics-the_debates/ (04/11).

DOCUMENTARIES - DVDs

KAREL William, Le monde selon Bush (Flach Film, 2004). The DVD was released by the Editions Montparnasse in 2005. MOORE Michael, Sicko (Dog Eat Dog Films, 2007). The DVD was released in France by TFM in 2008.

WEBSITES

Christopher B. DUNCAN: http://www.christopherbduncan.com/christopherbduncanisbarack.html (11/10) Sherman H. COX II: www.soulpreaching.com/ (01/11) The Washington Posts special campaign project: http://projects.washingtonpost.com (05/10) Patti WOOD: www.pattiwood.net/ (04/11)

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INDEX

A America, 12, 14, 15, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36, 39, 41, 44, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 62, 66, 71, 75, 79, 80, 82, 85, 86, 91, 107, 108, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 121 American Dream, 12, 23, 24, 25, 30, 31, 32, 33, 48, 49, 52, 78, 80, 91 anadiplosis, 88 anaphora, 20, 35, 36, 60, 70, 76, 81, 82, 85, 86, 87, 90, 100, 103, 107, 108, 109, 125 anaphoric definition, 81, 87 anti-intellectual, 30, 34, 75 Ashley, 4, 31, 44, 45, 46, 47, 67, 68, 69, 83, 89, 90, 105, 127 Axelrod David, 40, 50, 74 B baritone, 96, 125 Bible, 44, 72, 75, 77, 78, 79, 82, 122 black-cent, 70, 97, 99, 113 Bush George W., 5, 7, 9, 18, 20, 21, 27, 30, 37, 38, 40, 44, 45, 48, 57, 74, 82, 84, 113, 114, 115, 123, 124, 125, 129 C Call-and-response, 79, 94, 104 Carter Jimmy, 22 cataphoric definition, 81, 87 catchphrase, 97, 99, 103, 112 Cicero, 6, 8, 35, 38, 113, 125 Civil Rights, 23, 24, 66, 79, 91 Clinton Hillary, 6, 7, 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 28, 29, 32, 34, 40, 41, 54, 57, 58, 61, 64, 65, 66, 70, 78, 97, 104, 113, 114, 115, 121, 124, 125, 126, 127, 129 Constitution, 63, 74, 75, 83 country, 6, 9, 17, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 35, 38, 49, 51, 52, 53, 56, 57, 58, 59, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 71, 74, 79, 80, 84, 89, 92, 100, 112, 114 D Duncan Christopher B., 73, 102 E empathy, 31, 43, 47, 67, 89 epideixis, 17 epistrophe, 62, 70, 76, 85, 86, 94, 95, 105, 108, 109, 125 ethos, 10, 27, 28, 34, 39 exaggerations, 90 exceptionalism, 24, 49 F family, 16, 25, 30, 31, 32, 37, 44, 48, 49, 50, 52, 60, 66, 75, 83, 91, 113, 116 Favreau Jon, 7, 63, 74, 104 Founding Fathers, 23, 74 G George Washington, 5, 9, 27, 40, 84, 115, 123, 126

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gimmick, 98, 105 God, 26, 27, 44, 51, 55, 67, 77, 79, 81, 82, 83, 85, 104 H hero, 20, 22, 50, 114 I intertextual, 75 intonation, 70, 97, 99, 103, 105, 109, 111 intradiegetic, 46 J Johnson Lyndon, 24, 28, 82, 83, 102, 113 K Kennedy John Fitzgerald, 15, 27, 39, 53, 57, 115 King Martin Luther, 4, 5, 8, 25, 26, 37, 44, 47, 50, 54, 63, 67, 68, 69, 71, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 81, 83, 85, 92, 95, 102, 103, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 113, 122, 126 L Lakoff George, 30, 52, 54, 70, 128 leitmotiv, 62, 109 Lincoln Abraham, 8, 9, 15, 24, 25, 26, 39, 50, 54, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 113, 122, 123, 124, 126, 128 logos, 10, 27 lyrical outburst, 61, 94, 95, 100, 109 M macrostructure, 108 McCain John, 6, 14, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 29, 33, 37, 41, 58, 64, 65, 107, 114, 121 metadiegetic, 46

metaphor, 28, 50, 75, 79, 116 metonymy, 49, 59 mise en abyme, 89 N narrative, 18, 40, 42, 43, 48, 85, 89 nation, 20, 23, 24, 25, 27, 39, 53, 59, 60, 62, 63, 71, 73, 75, 80, 82, 91, 107, 109, 112, 114, 115 non-defining restrictive relative clause, 29, 88 P paraleipsis, 76 passive form, 43, 56, 64 pathos, 10, 13, 27, 30, 34, 39, 116 pattern, 26, 28, 77, 80, 92, 95, 99, 107, 111 pauses, 68, 69, 84, 93, 94, 95, 97, 99, 100, 102, 103, 105, 125 performative, 53, 57, 107 Pitch, 94 Praise, 19, 20, 22, 25, 32, 51, 91 preacher, 24, 37, 69, 70, 75, 77, 78, 92, 96, 103, 104, 105, 112, 113, 125 pronoun, 17, 25, 30, 31, 33, 46, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 64, 65, 91, 104, 108 R Reagan Ronald, 5, 9, 18, 22, 23, 25, 27, 31, 32, 39, 57, 83, 113, 115 representation, 17, 24, 25, 42, 59, 62, 86, 99 rhythm, 35, 36, 60, 69, 85, 88, 93, 95, 97, 100, 103, 105 S sacralize, 38, 58 scripture, 77, 79, 88, 113 signifiyin, 70 stump speech, 9, 11, 13, 55, 56, 78, 105 symbol, 15, 19, 63 symploce, 86, 109

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T tone, 23, 24, 37, 45, 61, 63, 67, 68, 69, 75, 94, 96, 97, 100, 102, 103, 112, 113, 116 toponyms, 39, 58 tricolon, 4, 35, 36, 38, 86, 87, 90 U united, 58

unity, 9, 15, 18, 19, 24, 34, 39, 50, 51, 53, 58, 59, 63, 67, 70, 75, 78, 79, 81, 94, 104, 116, 121 W Wright Reverend Jeremiah, 64, 65, 66, 67, 70, 80, 104, 121

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