The corpus analyzed in this thesis consists of ten Barrack Obama's political speeches. The first five of them are primarily devoted to the US domestic audience and affairs. The other five, on the other side, are focused on foreign or even international affairs and therefore it may be expected that also the audience is spreading beyond the borders of the United States.
The first of the speeches for the domestic audience is Barrack Obama's Victory Speech which he delivered in Rally, Grand Park, Chicago, Illinois, on November 4, 2008. Although he was not yet holding the office of the president of the United States, it will be interesting to trace also the continuous development of the speeches as this may be considered as his first official speech in presidency. The second speech in the corpus is dated as of January 10, 2009, and it is Obama's Inaugural speech that he proclaimed in Capitol, Washington, D.C. The third speech records Obama's Address to the joint session of the US Congress that took place on February, 24, 2009. The last two speeches are the transcripts of Obama's State of the Union addresses for the years 2010 and 2011, which were delivered on January 27, 2010, and January, 25, 2011, respectively. Also these speeches were primarily devoted to the US Congress; however, this does not mean that they were not addressed to the US citizens as well. The reason these particular speeches were chosen is that it facilitates to trace back the possible common features of this kind of official speeches. The speeches for the international audience were selected with respect to the relative importance that particular countries play in the US foreign policy and with the aim to choose countries from various continents. The speeches are thus selected from Obama`s speeches for Canada, China, France, Russia and the United Kingdom. The speech aimed at American-Russian relationships is, moreover, extraordinary in the fact that the mutual arrangement of the presidents of these countries - Barrack Obama and victor Medvedev - took place in neutral territory, concretely on Prague Castle in Prague, Czech Republic during the act of signing new Start Treaty on April, 8, 2010. The speech that is devoted to Canada is, furthermore, held in Toronto but it may be considered as a foreign speech even for Canadians because it was delivered as the press conference which presents the results of G20 meeting in Intercontinental hotel in Toronto, Canada, on Sunday 27, June, 2010. Beside this, the speech for Frenchmen was proclaimed during Obama's visit to France at Palaiz de la Musique et Des Congress in Strasbourg, on April, 4, 2009 and deals also wit American-European broader relationships as a whole. The speech for China took place during Obama’s visit of Beijing on May, 24, 2010 and the speech for Britons at Westminster Hall, in London, United Kingdom, on May, 25, 2011.
Therefore, it is evident from what has been described here that the majority of the speeches is primarily dedicated for some formal occasions and for the listeners who correspond to them. On the other hand, this does not mean that also the broader audience should not be taken into consideration. As speeches are often broadcasted by various media and the transcripts of all of these particular speeches are easily available on the Internet, the politicians usually remember well that they are speaking especially for this broader audience and with this idea in the mind they are aspiring to improve their popularity. The work thus tries to trace formal and informal features of these Barrack Obama's speeches.
Each speech is firstly scrutinized in terms of description of its main ideas and characteristics one by one. Afterwards the speeches are investigated and compared in terms of their persuasiveness. The final conclusion is summarized in chapter 4. Bibliography information and links to transcripts of all speeches could be find in the bibliography section under the heading primary sources.
Scrutiny of all speeches
Firstly, all speeches are described one by one, the attention is focused on the occasion during which the speech was delivered, the event and the other contextual features that are expected to be shared and also on general characteristics of the speech.
3.2.1 Obama's domestic speeches
Though the main purpose of this thesis is represented more or less by the following chapter, the following sub-chapters introduce the individual speeches and describe them more thoroughly.
Victory Speech
Though it is not Barack Obama's first public speech, it may be considered as his first real political speech. The promises that he declared might be considered as mandatory because he had just won the US presidential election and his role as the presidential candidate and the president-elected were different simply in this aspect of the liability of what he was saying.
Someone might assume that the speech which was presented so near to the time when Obama got to know that he had won the election would have been spontaneous and therefore not well-arranged. Naturally, it is not the case of this speech. Not surprisingly, Obama must have expected with his victory and thus the speech was carefully prepared before the election. This suggests either the overall structure of the speech, in which the arguments are well-formed and logically ordered, or simply the impression that fall on the listener or the reader.
The speech may be divided at least into four parts according to the topics. Firstly, president Obama tries to thank all persons who had helped him to gain his victory. The whole passage makes an impression of pomposity. Obama is concrete, lists all names and does not limit himself to mere general acknowledgment for all. The concreteness may be also among the characteristics of the next feature of the speech when Obama wants to list the essence of the United States, who are their members and also for whom this country is one home. The declarative sentence "...black, white, Latino American, gay, straight disabled and not disabled - Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of red sates and blue states; we are, and always will be, the United States of America" therefore helps to strengthen the impression of mutual unity and solidarity.
The feeling of a greater authenticity is reached by president Obama's reminiscence on 106 years old Ann Nixon Cooper, whom he had allegedly met as she had been casting her ballot, and the comparison of the significant changes that the United States has reached since this time. Even here Obama endeavors to sound more concretely and thus he compares for instance the fact that at the beginning of her life Ann Nixon Cooper was not allowed to vote simply due to the two reasons: she is a woman and, moreover, a black; at the end of her life these reasons play no role in defining whether she may or may not vote. It is evident that this reminiscence has practically no relationship to Obama's future presidency (beside the fact that he is the first black president in the US history), however, it facilitates to build a greater feeling of solidarity and pride in the signification and key ideas of the United States - liberty and democracy - which are also the main ideas of this speech.
And finally, at least for this introductory part of all speeches, Obama's victory speech offers a clear sign of promise. Although his victory speech may be rather generally marked as summative and declarative, he even wants to offer some kind of bounding message for the future. The promises are, however, unlike the rest of the speech, rather general and not so concrete, so the speech propounds suggestions like "there is new energy, to harness and new jobs to be created, new schools to build, and threats to meet and alliances to meet". There is stated a vague view of possible hindrances that would be necessary to overcome as well. This passage and the passage with promises are, as it has been previously said, more general and not so concrete. This enables Obama more free space for the future if his more concrete promises would not have been fulfilled. In such an unclear concept, it is not so easy to decide whether he does his job correctly or not.
Inaugural Speech
President Obama's inaugural speech of course may not be considered to be spontaneous or that it would react immediately on some of the most actual events of those days. It was delivered more than two months after Obama's victory in the US presidential election so he had a sufficient time to elaborate his speech in order to sound persuasive and decisive. The speech appears to be really more sophisticated and to posses features of speeches for prominent occasions. And moreover, it is longer than the Obama's victory speech. Also here Obama thanks at the beginning of the speech. If he was thanking his predecessor in the office, George Walker Bush, with whose political party of Republicans Obama's democrats are on the opposite edge of political spectrum and against whose politics he had clearly and hardly stood up during the previous political campaign, it may not be expected that these words of praise are meant seriously and heartily; nevertheless, thanking the opponent is a traditional thing – it tries to suggest that after the elections the new President represents the whole nation, not only his party.
The whole speech, beside this, seems to resemble an effort to encourage the listeners in his American citizenship, or, in other words, to intensify their self-esteem of America and its traditional values. Very important is also the reference to previous presidents, which places Obama as one of the series of American leader. Quoting an ex-president means associating the new president’s policy with the ideas of his predecessor. Obama lists some of the hindrances that threaten America and which American citizens should overcome and American government will try to fight against. And though the formulations like "the state of the economy calls for action" or "we will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories" sounds majestically and lofty, yet still also a bit unclearly and feebly.
On the other hand, Obama wants to be viewed as a dauntless president and tries to persuade his listeners to act boldly in case of necessity which he sees as the main feature of American society and its traditions. The explicitness of persuasion thus seems to reach a high degree of appearance.
Even here, Obama reminds the audience to recall the past times and the changes that have happened during that time. It may seem to be inappropriate because he himself has not made anything special for to be meant, on the other hand, these recalls strengthen the sense of mutuality and solidarity. Moreover, Obama becomes even a bit personal when he is comparing the situation from 60 years ago when black people were not welcomed to serve in the restaurant and the situation of that moment when he is standing in front of the American nation as his first black president in the office.
Among the other characteristics of this speech may be named a relatively high proportion of short sentences. Although the use of simple sentences and compound or complex sentences is not the matter of interest of this thesis, it may be stated here that such methods facilitates to build an effect of drama and the change in anticipation. This suggestion gains more credibility if we take into the consideration the fact that the speech was delivered in spoken form and therefore the change of the pitch of the voice may intensify the attention of the audience. As the corpus of this thesis consists just of the transcripts of the speeches, this feature, however, is not taken into consideration during the analysis and comparison.
