Like a lot of other folks, I’ve been anticipating President Obama’s inaugural address for months now. It’s the beginning of a new era, and the 44th president could have recited a nursery rhyme and I would have been content.
Nonetheless, it’s worth studying the speech and its delivery for what it can teach us about rhetoric. So here goes. Overall, the speech was very good, not great. When times are tough, you need to rally people to a cause. Did Obama do that? Yes, he did. But the archetypal story that he told was “stranger in a strange land” rather than a quest, and the quest story is better for enlisting your listeners in a cause.
The speech needed to be authentic more than any other quality, and Obama was certainly that. He gets high marks for the honesty with which he described the problems we face as a country and as a world. His delivery was charismatic, certainly; he crowded the podium to reach toward the people on the Mall, and his voice had its usual music. It rose and fell with the authority of a preacher, or a new president who knows exactly where he wants to take the country. (He's got to fix that thumb-and-forefinger gesture, though; it just doesn't add anything to the occasion and it looks calculated. He looked better when he just gestured naturally.)
At the heart of the speech was the following line: “For the world has changed and we must change with it.” That’s a “stranger in a strange land” message, and it doesn’t have the power of the quest. But it was entirely appropriate for the day, and the times. As President Obama said a moment later, we face “a new era of responsibility.”
The speech was about all the problems we must fix, all the wrongs we must address, and all the hardships we must undergo. Thus it was entirely appropriate to the occasion. But the lines that got the biggest applause were addressed to the shadowy warriors of terrorism in Pakistan and elsewhere around the world: “We will not apologize for our way of life. . . . We will defeat you. . . . Our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. . . . “
Obama invited us to go on a journey with him, and it's not journey that will lead us home. It is a journey to — as he said — "an uncertain destiny." He asked us to work for the common good, so that our grandchildren will say of us, “we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safe to future generations.”
That's a tough message for a new era of responsibility. He's asking a lot of us. How will we measure up?
Nick,
What I found most interesting was what I am now calling the “Inclusive Language Ratio” which I’ll say is inclusive language (“our,” “we.” and “us”) used in a speech divided by internal language (“me,” “I”, and “my”).
I compared today’s address by Obama with Bush’s farewell address from Thursday.
The most amazing contrast for me was the use of internal language by President Bush, who referred to “me,” “I”, and “my” a total of 44 times compared to President Obama’s use of internal language only 3 times.
In contrast, President Obama used inclusive language such as “our,” “we.” and “us” a total of 142 times compared to President Bush who used inclusive language 64 times.
President Bush Inclusive Language Ratio = 1.45
President Obama Inclusive Language Ratio = 47
Amazing contrast!!
This is a great point, and something I’ve blogged about before — Obama’s inclusive language. He’s always been more about ‘us’ than ‘me’ and it works!
Your central insight was powerful – and can be adapted to so many situations for us: what is one’s prime goal for a speech (Quest, rather than Stranger in…)
to which I add: in light of the goal, how can we offer the sequential word pictures to bring the audience along…
and, of course, as you write so well
in your latest book:
ensure that the body language –
which people will absorb before the words – reinforces rather than conflicts with
(thumb-and-forefinger gesture) the language.
He has to be the most vivid describer of his quest for us or a critic will label it for him. And whoever most vividly describes a situation usually determines how others will see it, discuss it and decide to act on it.
– another fan of your methods