Analysis 1: The Art of Persuasion

The above video works to illustrate Aristotle's ideas on rhetoric by showing us an example of a speaker who is persuasive because of reasons outside of his actual rhetoric (or at least along with his rhetoric). It comes down often to things such as establishing a credible identity. In Obama's case it can be many things, such as his youth, his attractiveness, and his race. As an excerpt from Aristotle's Book II says, "for it makes much difference in regard to persuasion (especially in deliberations but also in trials) that the speaker seem to be a certain kind of person and that his hearers suppose him to be disposed toward them in a certain way". Obama made much of the youth in this country feel as though he was inclined towards caring what their opinions are, since in the video he mentions the supposed apathy of youth.
It is also greatly about presentation, not simply the persuasiveness of the content alone. Content can be extremely persuasive, but it can be delivered horribly and thus not actually achieve its goal of persuading anyone. There is an importance in being charismatic and the loss of elections are often due to lack of charisma, and this is illustrated in the importance of good speeches and good orators in our political system. Barack Obama is a great example of how presentation works in terms of being persuasive, because many times before his specific wording and general ideas have been compared to that of politicians such as former president Bush. While Bush and Obama shared the same ideas in some cases and even at times the same phrases or terms, many responded more positively to Obama because of the way in which he appealed to them. His physical features were important in that he was youthful and handsome, but it also mattered that he had a knack for public speaking, and at times it simply mattered that his voice was more appealing to people than that of Bush’s.
There is also the importance of the audience’s emotions. You can also look to politics here in that many times the audience, the United States for example, is inclined to a certain political party simply because they have lost their faith in the way of the old party. This is temporary, however, and stems from a feeling of disappointment in that the current party did not deliver what they promised. Politicians often use this to their advantage, knowing that the American people are tired of specific things, such as financial deficits and wars.
Credibility of character is also important here in that it is often valuable in persuading people of criminal cases for example by establishing some form of a personality for the people involved by either demonizing someone or making them look like victims, even if they were absolutely guilty of the crime, the jury and/or judge might still rule in favor of them deciding that it’s possible the crime was truly not their fault because something else might have been at play that affected them in some way that was out of their control, since their character implies that normally they would not have committed such a crime at all. Some might want to claim this is sneaky, but the truth is that it works on the best of us.


"Barack Obama Presidential Victory Speech pt 1/2 " 04 November 2008. YouTube. 6 February 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrKFYDbqUC4&feature=related