Obama's Presidency Rhetorical Analysis

Improved Essays
The article “Obama’s ‘Where’s Waldo?’ Presidency”, by Ruth Marcus, features Marcus’s opinion of President Obama, which is generally negative. The article opens by discussing how “Barack Obama can be a strangely passive president.” (Marcus, paragraph 1) Examples of the president’s passiveness include him being “unwilling, reluctant or late to weigh in on the issue of the moment. “ (Marcus, paragraph 1) Marcus then recalls a few matters of Obama’s presidency, stating how she believes he dealt with the issues. Marcus’s opinions are found with ease, including the article’s ending sentence “No matter how hard you look, sometimes he’s impossible to find.” (Marcus, paragraph 12)
Marcus expresses her opinion through a formal tone, using isolated examples throughout the article to help persuade the reader. However, the article is lacking in ethos, which makes it less reliable. At one point in the article, Marcus says, “If the president is being simultaneously accused of overreaching ambition and gutless fight-ducking, maybe he’s doing something right.” (Marcus, paragraph 5) This is where the reader can see that she favors some of Obama’s viewpoints. One literary device Marcus strongly uses in this article is pathos. An example of pathos in the article is where she states, “He is, too often, more reactive than inspirational,
…show more content…
Marcus does an excellent job covering up the shortage of facts by using persuasive words and phrases. She accomplishes one of the main goals of a writer in this article, by persuading the reader to agree with her opinion through the use of emotional values. Marcus conveys decent points but fails to provide factual evidence, ultimately making the argument fragile. In the article “Obama’s ‘Where’s Waldo?’ Presidency”, Ruth Marcus undeniably showcases her analytical potential, but overall falls short of presenting a formal

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Musab Alrakhis COMM 603 Dr. Hundley WSCA Assignment The paper I selected to this assignment is “The Survivalist “Imprint” of Obama’s Rhetoric: Post-9/11, Post-Zombie Apocalypse and Foreign Policy Apologia”, written by Olivia Miller from Colorado State University. The paper was an attempt to identify and explain the relationship between Post-zombie apocalypse narrative structure found in zombie media text like The Walking Dead, and president Obama’s foreign policy apologia speeches. The reason that post-zombie apocalypse was chosen over the zombie apocalypse is because post-zombie apocalypse is concern more with survival, rebuilding society, reinstituting morality and learning how to live with the devil while trying to restore normal life again. This relationship is justified by the fact that zombies, who are a pure fiction, and terrorists, who are real people, have a lot in common, such as, they both have unexplainable powers, both attack unexpected places and both do not recognize logic as…

    • 675 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Bella Mendez AP Language and Composition Mr. Ward October 7, 2017 Word Count: 1028 Rhetorical Analysis Essay: No Nukes In the article, “No Nukes,” Steve Coll, the author, talks of the problem that is worldwide affecting the existence of nuclear affairs, the controversy of the problem, and the downfall of the Global Nuclear-Nonproliferation Regime. With the discussion presented in the article on nuclear affairs, Coll clearly solidifies his position on the subject of the abolition of nukes and makes powerful, argumentative cases, backed up with opinions and facts, for his point of view. Through the citing of the well known figures, in the form of ethos, factual evidence that focuses on foreign affairs and danger, and strong use of words…

    • 1038 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Stephen Collinson begins his article “Why Donald Trump Won’t Change” by stating “Winning the presidency didn't change Donald Trump -- and it's increasingly clear that actually being president won't change him either” (Collinson 1). Using an example, Collinson reveals “The clearest sign that Trump has no intention of changing, despite his new responsibilities, has emerged in a volley of controversial tweets” from November 27th to the 29th (4). By providing an example, Collinson appeals to the reader’s logic and emotions by verbalizing that the information is obvious and honest. This astonishing statement must people will not believe, but there is truth behind this well-written argument.…

    • 293 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Obama Show Horse

    • 246 Words
    • 1 Pages

    In her “Obama's Lonesome Ride to the Supreme Court”(2016), Jamie Stiehm suggest that President Obama is “seen as a show horse, not a workhorse“ Stiehm shows this by logos, “Obama spent little time cultivating allies in the Senate. Instead, he was on a national best-selling book tour.” Stiehm hopes to shift the reader's attention away from Obama, and say he is a bad president. Stiehm intended this article to be for the democratic party followers, she wants them to think, even though he is a show horse president, Hillary will not be. Stiehm has democratic views so she isn't making fun of obama, but giving his constructive criticism.…

    • 246 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Liberal Argument Analysis

    • 500 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Discussion Topic: Has America become more liberal? Web Address for the discussion: http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/06/29/red-white-and-bluer First Debater: Kay S. Hymowitz Second Debater: Akhil Reed Amar Argument Title: Don’t count on a leftward push from millennials Argument Title: America has been moving leftward since its founding What is the purpose of the argument? To prove that you can’t predict political views of upcoming generations What is the purpose of the argument?…

    • 500 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Although Alexander starts off with Obamas speech her intake on the problem is not the same. Shortly after presenting Obamas speech she brings up a critique…

    • 1668 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Simultaneous Truths Zadie Smith’s “speaking in Tongues” intensely explores the ability to embody more than one voice. Originally a lecture following the inauguration of Barack Obama, Smith compares the then President-Elect to historical figures who share his “irreducible multiplicity” (12). As a biracial man who has lived in multiple states and countries, Obama has the gift to speak to and identify with many different people. Throughout this text, Smith wavers in deciding whether it is advantageous for political leaders to have multiple identities or allegiances. One of her most compelling arguments regarding this is hidden in her description of Shakespeare’s writing ability: “…the very medium of it, allowed him to […] speak simultaneous…

    • 1123 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Candidate Obama strategic plan in this situation must be to persuade his potential voters to reside back to siding with him. Candidate Obama knows if anything from our country’s past and people, we must learn to move on from the simple mistakes that provoke us from focusing on the bigger picture and potentially dangerous situations we face in the future. Besides just speaking on moving to the future and escaping the past however, Barack Obama creates a connection to the past using the Paradox rhetorical strategy. With a brief part of what he mentioned “brutal legacy of slavery and Jim crow”. Using the Paradox strategy in this case, Barack Obama tries to make his audience fall in the state of guilt and shame speaking on the treatment of his culture and how it is not those citizens fault for their actions all the time.…

    • 1158 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Clayton C. Mamele 4889-8901 “Presidential Character: Barack Hussein Obama” In this paper I will attempt to define the characteristics of President Barack Obama using James David Barber’s approach and then show how these characteristics affected the performance of his administration. By examining President Obama’s character, worldview, and style, I will argue that he would fall under the Active-Negative classification according to Barber. Similar to the presidencies of Lyndon Johnson and Woodrow Wilson, Obama’s presidency has been ripe with activity but has met largely with negative results. With Democrats controlling both the House and the Senate, Obama quickly passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment act of 2009 which would ultimately…

    • 2325 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Obama Rhetorical Analysis

    • 1068 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Obama Synthesis In the three gathered articles by authors Bill Chappell, Peter Baker, and Michael Shear, Barack Obama have made decisions as president that would affect the United States from now until the end of time. The main subcategories that his presidency have been divided into is war, education, and work. Examples of his choices that had an impact included abandoning ranking systems for colleges and universities, continuing the war over in Iraq, and demanding federal contractors to apply paid sick leaves to company employees. These recent events have split and separated the ideas of the citizens of America on whether Obama 's presidency were beneficial or detrimental to the American society.…

    • 1068 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Rhetorical Situation

    • 1338 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The significance of attaining a diploma in a specialized field of study is embodied through a common formality across universities at the end of each school year. A graduation, or commencement, is a ceremony where institutions attempt to express the symbolic meaning to students through a notable guest speaker. A pattern of characteristics inside commencement speeches offer future advice, review of educational experiences, and reflection of memories. This type of event is reoccurring and takes on a similar style, substance and purpose, therefore, it is considered a genre (cite). Communication scholar, Lloyd Bitzer, would argue that this genre of speech is supported by his theory of the rhetorical situation, in which he claims that a situation…

    • 1338 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    President of the United States(POTUS) - Chief of State, Chief Executive, Chief Diplomat, Commander-In-Chief, Chief Legislator, Chief of Party, Chief Guardian of the Economy. It seems the person who holds this position is the most powerful person in the world. But, as the pioneers of modern democracy, has the United States’ stripped the position of it’s power in it’s attempt to realize a perfect system of checks and balances? Or has the spike in executive duties given the President far too broad a purview? In a constantly evolving society, the role of the government and of the President are constantly changing causing sharp conflict between those who believe the President holds too little or too much power.…

    • 784 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Presidential Extremist

    • 1017 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The “Rise of Presidential Extremist” is an OP-ED piece authored by Larry M. Bartels that was published in The New York Times (date goes here). He is a political scientist at Vanderbilt University, the author of “Democracy for Realists” and one of the editors for the American Academy of Political and Social Science. His article is motivated by the current presidential election. It analyzes the positions of the two major candidates and goes into detail about how they can be successful without appealing to the political center. I am going to use Writing Arguments (WA) to analyze this piece of rhetorical writing.…

    • 1017 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Buckeye”, written and narrated by Scott Russel Sanders, is a short memoir that skillfully reflects the author’s reminiscing of his father and his hometown back in northeastern Ohio. At the start, Sanders introduces the cherished wooden box that holds the buckeyes, in specific, along with other memories of his father, nature, and his hometown. Sure enough, the central image of this essay is the wooden box that acts as a safekeeping of Sanders’ past. With the use of rhetoric and literary devices, Sanders is able to emphasize that the wooden box symbolizes two opposite ends; life and death.…

    • 822 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Obama’s Farewell Address, was his final speech as President. Obama’s purpose of his Farewell Address was a way for him to say goodbye and to thank the American citizens but to also remind the citizens about all the improvements he made and how it should be continued. In order, to get his message across to the American citizens he used two of Aristotle’s modes of persuasion such as, pathos and logos. Obama used the genre pathos to invoke emotions from the audience in order for them to feel apart of the speech and he used logos to remind the citizens of his improvements and persuade them to continue his changes without his Presidency.…

    • 855 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays