Rhetorical Analysis Of Barack Obama Inaugural Address

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The Inaugural Address is a ceremony held to initiate someone into a new position; in this case it will be initiating a new president into office. This tradition first began with the first inauguration of the first President of the United States of America, George Washington. This was held on the balcony of the Federal Hall in New York on April 30th, 1789 (The Presidential Inauguration in History, n.d.). The Inauguration then became a ritual to all presidents who followed, which included the inaugural address, inaugural parade and the inaugural balls to celebrate the handover of power from on president to the next. Modern inauguration festivals follow suit to what was first started in the 1780’s but now not only show the president that they value and voted for, but also embrace all Americans who decide to take part in celebrating the nations history with the handover presidential power (The Presidential Inauguration in History, n.d.).

At the United States Capitol building on January 21st, 2013 was where the 44th President of the United States of America, Barack Obama gave his second inauguration speech. This speech did not serve as his first one did, rather it
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In this case the new president is President Barack Obama. Furthermore, the speech Obama gave was one that was successful. By the use of rhetoric he was able to produce a well thought out speech as well as being able to connect to the audience starting with those in office down to the simple American people. The way to know that it was successful is by the audiences’ reaction to what he is saying. Throughout the speech when Obama spoke about what “we” need to do together to make the nation better, the audiences’ reaction was positive with cheering and clapping in agreement to what was saying. It applies to the end of the speech, after he said all that he had to say, everyone stood up and clamped and cheered in

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