Rhetorical Analysis Of President Bill Clinton

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Introduction If one has not heard of Bill Clinton, either he/she is very young or likely lives under a rock. William Jefferson Clinton, best known to many as “Bill” served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated in office at the age of 46, Clinton was the third youngest president (John F. Kennedy was the second youngest at 43, while Theodore Roosevelt was the youngest overall at the age of 42). Clinton was the first president to been born after World War II and the first to be born in the baby boomer generation. The baby boomers are the generation of people who were born between the years of 1946 to 1964. At the time of the baby boom, social change was very prominent. According to History.com, baby boomers …show more content…

An ad hominem is defined in Latin as “to or at the person” and it “refers to any attack against an individual instead of against her or his position on the issues” (Larson, p. 245). This would prove to be true as Bush referred to Clinton as a “draft dodger” and “Carter II” during his campaign. In addition, Bush’s rhetoric turned into negative campaigning when he repeatedly blamed Congress for lack of progress (Wendt and Fairhurst, 1994). With Bush’s faults throughout the campaign, Clinton would capitalize on the opportunity during his acceptance speech at the 1992 Democratic National Convention. In his speech, Clinton stated to the American public that the one thing that irritates him the most about Bush was that “he derides and degrades the American tradition of seeing and seeking a better future. He mocks it as the vision thing”. In addition, he would also state that “where there is no vision, the people perish” (p. 7). Clinton went further into the speech, arguing that his “New Covenant” vision would establish a clear idea as opposed to a vague idea from the predecessor. This would also refer to Rank’s Model as he intensified and emphasized the word “New” as a way to persuade the people to forget about the status quo and vote for

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