Rhetorical Analysis Of A Speech At The Democratic National Convention

Ann Richards’s keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention in 1988 was extremely interesting to watch. I believe her speech was intended to be focused on the American family and also the American farmers. These two areas seemed to be very important to Mrs. Richards and she made a point to discuss both.
Early in her speech Mrs. Richards read parts of a letter written to her by a young working mother with a family she is trying to support. Mrs. Richards makes a point to take the time to read excerpts from the letter for the whole audience to hear. The young women is concerned, how is she going to continue to be able to support her family with the rising cost of car insurance, and other major bills. She, expresses concern that she cannot afford new clothes for her children if they have a sudden growth spurt between August and December.
Mrs. Richards makes mention about the American farmer and the struggles they are facing at the present time. Mrs. Richards mentions that the farmers would be blamed for rising food cost if they asked to increase their profit margins. Mrs. Richards goes on to mention that we as a nation are buying more food from foreign countries instead of supporting the farmers right here in the United States of America, and how this is causing

farms to be sold at an alarming rate. I believe Mrs. Richards feels that this is an unacceptable stance to have as a nation and this needs to be changed right away.
Mrs.

Richards draws attention to the fact that she is a women giving the keynote speech by mentioning that “Ginger Rodgers did everything Fred Astaire did …. She just did it backwards and in high heels” (Richards). Another, area where Mrs. Richards draws attention to herself as a women is when she mentions to the audience that she is a grandmother to a little girl named Lily, and how while rolling a ball back and forth with Lily, how she is going to explain to her how the world has changed, from blacks not being allowed to drink from the same water fountains as whites, to the fact that women weren’t allowed to vote, or that Spanish wasn’t allowed to be spoken in public schools when she was

young.
Mrs. Richards use of humor during her speech, I thought was totally acceptable. Why? Mrs. Richards was given a huge responsibility delivering the keynote speech. I believe her use of humor was done intentionally and with good taste to how it was used. Mrs. Richards first poked fun at herself as to how a true Texan should sound when delivering a speech. Mrs. Richards continued to use humor throughout her speech to keep the mood of the audience, light and upbeat. If she would have gotten up and just read a speech from a script the audience, I feel wouldn’t have paid all that much attention to her or the message she was trying to convey to them. Humor also lets you see a side of Mrs. Richards’s personality that people who didn’t know her other than just the Governor of Texas, could relate too and see she just wasn’t another stick in the mud politician. By using humor she could also draw attention to certain matters that she may not have been able to without causing anger among possible voters that weren’t committed to either party. Personally, I liked her candor and think had she run for President in 1988, instead of the chosen candidate she may have been our first women President in history