How many presidents can say they have had an affair in the Oval Office with their secretary? Although the number is uncertain, one is enough to confirm it has happened. In 1998, while Bill Clinton was in office, it was revealed the president was having an affair with his secretary Monica Lewinsky. When Monica Lewinsky turns in the blue dress as evidence of the relationship, covered in semen belonging to the nation’s most influential individual at the time, Mr.Bill Clinton, the media went nuts.The news was all over the story, making headlines and plastered on every magazine imaginable. There was no escaping the truth. The nation’s fascination with the scandal wrecks havoc in President Clinton’s personal life, leading him to address the situation. …show more content…
On August 17, 1998 President Clinton gave what was known as the “Map Room Speech” as a sort of formal apology to all those who were hurt during the said affair. As much as President Clinton tries to come off sincere, there is a heavy sensation of manipulation dragged throughout his speech, making his words difficult to believe. The president tries the use of emotional language to come off more humane. With the president’s use of pathos, his emotional persuasiveness is put to a hult. As for the cause and effect and comparison assumptions scattered through the speech as subliminal undertones cause me to come to the conclusion that President Bill Clinton was not persuasive when trying to address to the union of his extramarital affair with Miss Monica Lewinsky. But in fact uses the speech as an opportunity to come off as the good guy who made a small mistake. At first glance, there isn’t too much to the speech.
When someone is to watch the video, you would think that the tone and use of emotional language is enough to capture the hearts of the public watching. After analyzing the undertones of his words, President Clinton tricks the listeners into believing he is actually feeling during the situation. When reading through, there is a sentence that stays in my head for the rest of the speech. The president’s first introduction to Monica Lewinsky sticks to the reader with his words of choice, beginning his sentence with “I did have a relationship with Ms.Lewinsky that was not appropriate” (9). The president’s word tactics creates an effect on the listener, making it seems almost as if it’s okay to have said relationship with someone younger. Saying the words “not appropriate” make you feel different than the use of the word inappropriate. The word inappropriate has a negative connotation, difficult for most readers to read along. The president’s use of the word relationship over affair also paints another picture. Relationship has a sweet sound, like there was emotions and passion in the relation between President Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. However, that is not the case. They used each other for sex, leaving behind all emotions at the door. Going down further into the speech, there is another line in which the use of emotion is used in order to manipulate the reader into sympathizing with President Clinton. In a line it is …show more content…
mentioned that “ I misled people, including even my wife. I deeply regret that… I was also very concerned about protecting my family” (13,16). The interpretation of the sentences makes me believe what the intentions of the speech are completely different as to the originally thought. The reader can feel the heavy usage of words of guilt, but when really picking it apart it gets a bit messy. President Clinton sounds to be a family man, but a family man does not have affairs with his secretary. Family men would not put their families through such public embarrassment. As much as President Clinton tries to apologies for his wrongdoing, there’s a feeling of doubt that sweeps through. President Clinton tries his hardest to sound sincere and really persuade the listener about his cheating ways. With the use of assumption, it is apparent that his intentions are not all well. At the beginning of the speech, Bill Clinton states, “I am solely and completely responsible”(11) for the actions of his affair. No others are mentioned to have taken part, apart from Monica Lewinsky, in the shadows of his affair. But just as quick as he is to own up for his mistake, there goes the president, continuing on to say “And I take my responsibility for my part in all of this” (pg.1). Completely contradicting himself from just early on. The causes for the first statement make the audience believe one thing but the ending effects cause a different response to the one listening. President Clinton is lying through his teeth about his sincerity, and sadly there are many who actually believe him. There is also the fact that he makes himself to be very family oriented when really he’s only trying to make himself look like innocent. When the president begins to list reasons for his lack of providing full detail of the explicit activities done between Monica Lewinsky and him, he mentions that “first, by a desire to protect myself from the embarrassment of my own conduct” (16). Again President Clinton is showing responsibility for his actions, in the sense that he wants to make it look like he is sorry for cheating on his wife with someone half his age. Later he mentions that “This is a matter between the two people I love the most - my wife and daughter - and our God” (pg.1) trying to divert attention from the bigger picture. Had he really thought that his wife and child are important to him, he would not hurt them so publically and possible ruin his relationship with either of them. Also the mention of God makes the thoughts of others soften, seeing as they can relate to the preachings of the higher power. However, it is mentioned in the Bible that thou shalt not commit adultery, but there goes President Clinton getting wth is secretary. Lastly the president tries to convey the minds of the audience with the use of comparison assumptions. it’s apparent that Clinton wants to come off as down to earth as possible. A tactic in which he may seem more relatable with the public. For example, the multiple uses of the word privacy make the reader believe that the president is being watched under a microscope. There is a point in which he says “ I answered their questions truthfully, including questions about my personal life - questions no American citizen would ever want to answer” (4). What I make up of this quote is that no American wants to answer questions about their infidelity. What catched my attention is the underlying tone of the sentence. Like the president is a bit aggressive at the fact that he must answer questions regarding something outside politics. I could think that someone runner for president would understand the little privacy awaiting. Especially someone like Clinton, whole had already had some insight on how little privacy the president has. Which is expected, seeing as he’s the leader of the free world. There is another instance in which the president tries to relate his private life to those of an average citizen. He says “ But it is private...Even Presidents have private lives” (pg.1). It’s understandable that he would like some privacy. Yes the entire nations is watching you screw up your marriage with someone else inside the White House walls. The thought that the president expands on the notion of privacy for himself makes those who have been looking in feel almost bad themselves. But that’s missing the point. Again, Clinton is the president of the nation. He should understand that the leader of a country will not have the desirable private life he so wishes. Clinton wants the audience to feel remorse for their noisy behavior, but really I feel it makes him all the more guilty. A man that feels that after getting caught in an affair with his secretary still needs more privacy is ridiculous. Especially when said man is the president of the nation. Clinton tries to prove a point from start to finish: he wants to apologize to the nation for lying about not being descriptive for what kind of relationship he had with Monica Lewinsky, and just announce the desire of a more private life.
If one were to just read the speech once over, there would not be much thought into what the president is saying. But after careful analysis, it can be determined that his worlds are just a drag. There isn’t much apology after all. Just a wordy and confusing narration of manipulation that come together to say “get out of my business” The president does not sound sincere and is just trying to cover his trail of lies. Although Clinton tries to play with the emotion aspects of the readers and even tries to bring himself to the level of equilibrium with the citizens of the nation, the fact that the president would do something so outrageous is difficult to forgive. It does not matter so much about his infidelity, but the fact of the matter that he wants to make it seem as if he is a good guy. It is possible that President Clinton is being sincere with the audience and is actually really hurt with what he did to his loved ones, but sounds more rehearsed. With the president's use of pathos, the reader feels cheated as well as Hilary did. There is undertones of sly language,confusing the reader of his true motives. Does Clinton take full responsibility for the affair or was he only taking responsibility for getting caught? With the subliminal use
of assumption, Clinton tries to make himself more relatable and family oriented. Again it is more of a disguise for his dirt actions and is merely only acting in front of the cameras in order to get the media and some of the public off of his back. All in all, the speech itself was not very persuasive. The use of tricky language may be deceiving, but after careful investigation, it is revealed that Clinton was indeed not sorry for his affair, but sorry for getting caught.
After the Watergate Scandal in 1972, the House Judiciary Committee needed to decide whether or not to start the process of impeaching President Nixon. As a new member of the committee, it was Barbara Jordan’s job to convince everyone else to vote for the impeachment of Nixon. In Jordan’s speech, pathos is effectively used to persuade the House Judiciary Committee to impeach President Nixon. Through the use of rhetorical questions, repetition, first person pronouns, and dramatic imagery Jordan impacts her audience’s opinion on the impeachment of Nixon.
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.
Many would argue that President Obama is one of the most effective speakers in the decade. With his amazing speeches, he captivates his audience with his emotion and official tone.
Ronald Reagan was one of the most liked Presidents. When being elected for his second term, he won by a landslide—winning all the states minus Minnesota and Washington D.C. Reagan addresses the people of the United States of America. He wants the American people to reflect on his presidency, and as all presidents do in their farewell addresses, he wants to say goodbye to the nation that he's led for the past eight years. Ronald Reagan uses repetition, parallel structure, and allusion to reflect on his presidency and to say farewell to the American people.
“Yesterday December 7th, 1941 – a date which will live in infamy” (Roosevelt). The attack on Pearl Harbor was an event that many Americans will never forget. The day after the attack, President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave a speech to address the public and Congress. His speech started by discussing how Japan had deceived America into thinking that they could create peace between the nations. He spent three paragraphs on how the attack was planned and deliberate and how America was completely unaware of Japan’s intentions. Roosevelt spent only a little time on paying respects to the lost lives of the soldiers. After that, Roosevelt talked about how many other nations Japan has attacked. Then Roosevelt started the “pep talk” portion of his speech. He talked about the strength of the nation and how America will defend themselves against evil forces. He ends his speech with a call for war and asked Congress to declare war against Japan. The goal of his speech was to persuade Congress to declare war on Japan, as well as to get the American people to support him in his endeavors. Roosevelt gave his speech in front of Congress, but the American people all over the nation tuned into the radio to hear his speech. Roosevelt uses many rhetorical devices to get American to unite against Japan. His speech uses the rhetorical devices logos, ethos, and pathos to argue his side. He uses
After claiming that he never asked anyone “to lie, to hide or destroy evidence or take any other unlawful action”, his tone shifts back from defensive to guilty and shameful. Clinton relies, in the second half of his speech, on the repetition of the word ‘private’, to redirect the guilt from himself to the nosey American people. He uses this as a shame tactic, in attempt to reinforce that he is not solely to blame for his actions. He uses alliteration in saying that “it is time to stop the pursuit of personal destruction and the prying into personal lives”, which illustrates his irritability with having his personal life in the spotlight. He later goes on to say that, “I intend to reclaim my family life for my family. It’s nobody’s business but ours”, which suggests, by his use of the word “my”, that President Clinton doesn’t believe that he is solely to blame for what occurred. He later goes on to say that, “I take my responsibility for my part in all of this”, which suggests, by his use of the word “my”, that President Clinton doesn’t believe that he is solely to blame for his actions, both in his private relationship with Ms. Lewinsky and for lying under
...is desire for forgiveness. He was dealing with an unprecedented situation, and handled it well, although the speech did feel cold in a few places. Careful word selection and organization of ideas helped Clinton successfully achieve his objective. Although this was a dark period in the history of the United States presidency, the majority of the people of America were able to accept his apology and move on.
With this movie being based on the nonfiction book titled All the President’s Men, the governmental aspects of the film were very true. The corruptness of this extensive story makes it seem almost as though it is fiction and unable to happen, but this was an important piece of history and it very much did so occur. There are several aspects from this film that directly relate with things we have learned in class, including the characteristics of governmental officials in Washington D.C., the process of being elected president of the United States, the supreme court, and the process for impeachment of a
The opening of Clintons speech effectively captures the audience’s attention; Clinton begins her speech with;
Before stepping into the critical analysis of the speech, it is important to understand the historical setting from which the speech arose. The context can be briefly summarized as the following. In 1995 Clinton had a sexual relationship with one of his White House interns by the name of Monica Lewinsky. On January 17, 1998, a sexual misconduct lawsuit against him was filed. Clinton then quickly delivered a forceful public statement that he did not have a sexual relationship with the woman. However, unknown to President Clinton, Linda Tripp, one of Lewinsky’s associates, had recorded several conversations of Lewinsky describing her affair with the President. In the seven months afterwards, Kenneth W. Starr, the StarWhitewater independent counsel, had began collecting evidence of the affair and carrying out investigation about Clinton’s obstruction of justice. Evidence of Clinton lying under oath would be grounds for impeachment. On August 17, 1998, Clinton decided to a...
Clinton repeats the words “If women” followed by “will” (Clinton), this gives the audience a reason to accept her propositions. Good outcomes come with good actions. When she concluded her speech, Hillary kept using the repetition of the words dignity, respect, family and children. Clinton’s credibility is not questioned when she says she has been working in the case, “Over the past 25 years, I have worked persistently on issues relating to women, children, and families” (Clinton) this is the way she knows about women and their necessities, “I’ve had the opportunity to learn more about the challenges facing women in my country and around the world” (Clinton).Her goal is definite, “To strengthen families and societies by empowering women to take greater control over their own destinies”( Clinton). This change will not only affect women, but everyone who surrounds them.
On Jan. 26, 1998, President William J. Clinton famously told the nation, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.” (William J. Clinton). It was the lie that started the impeachment process of the 42nd President of the United States of America. America loves the fairytale love stories but this story is the exact opposite. Monica Lewinsky is the person that everyone knows as the mistress of President Clinton. Although Monica Lewinsky is usually the name you hear when speaking of Bill Clinton’s affair, she wasn’t the only one. Before he became president he had many affairs. In the 1970s before Clinton took office he had a twelve year affair with a model and actress, Gennifer Flowers. Not only did he have an affair with
President Obama’s Address to the nation was presented on January 5, 2016. His speech was shown on all of the major network stations. The main goal of his speech was to get the point across to the nation about the increasing problem of gun use. His speech really focused on the issue of gun control and if it would benefit the country. Overall, the biggest idea of his Address was that gun control is a large issue in the United States. The way to prevent deaths caused by firearms can be prevented in other ways than taking peoples guns away. The examples brought up in this Address really stood out to me. The use of personal, national, and global examples really made his speech stronger on the topic of effectiveness.
After the news broke of Clinton’s extramarital affair with Monica Lewinsky, Clinton was asked to testify about the case. Clinton lied about his affair under oath, and he ultimately paid the consequences. He was impeached on counts of “perjury, obstruction of justice, witness-tampering, and abuse of power”, but he was never removed from office (“President Clinton Impeached”). Clinton was the first president to face impeachment since Andrew Johnson in 1868 and he was the second president ever to face impeachment, so the issue was not taken lightly. The president was ultimately acquitted of his charges, but the Senate’s votes were split on the charge of obstruction of justice. By impeaching the president for obstructing justice, Congress demonstrated that nobody, including the President of the United States, is above the
Lately, the top story in the news day after day, months after months have been about William Jefferson Clinton, also known as Bill. Who could blame them, there is nothing better than a story out of the ordinary, especially one with presidential status. For the past months he has been the most talked about figure, being the essential topic for news, talk shows, late night comedy and even going as far as the big screen. Talk about 'Primary Colors' and 'Wag the Dog.' What has gotten to me the most however, were the constant flow of Republicans, along with a few Democrats, who just want to say how shocked and embarrassed they are along with the people of the United States.The president had not just become the most talked about figure, but also one history had ever seen, so far that is, breaking the record and becoming a topic of conversation and debate 'twenty-four seven.' The people, who I think were most affected by this crisis and feel very sad for, are the Republicans, since they had lost severe amount of sleep over the president's bedroom crisis. They had to perform their republican duties by shocking our brains with the president's affair with Monica Lewinsky. We had to ignore the rest of the world news and its issues while they plough through the valley of lies, abuse of power and something they called high crimes and misdemeanors.