The Rhetorical Analysis Of Kennedy And Clinton's Speech

Though Kennedy and Clinton addressed their audiences nearly thirty-two years apart, each rhetor faced a common rhetorical barrier – an American populace too heavily focused on the personalities within each respective presidential election rather than the true issues confronting the United States. To overcome that barrier, both Kennedy and Clinton utilize definitional strategies – in the form of association – as well as language strategies –specifically, historical allusions. Whether or not the speeches directly correlate with both candidates winning their presidential elections does not concern the examination; this paper observes how exactly the rhetorical devices used served to dissolve the barriers between the rhetor and the intended audience.

Kennedy and Vice President Richard Nixon came at the height of the Cold War with the United States seemingly falling behind in the space and technological race and the Fidel Castro regime tightening relations with the Soviet Premier. Despite the rising tension, the American citizenry honed in on the individual personalities rather than the issues. Though Nixon attacked Kennedy for his age, the most detrimental factor to his campaign was his religious affiliation. Kennedy associated himself with the Catholic Church; never in the history of the United States had a Catholic been elected president. In 1928, Al Smith, a Catholic candidate for president, lost considerably to Herbert Hoover. Though this occurred decades prior to Kennedy’s election, questions were still raised concerning the legitimacy of a Catholic running to be president of the United States. More alarming to the Kennedy campaign, in terms of his religious association, was the region known as the “Bible Belt South” – a heavily evangelical Protestant band of states in the southern United States. With a significant chunk of the nation completely against him simply based upon his religious affiliation, and another large group uncertain on its stance, Kennedy had a steep uphill battle to fight in an effort to convince the nation of his true character in relation to the issues confronting the United

Clinton made strenuous efforts to avoid being shipped to Vietnam: he received education deferments while at Georgetown University and Oxford University, enrolled, but never joined, the Army ROTC, and, upon learning of his high draft lottery number, revoked his enrollment in the ROTC to entertain a career in politics. The letter written to the director of the ROTC program was leaked prior to the election of 1992. The 1992 election came during the wake of the so-called Gulf War and Operation Desert Storm ordered and successfully carried out during President George H.W. Bush’s administration. The American public, though not supportive at the onset of Desert Storm, came to appreciate Bush’s work in establishing American dominance in a post-Cold War world. Thus, considering the heightened degree of patriotism exhibited by the American people leading up to the election, the rhetorical barrier presented to Bill Clinton came in the form of his need to contest the negativity surrounding his draft-dodging during the Vietnam War. Clinton desperately needed to convince the American people to reject a value-based critique of the candidates in favor of an issue-based