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Madeline Winger
Writing 2010
Rogers
February 24, 2015
Rhetorical Analysis
Once a year the president of the United States of America is required to give a speech
about the current matters of the country. This speech, known as the State of the Union address, is
usually delivered in January, and this year was given on January 20th. As the speech is partially
designed to paint the current president as a success, large amounts of the rhetorical devices logos,
pathos and ethos are imbedded into the speech. In the 2015 State of the Union speech President
Obama uses ethos, pathos, and logos to inform the public about what is going on in the country
and to state his own successes.
To begin his speech Obama begins by brief recapping the past fifteen years of the United
States history, but then quickly moves into how things are improving. He attempts to raise the
American peoples spirits by stating Our economy is growing and creating jobs at the fastest
pace since 1999. Our unemployment rate is now lower than it was before the financial crisis
Six years ago, nearly 180,000 American troops served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Today, fewer
than 15,000 remain (Page 1). Over these lines Obama is using logos, using statistics and
numbers, to logically inform the public of the progress the country has been making. Clearly this
is progress, lowering unemployment and getting the troops out of foreign soil are things a large
amount of the population have been pushing for since he came into office, and because of this

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fact hes also showing just has much positive progress he, as our president, has made. The
American public has been concerned over the state of job opportunities in the US for a few years
now. According to Obama this is something the American public can worry less about now,
Our manufactures have added almost 800,000 new jobs. Some of our bedrock sectors like the
auto industry, are booming there are also millions of Americans who work in jobs that didnt
even exist 10 or 20 years ago (Page 6). If a member of the public looks at these numbers the
first thing they think isnt going to be oh thats a bad thing; numbers this large are hard to
envision and leave a feeling of were going somewhere and that things are improving all thanks
to our president.
It can be hard to relate to somebody as big as the President of the United States. Hes all
over the media and overall appears to the general public as more of a figurehead than a human,
and its because of this fact that presidents tend to use stories of the everyman in their speeches.
This years State of the Union is no different, one of the very first things Obama mentions is a
story about an everyday family, Seven years ago, Rebekah and Ben Erler of Minneapolis were
newlyweds. She waited tables. He worked construction As the crisis worsened, Bens
business dried up, so he took what jobs he could find, even if they kept him on the road for long
stretches of time And slowly, it paid off. They bought their first home. They had a second
son, Henry. Rebekah got a better job and then a raise. Ben is back in construction -- and home
for dinner every night America, Rebekah and Bens story is our story (Page 2). This is a
story that common people are much more likely to relate to than a large public figure spouting
words at them. Stories like this tend to evoke emotions such as sadness when you find out
theyve hit a hard time and happiness when youre told that theyre doing okay. As people are
able to relate to this theyre more likely to believe it, and in the case of this story believe that

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things are in fact getting better. The idea of spending large amounts of money on anything
evokes emotions deep inside everybody, this includes college for high school seniors and their
parents as they prepare to fork out large amounts of money for education. The idea of cheaper or
free community college will appeal to almost everybody and Obama seems set on making this
dream a reality, By the end of this decade, two in three job openings will require some higher
education And yet, we still live in a country where too many bright, striving Americans are
priced out of the education they need Thats why Im sending this Congress a bold new plan to
lower the cost of community college to zero (Page 5). Free anything arouses emotions of
pleasure and happiness for most people, and the idea of free community college for students who
are struggling to come up with the funds to pay for it sounds like a life saver.
The credibility of others is a powerful thing, being able to prove your point by providing
an example of a time it worked with somebody else greatly increases the validity of a claim.
People do it all of the time, and similarly the State of the Union is no different. As the speech
tends to be directed more towards the people its easier to prove a point when you have the
credibility of somebody else to back it up Heres one example. During World War II, when men
like my grandfather went off to war, having women like my grandmother in the workforce was a
national security priority -- so this country provided universal childcare. In todays economy,
when having both parents in the workforce is an economic necessity for many families, we need
affordable, high-quality childcare more than ever (Page 4). In this case Obama is trying to win
over the hearts of people with the idea of universal child care, which would make childcare much
cheaper or even free. Hes stating that he knows it works as it worked with his grandparents
situation in World War II, and because the Allies, which include the United State, won that war
the Allies mustve been doing something right. By bringing up another persons situation hes

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proving that it has worked and can work again. Later on in his speech he begins to bring up the
veterans and in an attempt to make himself sound more humble he brings up several of the
people that have helped him with the veterans situation, And as a new generation of veterans
comes home, we owe them every opportunity to live the American Dream And Joining Forces,
the national campaign launched by Michelle and Jill Biden has helped nearly 700,000 veterans
and military spouses get a new job (Page 5). By saying this hes showing a more human side in
that he needs help to do things, but because the ladies he mentions are his wife and the wife of
the vice president its implied that he has helped in some way with creating this campaign.
Overall the State of the Union is affectively providing a few of the condition the country
is in using logos, pathos and ethos. While it doesnt always work the purpose of the speech
comes across very clearly and what hes trying to prove tends to be believable.