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Ben Chacko

English 1302

Professor Moore

5 September 2018

Announcement of Candidacy for United States President

On February 2007, Barack Obama delivered his “candidacy for President” speech to a

crowded area in Springfield, Illinois. This speech is what led him to a new phase in his political

career. Obama grew up not living with his family throughout his childhood. He and his half-

sister were raised by their white mother in Hawaii, while his father was in Kenya. After

graduating from college, he went to Chicago and worked for a group of local churches as a

community organizer and saw the poverty in those neighborhoods. From there, he attended

Columbia and Harvard University to study law. At Harvard, he made it on the Harvard Law

review board, which is the highest position at Harvard Law school. After graduating, he ran and

became senator for the state of Illinois. In this speech, he talked about his vision to change

America from what it looks like now to a promising future. He talked about how his past

experiences in the poor neighborhoods of Chicago as a community organizer, his childhood

growing up, and his accomplishments as Illinois state senator will help him to become a

significant leader for this country. Pathos, use of personal narrative, and call to actions in Barack

Obama’s Announcement of Candidacy for President of United States speech asks Americans to

come together and work with him to bring America to a promising future.
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Obama uses pathos throughout the essay to appeal to the audience by sharing his feelings

about the economic recession and hopes for the country that aligns with many in the crowd. He

uses past events under the previous administration that had received many negative reactions that

“crisis is somebody else’s fault” (para. 20). He appeals to their emotions where many lost their

houses, jobs, etc., all due to the frequent government intervention in free marketing, resulting in

global market decline. He mentions people or groups within the government that are advocating

for their own personal interests. He knows that such political influences can lead to corruption,

and the people see this growing disease. Instead of the American people benefiting and receiving

all the attention, these special interest groups are not only getting incentives but are also

controlling politicians who makes those laws in their favor (para. 21). When the government

chooses to make such a deal, the people are the ones who are told that their beliefs and problems

are nothing but an illusion. Lastly, he mentioned his opinion about the war in Iraq saying that,

“no amount of American lives can resolve the political disagreements that lies at the heart of

someone else’s civil war” (para. 35). He references this war because many people knew the war

never brought any change, something that was done by the previous president’s emotion at that

moment of the tragedy. As described in the examples above, he uses these methods of emotions

and feelings as a way for the audience to connect with him and to show them that he faced

similar problems in life and for the people to use it towards a better future.

Second, he uses personal narratives in the beginning of his speech for the audience to

know what walk of life he comes from. He wants to be able to connect with his audience in a

way that they are informed of his past and that he wants to earn their trust. He starts off by

informing the public of his works in Chicago neighborhoods, areas of families with low income,

as an organizer with an income of what looks like the cost of going to college for a year (para. 4).
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Here, Obama tries to convince the audience that unlike most politicians, he had to work his way

up taking routes that typical politicians will not do. When Obama said he “went to law school,

because I wanted to understand how the law should work for those in need” (para.7), that told the

audience he was not just going to study law for his benefit, but for those who need someone to

support them. He later inserts that as a Senator in Illinois, he worked to be able to give health

insurance to children in need (para. 10). This is a way of attacking the national government for

constantly failing to give adequate health insurance because both parties can never make such a

deal. This resonated with many in the audience that have been in risk of losing health insurance.

As used in the examples above, he uses this method of personal narrative to inform the audience

of his life growing up, including achievements during his time as senator to let the audience

know that he has many strengths when dealing with many serious issues in the community.

Finally, Obama uses a call to action toward the end of his speech for his audience to start

take the first step towards progress. He nicely wraps up his speech with direct commands for his

audience to start doing things on his behalf. He mentions numerous issues facing this country by

calling for the audience work together where he advices to “make it possible for hardworking

Americans to save for retirement” (para. 28); “Let’s make college more affordable” (para. 27).

He utilizes such techniques to cause a reaction in Americans on issues that many felt were

important to them or someone they know. He continues with various other issues, both foreign

and domestic to reinforce the audience to respond with action. As described in the examples

above, he uses the method of call to action to motivate the audience to begin introducing action

on issues that matter most to them before he reaches the position of presidency.
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Obama’s use of pathos, use of personal narrative, and call to action in his candidacy for

president speech provoked many Americans to work for a better future. His speech was very

effective in accumulating the emotions of the audience with the issues that he felt particularly

important to this country. He assured the audience no matter which direction the country goes in

the future, he will be right behind them to push for change.

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Work Cited

“Barack Obama.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 18 July 2018,

www.biography.com/people/barack-obama-12782369