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Kurzvorstellung des Materials: /- Barack Obama electrifys more and more possible voters in the United States, at least he enchants those of the Democrat's primaries. Hailed as a genius orator, he makes them dream of change and hope.
- This material provides an analysis of the famous 'Yes we can' speech, fragments of which were implemented into a music-video many US-celebrities participated in and which emerged independent from the Senators own election campaign. The analysis focuses on the stylistic devices used by Barack Obama.
Übersicht über die Teile /
- transcript of the Obama speech (2 pages)
- analysis of the text (2 pages) (AE)
Information zum Dokument /
- Ca. 4 Seiten, Größe ca. 144 Kbyte
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Seite 1
Remarks of Senator Barack Obama on New Hampshire Primary Night
I want to congratulate Senator Clinton on a hard-fought victory here in New Hampshire.
A few weeks ago, no one imagined that we'd have accomplished what we did here tonight. For most of this campaign, we were far behind, and we always knew our climb would be steep.
But in record numbers, you came out and spoke up for change. And with your voices and your votes, you made it clear that at this moment - in this election - there is something happening in America.
There is something happening when men and women in Des Moines and Davenport; in Lebanon and Concord come out in the snows of January to wait in lines that stretch block after block because they believe in what this country can be.
There is something happening when Americans who are young in age and in spirit - who have never before participated in politics - turn out in numbers we've never seen because they know in their hearts that this time must be different.
There is something happening when people vote not just for the party they belong to but the hopes they hold in common - that whether we are rich or poor; black or white; Latino or Asian; whether we hail from Iowa or New Hampshire, Nevada or South Carolina, we are ready to take this country in a fundamentally new direction. That is what's happening in America right now. Change is what's happening in America.
You can be the new majority who can lead this nation out of a long political darkness - Democrats, Independents and Republicans who are tired of the division and distraction that has clouded Washington; who know that we can disagree without being disagreeable; who understand that if we mobilize our voices to challenge the money and influence that's stood in our way and challenge ourselves to reach for something better, there's no problem we can't solve - no destiny we cannot fulfill.
Our new American majority can end the outrage of unaffordable, unavailable health care in our time. We can bring doctors and patients; workers and businesses, Democrats and Republicans together; and we can tell the drug and insurance industry that while they'll get a seat at the table, they don't get to buy every chair. Not this time. Not now.
Our new majority can end the tax breaks for corporations that ship our jobs overseas and put a middle-class tax cut into the pockets of the working Americans who deserve it.
We can stop sending our children to schools with corridors of shame and start putting them on a pathway to success. We can stop talking about how great teachers are and start rewarding them for their greatness. We can do this with our new majority.
We can harness the ingenuity of farmers and scientists; citizens and entrepreneurs to free this nation from the tyranny of oil and save our planet from a point of no return.
And when I am President, we will end this war in Iraq and bring our troops home; we will finish the job against al Qaeda in Afghanistan; we will care for our veterans; we will restore our moral standing in the world; and we will never use 9/11 as a way to scare up votes, because it is not a tactic to win an election, it is a challenge that should unite America and the world against the common threats of the twenty-first century: terrorism and nuclear weapons; climate change and poverty; genocide and disease.
All of the candidates in this race share these goals. All have good ideas. And all are patriots who serve this country honorably.
But the reason our campaign has always been different is because it's not just about what I will do as President, it's also about what you, the people who love this country, can do to change it.
That's why tonight belongs to you. It belongs to the organizers and the volunteers and the staff who believed in our improbable journey and rallied so many others to join.
We know the battle ahead will be long, but always remember that no matter what obstacles stand in our way, nothing can withstand the power of millions of voices calling for change.
We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics. They will only grow louder and more dissonant in the weeks to come. We've been asked to pause for a reality check. We've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope.
But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope. For when we have faced down impossible odds; when we've been told we're not ready, or that we shouldn't try, or that we can't, generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people.
Yes we can. Yes we can. Yes we can.
It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation.
Yes we can.
It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail toward freedom through the darkest of nights.
Yes we can.
It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness.
Yes we can.
It was the call of workers who organized; women who reached for the ballot; a President who chose the moon as our new frontier; and a King who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to the Promised Land.
Yes we can to justice and equality. Yes we can to opportunity and prosperity. Yes we can heal this nation. Yes we can repair this world. Yes we can.
And so tomorrow, as we take the campaign South and West; as we learn that the struggles of the textile worker in Spartanburg are not so different than the plight of the dishwasher in Las Vegas; that the hopes of the little girl who goes to a crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of LA; we will remember that there is something happening in America; that we are not as divided as our politics suggests; that we are one people; we are one nation; and together, we will begin the next great chapter in the American story with three words that will ring from coast to coast; from sea to shining sea - Yes. We. Can.
Speech-analysis, as done here, might be reduced, in principle, to 'who says what to whom – how and why?'. The union of form and function is key and elaborated on in front of the panorama of context and the expectations which follow thence.
[Introduction: who is speaking, frame of reference]
The text given represents the transcript of what Senator Obama, aspiring to become the Democrat's next presidential candidate, had to say to his followers – and the public, of course – after his marginal defeat by former First Lady Hillary Clinton in the New Hampshire caucus. It can therefore be classified as a speech dictated by the necessities of hustings: refreshing and mobilising, in order to gain additional momentum for the campaign.
Obama has become a phenomenon of these primaries, mainly because he, as an inspiring orator, was able to generate a lot of buzz, entrain, in a grass-root-way, many 'simple' members of his party and capture the hearts of people who had nothing to do with politics before. We will try to illustrate the mechanics of some of his rhetorical tricks, especially because this speech inspired a music-video, produced by will.i.am, singer of the 'Black Eyed Peas' and starring many US-celebrities. Though Obama had nothing to do with its inception, he quickly recognised the potential and officially implemented it into his website. (The video can be found throughout the internet, for example at YouTube.com.)
[main part: summary with analysis of how language enhances his points]
After a short initial congratulation to Clinton, Obama tries to relativize his scant defeat by contrasting it with what the polls, which Clinton ruled by a wide margin, had said. In this perspective he sort of won, citing the thousands of voters he mobilized. Remarkable is his use of personal pronouns: He includes his listeners (and all of America, as we shall see later) by using 'we' entirely when speaking of his results and adressing thus-united voters directly in the second person singular, as his comrades.
The following three paragraphs constitute a parallelism ('There is something happening...'), spiraling upwards to the concept, the idea central to Obama's campaign: change. Again, he establishes a connection to his audience by referring directly to their experiences just prior to their voting: (standing in line before casting the vote, the massive number of young and uninitiated voters), unites them (regardless of color, race or provenience, their values are the same) and weaves them into his tapestry, his myth, his narration of a yearning for a new direction for America.
Showing this can be realised, the next sections illustrate the coming of age of 'a new majority' (parallelism again) of we, unperturbed by distractions such as being a member of different parties or other ‘peanuts’. Thus, central points become achievable: end the reign of lobbyism and money, tax cuts for the middle class at the expense of companies which transfer jobs abroad, more and better equipped schools, higher payments for teachers, an economic and ecological turnaround through technology. Everything is presented in a language saturated with pathos and emphasis, eclipsing the details of how and creating a missionary feeling of elation. Obama portrays himself as a transcender of antagonism, contrast and difference, as an outsider with a fresh mind, determined to revolutionize Washington, akin to his Republican counterpart McCain – something all too understandable in the wake of the dawning era of Geroge W. Bush.
But what constitutes the precondition of making all of this real? Right: Obama becoming president! And exactly that is picked up in the next sentence, shortly, almost coyly (‘When I am President’), the second time the personal pronoun I is used – after that, Obama resorts to the comforting 'we' again, covering the regaining of dignity in foreign policy, ending the 'war' in Iraq and Afghanistan, the fight against climate change, poverty, genocide and diseases.
After that, Obama tries to emphasize what sets him apart from other contenders for presidential candidate, namely Mrs. Clinton: it’s not about what he will do as President – interestingly enough he uses the will-future here, underlining the certainty of future events instead of mere plans stated with a going-to-construction - it's about what ‘his’ patriotic citizens can do to change America. This way. Obama puts himself in direct lineage of a John F. Kennedy (‘Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.’) and thus presents himself as the next hopeful, the next Great Hope for a maltreated country, as a second Kennedy the work of whom came to an end much too early and whose descendants meanwhile have sided with the Senator of Illinois.
Thereafter, Obama encourages his listeners that obstacles (surely on the way to presidency, in a more literal way) may be sweeped away by the might of many, even if the cynics (read: the Clintons, the Republicans, everyone accusing Obama of being naive) doubt that.
And then comes his greatest trick, the climax of his speech: this hope other people laugh about is at the very heart of America, is the nucleus of its history. Hope in impossible circumstances, hope when you are down. In a romantic way Obama leads us to the origins of the United States: to the founding fathers, slaves, fighters for freedom, to immigrants coming with nothing, hoping for everything, women fighting for their rights, to Kennedy who made America dream of the moon and even the biblical figure of Moses or god himself. Like DNA, these examples are intercut with the words ‘Yes we can’, a chorus of self-assurement, repeatable by the audience who may be different and come from all over the country but are united in belief and pursuit of happiness and change. Obama will hit the road to meet them personally for the next primaries and caucuses. 'Tomorrow, this adverbial of time is sober description and promise at once.
[conclusion: summing up]
All in all, Obama proves himself to be a genius rhetoric who unites fans and those to-be alike by melding them together in a striving for an America grounded on hope, even in the face of the impossible. He is only one part of a movement that continues many of the best traditions of the American people. He inspires hope and change and makes almost forget his defeat in New Hampshire that day. His listeners only remember one thing, they go home with one thought: Yes, he could.
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