Rhetorical Analysis of Barack Obama’s Inaugural Address The inaugural address, spoken by President Barack Obama, was largely written by the 27 year old Jon Favreau. “What is Required: The Price & Promise of Citizenship” captured the audience of the American people, with Obama’s natural ability to achieve praise without really saying anything. The country was told once again that we are in a crisis and that change is the answer. The speech teaches about Obama’s thoughts on common defense, and Americans are then assured that our country’s problems will be fixed, but that’s up to us, the people. The words spoken by Obama bring hope; “Obama’s aides have repeatedly referred to him as his own best speechwriter” through symbolism and …show more content…

Then Obama focuses his strength on persuading America to help each other. Saying that we need to look at the new challenges ahead of us, and use all of our new skills to achieve them. Obama is almost buttering us up for something. He praises the American people on a job well done, and then basically says that since we are so good at it we should fix it. Obama tells us that “giving our all to a difficult task…This is the price and the promise of citizenship” Obama is reminding us that taking care of the nation we live in is the price we should be paying to be here. Obama brings more intimidation towards Americans here, saying that many people do their part to help our country, but that everyone isn’t and should be. By pointing fingers, Obama was probably hoping to strong-arm or guilt the American people into putting forth more effort. This was one of Obama’s best tries at persuasion, and it definitely worked, based on his new USA-Service program. Obama is compared to many past presidents, Abraham Lincoln being one of them. They both shared similar views on life, freedom, and prosperity, according to an article by Carl Weinberg. Through rhetorical flourishes Obama once again tries to compare himself to past presidents. Take this quote, “The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of