Slight of Mouth, Barack Obama's speech

Look at the use of language patterns and persuasion in this piece it's

quite awesome!! You also need a very skilled person to deliver it

perfectly!

This is an excerpt from a speech by Senator Barack Obama - New Hampshire

Primary Tuesday, January 8th, 2008 Nashua, New Hampshire

Comments on the persuasive power of this are in (italics).

We've been asked to pause for a reality check. (This is an indirect

suggestion to "pause" i.e., to stop thinking or rationalizing) We've

been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope.

(:"We" implies a "you and me" thus uniting us. From our detached "pause"

we can look at the concept of false hope.)

But in the unlikely story that is America, ("unlikely" allows us to feel

unique and special as Americans, linking us to the myth of a people who

thrive against all odds) there has never been anything false about hope.

(This is a different use of the words "false" and "hope" and reframes

"false hope" in a new way) For when we have faced down impossible odds

(these impossible odds are unmentioned but assumed and affirms that we

are unique) ; when we've been told that 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.

(A call to action but even more; a call to rebellion against those who

try to discourage us.)

It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the

destiny of a nation.

(Evocation of "destiny"; that we are the central figures around whom

great things can occur.)

Yes we can.

It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail

toward freedom through the darkest of nights.

(Offering anecdotal evidence to support our rebellion against any

oppressor.)

Yes we can.

(Repetition. Hammer it into the mind and link it with powerful and

positive emotions.)

It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and

pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness. (More

strong images of perseverance against security and reason.)

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.

(Wow! This one is POWERFUL! Without stating who the "King" is it

providing clues of "mountaintop" and "the Promised Land" and he allows

us to connect the dots on our own. This makes us to feel as if we have

knowledge of an inner secret.)

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. (Powerful use of repetition.)

And so tomorrow, as we take this campaign South and West; (in itself

this brings people back to earth... to the reality of the campaign. This

would be bad if it were not for the preceding emotional high we've been

brought to) 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; (This creates the feeling of bonding between different

people. A feeling that we are not so different from one another.) 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, (Providing three ways of saying "we are one

people" and thus clobbering us with repetition again) we will begin the

next great chapter in America's story with three words that will ring

from coast to coast; from sea to shining sea ("coast to coast; from sea

to shining sea" evokes patriotic memories of the song "God Bless

America" ... all without saying it explicitly!) – Yes. We. Can.

(Yes, we can! There is little more persuasive than a simple phrase

repeated and instilled with emotion. It is the same effect that

Martin Luther King with "I have a dream.")