Obama Ethos Analysis

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Ethos – Appeals to Authority and Credibility By Megan McIntyre and Jessica McKee Power is the most persuasive rhetoric. – Friedrich Schiller I’ve always wondered why candidates have to “approve this message”; I mean, if President Obama is on camera talking about himself, can’t I assume he approves the message ? Why does he have to state that he approves at the end? There’s certainly a law that governs what must be said at the end of a political advertisement, or else President Obama wouldn’t say exactly the same thing as every other politician at the end of an ad, but there’s also an element of persuasion at work here. By appearing on camera saying that he approves the content, the President is giving the ad credibility. It’s about him,…show more content…
They always had some obvious moral (like “don’t drink and drive”). And they were often really emotion driven. At the end of the show, the camera would pan out, showing the protagonist alone and suffering for the poor decisions that she had made. When you were a child, that sort of heavy-handed emotionalism was effective in getting a point across. Now that you’re an adult, it becomes easier to feel frustrated, and even manipulated, by an overload of emotion. Emotion, or pathos, is a rhetorical device that can be used in an argument to draw the audience in and help them connect with the argument. Relying too much on pathos, though, can make your writing sound like an after-school…show more content…
You’ve likely seen some sort of commercial or informercial that pleads with you to “Call Now!” to receive some important prize or to avoid missing some sort of opportunity; these informercials are employing kairos. * Deadlines or goals: These appeals to kairos are often seen as part of fundraising literature: by connecting a reader or listeners’ response to a particular deadline or goal, the writer creates urgency and excitement. * References to “current crises” or impending doom: These kinds of references are prevalent in political and social campaigns. Consider for example, the large number of financial bills, laws, and investigations undertaken by legislative bodies throughout the country after the most recent economic recession. Lawmakers were responding to and taking advantage of a the “right time” created by the crisis in order to persuade their fellow lawmakers constituents to support a particular fiscal policy. Fallacious

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