Obama's Acceptance Speech

Alright, so I just watched the 45 minute speech from Obama addressing the crowd on his success in becoming the leading Democratic candidate.

From watching him speak, I get the feeling that Obama's character and style has a lot to do with how his speech comes across to the audience. Obama has poise and confidence that can rally the audience into believing what he says. At the same time, I noticed that the diction used in the speech, especially the repetition, had a lot of effect on the audience. It got them to stand up, cheer and agree with the words of Mr. Obama. Also, the speech includes a lot of retelling of his past and experiences, which sounds almost like an anecdote.

The one thing I noticed that impressed me the most was the constant differentiation between himself as being Democratic and McCain being Republican. Obama also constantly referred to his opponent as “Bush-McCain administration”. I felt that it was important to make the distinction since Obama had just won the democratic nominee. Since there has always been a partisan between the Democrats and the Republicans, I think it was a smart strategy to continuously associate McCain with Bush and hammer the failed policies brought about by Bush. Another important fact that Obama mentioned was that McCain had agreed with most of Bush’s policies.

I also noticed that Obama used a variety of abstract words and ideas. It felt like while they sounded good during a speech, it was difficult to portray an image in my mind. An example would be “We meet at one of those defining moments”. At the same time, Obama made sure that he gave information on his plans once he became President. Included were items such as cutting taxes for 95% of all working families, and investing $150 billion over the next decade in affordable, renewable sources of energy.

Lastly, I also found that watching or hearing the speech greatly enhanced my understanding of the speech as it included Obama’s tone of voice and the speed of his speech. Although he was constantly interrupted by the applause from the audience, Obama made sure he spoke with clarity, and he made sure he pronounced every single word.

Sahil