Obama's Rhetoric and the Myth of Virtuous Power

Scientific Essay from the year 2009 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: '-', University of Dusseldorf 'Heinrich Heine' (Institut für Kultur und Medien), language: English, abstract: An initial reaction to the appearance of Barack Obama on the American political stage has been one oscillating between reluctant approval, enthusiastic appreciation and mistrusting rejection. The chance of the first African-American president brought about much support for Obama, as well as critique claiming that he would just be a tool of liberal forces to put forth a politically correct agenda. The problem of race, very early on in the presidentialprimaries and later in the general election, was oddlyunspoken of, yet permanently present.[...]Two speeches of Barack Obama will serve as a foundation foranalysis. One is 'A More Perfect Union', given in March 2008in the height of the Democratic primary campaign. It dealswith the race problematic in America. The other one is hisInaugural Address from January 2009 which of course has amuch more celebratory tone. Both speeches center around thequestion of how the American society does deal and shoulddeal with times of economical distress though their topicalfocus is an entirely different one. However, the effect bothaim for, and to a large degree surely achieve, is a unitingone. Uniting different racial groups, uniting politicalopponents, uniting most of the divisive tendencies ofsociety to reclaim the American Dream.