Hearing that Obama is considered a bad communicator really surprised me, he is the only president whose speeches that I can actually bare to sit through, and even sometimes enjoy. It's easy to follow his arguments, he speaks simply, and he even adds humor to spice up his speech. In the past, I'd hate it when my parents would make me sit through a state of the union, but now I actually enjoy it. His rhetoric is very appealing to the common man. It can be understood by everybody. My favorite part about his speeches are the simplicity. He usually always starts with some allusion to the past, then states exactly what his argument is.

Throughout all of Obama's speeches I've noticed one similar technique, positivity. In every single one of his speeches he is extremely positive. He continues the past trends of presidents constantly talking about how "strong" the union is. Even after a horrifying shooting in Tucson, Obama still found a way to be positive and to persuade his audience to be positive. Obama's tone throughout all of his speeches is extremely optimistic. He is constantly either talking about the positive, or how his changes will bring the positive. This is a common technique used by mostly every president, because no one wants to hear that the union is weak, it just depresses them.

Obama uses constant real world examples and humor to make his argument. These were especially frequently seen in his most recent State of the Union; he made references to a single person two seperate times who have helped our union in some way. He also makes many facetious comments throughout his speech, most of them making fun of the government. The one that stood out to me was when he explained how different departments are in charge of salmon when they are in different types of water. This eases the tension of the audience and even makes the speech more interesting for them. Humor is definitely one of the most potent rhetorical devices.

Even though I think differently, I can definitely see why people consider Obama a bad communicator. Not because his speeches are bad, but maybe because his speaking skills at times can be a bit weak. Sometimes it seems that it's the first time Obama has read through the speech when he is on national television. He makes many unneeded pauses which almost seem like he is waiting for a clap that's not coming and he also mispronounces words at times. Otherwise, Obama seems to be one of the best speakers that this country has seen in a while.