Settling the Birther Issue--Again

FactCheck.org recently addressed Donald Trump's recent birther crusade against President Obama. Here's the analysis.

25th Anniversary of Challenger Explosion & President Reagan's Speeches

Here's a link to my post from five years ago about Reagan's Challenger rhetoric.

President Obama's Second State of the Union Speech

My take on the President's speech can be found here and here.

Tucson Shooting, Political Rhetoric, and Obama Memorial Speech

My various takes on the tragic shootings in Tucscon, the role of political rhetoric both before and after the attack can be found here and here, along with a preview and reaction to President Obama's speech memorializing the victims at the University of Arizona.

Top 5 Political Communication Moments of 2010

Another year, another power shift in Washington. Here's this year's list with explanations, counting down from 5 to 1:

5. Christine O’Donnell’s “I’m not a witch” ad: This ad and the controversy it addresses was the death knell of both this Tea Party-backed candidate and GOP hopes of a Senate takeover. O’Donnell symbolized the appeal and risks of pushing the envelope of “outsiderism.” Her novelty garnered more media coverage than any other candidate but, despite her best efforts to avoid the press, that coverage led to her undoing.

4. President Obama’s Oval Office Speech About the BP Oil Spill: The biggest environmental disaster in U.S. history vexed the administration for the entire summer of 2010. This nationally televised prime time address, the first Oval Office speech of the Obama’s presidency, showed the limits of Obama’s rhetorical prowess in changing the national media narrative, a problem that would plague the President throughout the year.

3. President Obama’s Q&A Appearance at GOP Baltimore Retreat: More than anything, this high stakes, high profile gambit allowed Obama to regain his footing after the August Tea Party rallies of 2009 and the Brown thunderclap in Massachusetts. Demonstrating boldness and a command of the issues, Obama emerged once again as the best politician in town, gaining confidence and momentum to battle and win on his signature health care reform--the largest domestic legislation in decades.

2. Scott Brown-Martha Coakley Final Debate - Although some attributed Brown’s monumental victory to Coakley’s weaknesses as a candidate, those who interpreted the upset as a harbinger of anti-Democratic fervor were closer to the mark. However, Brown also came to represent the public’s refusal to fully embrace the Tea Party philosophy as his moderate votes have already put a target on his back.

And the top political communication moment of 2010 was…

1. Citizens United - Some may take issue with dubbing a decision by the august U.S. Supreme Court on the same level with political speeches and debates. However, this party-line decision on campaign financing freed corporations to inject unlimited amounts of cash into political campaigns. The full ramifications are not yet known, but everyone seems to agree that this is a big deal.

Happy New Year!

Cooper Union as Rhetorical Artifact?

I'm scheduled to go on sabbatical next semester and have been writing a grant proposal for the research project I'll be working on. The project involves the Cooper Union Institute in NYC, which I've written about previously in posts about Lincoln and Manhattan. Here's the proposal:

The project is a rhetorical analysis and criticism of the Cooper Union Great Hall, the site of President Abraham Lincoln’s historic 1860 speech as well as speeches by other important orators. The hall and its accompanying exhibits are located within The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City. As described on the Cooper Union website, these orators included “rebels and reformers, poets and presidents” including Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and early advocates for civil rights, workers’ rights, and women’s suffrage. However, most people associate Cooper Union's rhetorical significance with Lincoln alone. The Great Hall represents something quite rare--a monument dedicated to political oratory and social change rhetoric. This raises important questions worthy of rhetorical analysis. How does Cooper Union represent the acts and purposes of oratory? Does the Great Hall celebrate all speakers the same? If not, are certain advocates marginalized or privileged and how do the exhibits’ use of language and images contribute to such outcomes? Does the Cooper Union celebrate its rhetorical history or subordinate it, or both? In what ways does it reflect and participate in the long standing debate about the role of rhetoric in society?

This project engages and contributes to a growing body of scholarly literature studying the rhetorical effects and strategies found within the images and words at museums (Zagacki & Gallagher, 2009; King, 2006; Dickinson, Ott, & Aoki, 2006; Newbury, 2005) and public memorials (Blair, 2007; Grider, 2007; Wright, 2005). Although the Cooper Union Great Hall is not technically a museum or memorial, the Hall and its exhibits perform the same important work of contributing to public memory. Other scholars have published rhetorical analyses of Lincoln’s Cooper Union speech, but I have found no studies of Cooper Union itself as a rhetorical artifact. Therefore, this study would provide a fresh contribution to my field’s literature and deepen awareness of the cultural and historical significance of this site. Also, because the analysis would focus on both images and text, it would contribute to the growing body of research on visual rhetoric. The ultimate goal for this project is the writing of a work of rhetorical criticism that would be presented at the 2012 National Communication Association Convention and, after receiving and incorporating feedback from peer scholars, submitted for journal publication.

Works Cited

Blair, Carole, and Neil Michel. "The AIDS Memorial Quilt and the Contemporary Culture of Public Commemoration." Rhetoric & Public Affairs 10.4 (2007): 595-626.

Dickinson, Greg, Brian L. Ott, and Eric Aoki. "Spaces of Remembering and Forgetting: The Reverent Eye/I at the Plains Indian Museum." Communication & Critical/Cultural Studies 3.1 (2006): 27-47.

Grider, Nicholas. "'Faces of the Fallen' and the dematerialization of US war memorials." Visual Communication 6.3 (2007): 265-279.

Newbury, Darren. "'Lest we forget': photography and the presentation of history at the Apartheid Museum, Gold Reef City, and the Hector Pieterson Museum, Soweto." Visual Communication 4.3 (2005): 259-295.

King, Stephen A. "Memory, Mythmaking, and Museums: Constructive Authenticity and the Primitive Blues Subject." Southern Communication Journal 71.3 (2006): 235-250.

Wright, Elizabethada A. "Rhetorical Spaces in Memorial Places: The Cemetery as a Rhetorical Memory Place/Space." RSQ: Rhetoric Society Quarterly 35.4 (2005): 51-81.

Zagacki, Kenneth S., and Victoria J. Gallagher. "Rhetoric and Materiality in the Museum Park at the North Carolina Museum of Art." 171-191. National Communication Association, 2009.

President Obama's 2nd Oval Office Speech: End of Iraq War Combat

After avoiding the Oval Office address for 15 months, President Obama is now giving his second such speech in two months. In June, he discussed the BP oil spill from that historic setting. Tonight, the subject is the end of combat operation in the seven year Iraq war. Here is an interesting take on whether Obama should even deliver this as a high profile rhetoric event. I would agree that the President's political focus should be on the economy. On the other hand, it also takes the spotlight, for one night anyway, away from the jobs numbers and shines it on a fulfilled campaign promise. The topic also allows Obama to transcend the nasty street fighting of the midterm campaign and appear presidential and serious, which, despite the silliness of much political rhetoric and commentary these days, is something many Americans still crave in their elected leaders.