Obama’s Inaugural Speech (CNN.com, January, 20, 2009)
Summary: This is President Obama’s inaugural speech wherein he addresses the biggest issues he has to face as the new president and how he plans to deal with them. A good amount of it is dedicated to his foreign policy plans, with about one paragraph dealing specifically with expanding diplomacy to struggling nations.
Category: Institutional (Government)
What Is It? Transcript of a Presidential Speech
Title: Obama’s Inaugural Speech
Publication Information:
CNNPolitics.com
January 20, 2009
Originally broadcast all over the United States of America, re-produced in print, audio, and video all over the world.
Author: No author listed
Location: http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/20/obama.politics/index.html
Accessed: January 21, 2009
Support:
• A Quote from Scripture
• U.S. Founding Fathers
• American Troops, past and present
• Thomas Paine, author of “The Crisis” which Obama quotes
President Obama uses direct quotes from Scripture and “The Crisis” by Thomas Paine, and a lot of other vague references to various historical events and people in order to illustrate the state of our nation. He weaves these references together in order to impress the importance of this moment onto the American people and let them know what he plans to do, with their support, to start re-building America.
Source Analysis: Given that this source is the President’s Inaugural address, it’s funded by the government and addressed to all of America. Its purpose is to inspire the American people to have hope and faith in the new administration.
Usefulness: The new administration wants trust from its people, and this speech is the first seed it plants in its citizens in order to cultivate that trust. Looking into the future, Obama wants to get re-elected. It’s a stretch, but I’m sure that was taken into account when this speech was written. It’s kind of a fluff speech, meant to inspire all of America. For my purposes, there’s actually a full paragraph addressing my Should Question, about expanding the U.S.’s diplomacy. The paragraph is vague, which is to be expected, given that he must briefly address every other issue as well. He talks about not being able to stand by and let struggling nations struggle any longer.
Works Cited:
“Obama’s Inaugural Speech” from CNN.com
I also got the information on Thomas Paine from this blog by John Fea, author of The Way of Improvement Leads Home.
http://www.philipvickersfithian.com/2009/01/obama-inaugural-paine-not-washington.html
