Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Mitchell Appleby Blog Post


Mitchell Appleby


            The speech that I chose was from last night’s Republican National Convention. When I watched New Jersey Governor Chris Christie deliver his speech, I knew that was the one I would use.  Christie uses a lot of ethos, logos, and pathos during his speech to help get his point across.

            Ethos is very clear from the start in this speech. First, Governor Christie is a Republican Governor. The people in the audience knew who he was before he even stepped on that stage due to the fact that it was a Republican convention and Christie is one of the more popular members of the party. He also spent some time during the speech discussing the success that he has had in New Jersey.  He said that he was told it was impossible to cut taxes in that state and that he could not balance the budget, but he was able to do it. He also saved retirees pensions and spoke truth to the teacher’s union when nobody else would. With all that said, Governor Christie solidified himself as a very credible speaker to the audience.

            Pathos was extremely prevalent throughout his speech. He was very firm and direct, but he did use some brief humor at the beginning to lighten the mood. He told the audience about his parents and the hard life that they endured, which made him look like a common hard-working American. He discussed how he was instilled with family principles, including respect and love. He spoke with a passion and pride for the country that is normally not so clear. Christie called for this country to be great again and tonight was the time for us to stand up and do so. His firm speaking and repeated quotes about believing in America seemed to get the crowd excited. They rose to their feet and were very motivated by the Governor’s speech. If a speech can motivate the audience, then pathos had to play a role.

            Logos was not used as frequently in this speech and the other two, but there were some brief instances where Governor Christie used logos on the crowd. He said that the American people need to use what they know to be true to determine what this country needs. They need to be smart and choose the party that has the right ideas for the country rather than the party with the wrong ideas. Christie told the crowd that we, as Americans, need to change. We need to choose politicians who will stand up and do something rather than just try to be something so that they can win a reelection. He left it up to the crowd to do something and choose what’s right.

            The audience that Governor Christie is addressing is a group of Republican conservatives, but he really is addressing much more than that. His message is for all of the American people. I believe that his purpose with this speech was to call Americans to restore this country to what it used to be. He wanted to support Mitt Romney for president and motivate all people to revitalize our nation.

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