Rhetorical Comparison While campaigning for president in March of 2008, Barack Obama delivered a speech entitled, A More Perfect Union. This was his opportunity to address race and religion in America, mainly due to the controversy concerning his Muslim and African American background. In order to gain momentum and achieve credibility, or ethos, as a presidential candidate, President Obama was indirectly forced to assert his beliefs and define the values that the multitude of America had questioned. This is not, however, the first time a presidential candidate has been drawn into this sort of situation. In the past, other candidates have had to justify their moral and personal characters for the sake of establishing credibility and earning …show more content…
A rhetorical problem is an extrinsic element that influences and sometimes limits the rhetor’s choices. These barriers and limitations also might prevent the rhetorical act from achieving its ends. To classify the rhetorical problem in Campaign Speech to the Houston Ministerial Association and in Address to the American Legion Convention, a general understanding of the historical-cultural context is necessary. On September 12th, 1960, John F. Kennedy delivered Campaign Speech to the Houston Ministerial Association to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association, a group of Protestant ministers, on the issue of his religion. At the time, many Protestants had reservations as to whether Kennedy's Roman Catholic faith would allow him to make imperative national decisions as a president independent of the church. Thus, Kennedy was placed into an external situation where he had to address concerns before a skeptical audience of Protestant clergy. On the other hand, on August 25, 1992 in Address to the American Legion Convention, Democratic presidential nominee, Bill Clinton, defended his draft record and his opposition to the Vietnam War before an audience of veterans to assert that his lack of military service should not prohibit him from becoming commander in