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Bill Clinton Speech Rhetorical Devices

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On September 11th, 1998, the world was spun by the words of Bill Clinton. After a shocking scandal with his White House intern, Clinton gave a speech to publicly apologize and ask for forgiveness from the nation. Due to the rumors of impeachment, Clinton pleaded for the nation to forgive him and move forward. He gave the speech at the annual White House prayer breakfast in front of many religious leaders, hoping to win their approval once again by using rhetorical devices such as pathos, ethos, euphemism, anecdote, and imagery in his speech. First, Clinton softly addresses his audience and states, “I may not be quite as easy with my words today as I have been in years past, and I was up rather late last night thinking about and praying about …show more content…

He also mentions that he wrote out his speech- something that is unordinary for him. Not only is he dedicated to addressing this scandal, but he will use other means- ones that are unusual for him- to fix this issue. Clinton also agrees with the people who said he did not do a sufficient job in depicting his faults. Here, he mentions his thesis by saying, “I have sinned” (Clinton par. 3. Then, the sand is sanded. This is a clear euphemism to politely address the issue, while being sensitive to the situation. He validates those who felt he was wrong and puts himself at the mercy of the people. In his next paragraph, Clinton addresses the larger audience and reassures them that he knows what he did is wrong; furthermore, he feels genuinely remorseful. In the same sense, Clinton alludes to the Bible to set up his next point. For the first time in this speech, he asks for forgiveness from the people. Knowing that his crowd is predominantly religious, mentioning God repeatedly allows the audience to see him as a religious man- one they can trust. Clinton provides tangible steps that both he and America can follow to ensure he improves his

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