This is the speech delivered by President Bill Clinton at the annual White House prayer breakfast on Friday, September 11, 1998, to an audience of more than 100 ministers, priests and other religious leaders. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton was also in attendance.
The speech, written in long hand by the president, was delivered at the beginning of a day of tremendous political and personal turmoil surrounding the publication of the first report to Congress by Independent Counsel Ken Starr. The Starr Report, published on the Internet about 2 p.m. on Friday, laid the grounds for possible impeachment of the president, accusing Clinton of perjury, obstruction of justice and other offenses in connection with his sexual affair with former
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Clinton takes great care to mention the American public and how he is continually making efforts to lead the country. This covers himself for any later accusations that he is overly concerned with his own problems, and not with those of the nation.
In the speech, the President mentions the word “repent” four times, “forgiveness” three times, and eludes to his own sin more times than could be counted. All three ideas lend further to the sympathy issue. Which it seems, was Clinton’s primary intention.
I thought that the passage used form the book “Gates of Repentance” was very appropriate for the situation. It was also good that the President referred to more than one religion. He mentions prayers to God and forgiveness received from the Catholic clergy, and then continues the religious theme by directly quoting from a Jewish, Yom Kippur liturgy. Again, Clinton was careful to relate himself to the common person, careful not to exclude or connect himself to only one group. Throughout the entire speech, he uses simple, every-day language that can be easily understood by the most educated scholar to the average member of society. Again, this allows more room to reach the people, regardless of class or religion.
In his closing statements, the President asks for assistance and forgiveness. In my
Lincoln chooses to make certain religious allusions in his speech, in an attempt to unify the divided country around a common central concept: religion. Lincoln makes such references to religion to confirm others beliefs, and assure them that God stands with them, even in such a difficult time. To show sympathy towards African Americans, and to unify them with the others in the country, Lincoln states, “Both read the same bible, and both pray to the same God.”
In the introduction of his speech he had stated, “This is, of course, a nonpolitical speech which is probably for the best under the circumstances,” this can be inferred as verbal irony because of the reasons for his speech as he directly stated his purpose, “I have come here to discuss my beliefs about faith and country, tolerance and truth in America,” faith and country having to do with religion and government in the same coordinates and as he says the speech is nonpolitical he had brought his support as political people with different types of views from many different angles, one of which being President Kennedy’s, “John Kennedy said at that time: ‘I believe in an America where there is no religious bloc voting of any kind,’” another of which was President Reagan’s, “ Ronald Reagan said to 15 thousand evangelicals at the Roundtable in Dallas: ‘I know that you can’t endorse me. I want you to know I endorse you and what you are doing,” this gives a political view of two different presidents with two completely different opinions on the subject at hand. Another reason this irony is an ethical appeal is because ethics is the moral guidelines one has put in place, in this case the moral guidelines being the constitution and if religion should be an influence in this
Due to the misfortune of this event, Barack Obama's speech was a eulogy. He used this style to honor the victims who had lost their lives in this shooting, as well as touch on previous tragedies such as those in Tucson, Aurora, and Oak Creek. After quoting scripture, Obama opened his speech by saying, "We gather here in memory of twenty beautiful children and six remarkable adults." He honored the victims by giving his love and prayers, and by naming each of the victims who have lost their lives in the shooting. Although Obama's purpose of this speech was to ask the nation to make a change, it was also to honor those who got killed in this catastrophic event. Because he named each specific
The first reason why Clinton was the worst President is because of the scandals of his extra marital affairs that came out to light. Clinton impressed people with the idea of a family man in office. In the face of allegations that he committed adultery and maintained a twelve-year love affair with Gennifer Flowers, Clinton used five strategies: denial, bolstering, attack accuser, transcendence, and differentiation (Blaney & Benoit, 2002). His strategies would not work again when the media brought to light another affair. It was a slap to the face of the Americans when in 1995 Clinton had an affair with Monica Lewinsky, a White House intern (Blaney & Benoit, 2002). Clinton lied about his relationship with Lewinsky and he allowed his family, cabinet and staff to repeat his lies for seven months while he remained silent (Blaney & Benoit, 2002). Pandora’s Box was open and the reason for his impeachment is that he lied under oath during the testimony in the Paula Jones sexual harassment suit, and to the grand jury during the Monica Lewinsky investigation. So, the question arises, “Do we want our Chief Executive and Commander-in- Chief distracted by scandal when facing decisions of great domestic and foreign importance?” Regardless of one’s ideological learnings the answer ought to be “no,” because potential problems affecting all Americans might develop without recourse to the best possible decisions (Blaney & Benoit, 2002).This brought doubt among the American people that his
Logos was used much less in the speech compared to ethos and pathos, but still has a great effect. He used logic to explain that he knows in order to be forgiven that he must change and repair breaches of his own. Also he says, “I cannot move beyond or forget this- indeed, I must always keep it as a caution light in my life- it is very important that our nation move forward.” He used logic to explain that in order for our country to prosper that it must move keep rolling through hills. He continues to tell the people that he knows what he has done is very wrong and that integrity is important and that selfishness is wrong. By owning up to his wrong doing and giving logical reasoning to the people that we must move forward shows that Bill Clinton knows what he is doing.
As statistics show, science fiction has long been a genre produced and consumed by nerdy, middle aged, white men, with little to no social skills. The content of science fiction has typically revolved around intergalactic interaction and male dominated adventure and exploration, most certainly do not imagine that science fiction can be used to write about feminist thoughts or ideas. However, this is exactly what Octavia Butler does in her short story “Speech Sounds.” Many scholars believe that feminist science fiction writers write toward a utopian society. Butler, however, tends to write more towards a confrontation with dystopia. A dystopian society, or anti-utopia, is a society
The date is June 6th, 1984, and American President Ronald Reagan stands solemnly before a massive stone monument on what he calls "a lonely, windswept point on the northern shore of France." On this historic day, the President of the United States stands solemnly before a small crowd of some of the bravest men living. The men assembled before him know these cliffs well. These are the Rangers who scaled the cliffs 40 years ago to do more than win the cliffs on the shores of Normandy. These are the Rangers who began the retaking of the entirety of Europe from Axis Control. That was 40 years ago, now only 90 of the original 225 sit before him now. All that can be heard are the crash of the waves on beach below and the occasional cry of a seagull
President Obama starts his speech off with this “Good evening. Tonight, I can report to the American people and to the world, the
One of the things Clinton is most famous for, but not the proudest of, is his affairs. The issue of Clinton having an affair with Monica Lewinsky is purely personal. It should have been discussed within his family and in his family alone. Many people seem to forget that Presidents before him have done the exact same thing. John F Kennedy is probably the best known with his affairs. This doesn't diminish the fact that Clinton took it one step farther and lied about the affairs.
Moreover, he gives a religious reason for his speech. He says, “ Beyond the calling of race or nation or creed is deeply concerned especially for his suffering and helpless and outcaste children, I come tonight to speak for them.” He justifies his speech by saying that it was the will of
"I ask that all Americans demonstrate in their personal and public lives... the high ethical standards that are essential to good character and to the continued success of our Nation."
Paul Keating’s speech ‘funeral service of the unknown Australian soldier’ and Noel Pearson’s speech ‘an Australian history for us all’ have developed and expressed ideas using language appropriate to their audience, purpose and form. Despite the fact, it is fundamentally the speaker’s skills in the construction of the speech that determine its decisive success.
Lyndon Johnson was convinced that liberal nationalism and the power of the federal government could transform society. His faith grew out of his youthful experiences with poverty in Texas, his political apprenticeship during the New Deal, and his desire to surpass Roosevelt's legacy. When he took office in November 1963, after John F. Kennedy's death, Johnson inherited the early initiatives to address poverty that the Kennedy administration had under consideration. With characteristic enthusiasm and expansiveness, Johnson declared a war on poverty in 1964 and pushed legislation through Congress to establish the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO).In this speech, the purpose Lyndon B. Johnson outlines his vision and goals for "The Great
In examining the political life of Bill Clinton, five major scandals stick out: his draft record; Gennifer Flowers and Infidelity; the Marijuana controversy; Whitewater; the Lewinsky Affair. Any one of these scandals could easily – and have on numerous occasions– ruin a political career. Yet, in each of these episodes Clinton was unusually adept at surviving and restoring his image.
President Clinton was a man entangled in his own ruins. He went from one lie to another and eventually was so caught up in them, that he was trapped. These lies brought on his downfall as a great leader. He was flawed like everyone, yet being a representative of the people, you need to keep these flaws hidden so that weakness is not shown. His failings were revealed to the whole world and his pride and integrity fell with them. The world no longer saw a leader, but a broken man. This was his ultimate failure. However, another big failure Clinton had while in office was his failure to