This goes back a bit in time before my last post, but anyway...
According to The Global Language Monitor, on January 13 Obama gave his "strongest" speech since his "Yes, we can!" speech. This speech, known as his Tuscon memorial speech honoring the victims of the Tuscon shooting, was a somber, eulogy-like speech. As a speech after a tragic event, it was loaded with empathy, and referenced hope, light, love, and the future.
A couple of the reasons for this speech's success include his scriptural references and his appeal to emotion when he called for us to live up to the expectations of children, echoing Lincoln and MLK. It was also one of his easiest-to-understand speeches, which usually increases the impact of the speech. GLM believed that this speech, along with the midterm elections being over, would allow Obama to pursue a new narrative focusing on hope and the future.
So, what is this new narrative? According to George Lakoff, based on his State of the Union address, Obama's new narrative going into the presidential elections is and will be competitiveness. As I noted last time, competitiveness was big in his State of the Union address, in that the US needs to "win" the future. To get the full details on this, I highly recommend reading Lakoff's post. It is definitely an interesting take on this new narrative.
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