Sunday, September 13, 2009

Clinton's Inaugural Address

Bill Clinton's first inaugural address seems a fitting example of the "periodic style" (as opposed to "running style") as defined by Lanham. Lanham says of the periodic style, "The mind shows itself after it has reasoned on an event; after it has sorted by concept and categorized by size...works with balance, antithesis, parallelism and careful patterns of repetition; all of these dramatize a mind which has dominated experience and reworked it to its liking" (49). Clinton's address contains virtually every element expounded by Lanham, from its organization (concept / size), its balance (both on the whole and within single sentences), and its special use of repetition, especially the words "we", "America", "change" and "world" (to name a few).
After reading Clinton's speech (and watching it), it makes sense to use the "periodic" style in a political situation such as a leader addressing their nation. The President speech must be focused, it must move in an orderly manner from topic to topic, concept to concept, idea to idea. Perhaps most importantly, the President must achieve a certain rhythm in their speech lest the audience's minds wander; people need to keep listening, and a "running style" does not necessarily equal attention (in this event, anyway). Clinton must show his decisiveness, his mental agility and his capacity to clarify issues and make conclusions. The running style would be more of a debate or an attempt to work something through (maybe Proust), but by using the periodic style, Clinton is able to make his points quickly and without much gray room (room for misunderstanding).
The word repetition Clinton uses serves two purposes; he can use words like "we" and "America(ns)" over and over to remind the people he is one of them, and that it is America they are working for together, but aside from this rhetorical purpose, the repetition pounds the point home like the rhythm section in a jazz band; Clinton's ideas are the showcase (soloist) but the supporting cast is featured in the repetitious refrains.
Meanwhile, his specific vocabulary highlights what Americans care about (or should care about), like mentioning technology, "...technology is almost magical", change, the economy, etc. Interestingly, Clinton's speech featured many of the buzzwords that Obama still uses today, which perhaps shows that political rhetoric and discourse are always focusing on the exact same issues (although we now have 2 wars in the works).

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