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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
6 pages in length. President Bush's speech to Congress on September 20, 2001 attempted to quell a terribly distraught country and calm the nerves of those who were at odds with one another. Clearly, the war on terrorism has not represented a significantly popular time in United States history, inasmuch as 911 proved to divide an already agitated homeland. Bush's speech attempted to placate the nation's growing uncertainty as to soundness of entering into war by reassuring the American people how important this decision was to the country's continued global status. While this was, indeed, true, Bush also incorporated a significant amount of manipulative rhetoric as a means by which to fortify his own agenda and ultimately sway public opinion about the threat of terrorism. Bibliography lists 5 sources.
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6 pages (~225 words per page)
File: LM1_TLCBushRhet.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
the nerves of those who were at odds with one another. Clearly, the war on terrorism has not represented a significantly popular time in United States history, inasmuch as
911 proved to divide an already agitated homeland. Bushs speech attempted to placate the nations growing uncertainty as to soundness of entering into war by reassuring the American people
how important this decision was to the countrys continued global status. While this was, indeed, true, Bush also incorporated a significant amount of manipulative rhetoric as a means by
which to fortify his own agenda and ultimately sway public opinion about the threat of terrorism. Critics contend that Bush utilized Aristotles rhetoric theory as a way to establish his
reputation as president rather than employ it for making policy. Since his speech to Congress on September 20, 2001, it has become even more apparent how Americas forty-third president
accomplished a great deal to move forward the theory of rhetoric, "convinced that the perceived image of what a president is and does is far more important than the reality"
(Gelderman, 1995, p. 68). Centuries before, Gorgias was a big advocate of rhetoric, contending that "words acquire their own meaning, because they are not connected by the bonds of
being anything but themselves" (Babyak, 1995). His contention was that inasmuch as words were vulnerable to a variety of meanings, their inherent worth was valueless with regard to the
comprehensiveness of mans needs. Gorgias was convinced that words were nothing more than vehicles of manipulation available for use at any whim, granting suggestion and persuasion with every utterance.
Insofar as rhetoric represented the very art of producing said words, Gorgias fundamental contempt for words stemmed from their "art of persuasion" (Babyak, 1995). President Bush has learned
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