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Matthew Lloyd
Mr. Gunther
English 1010
1, November 2016
Mrs. Obama and Mrs. Clinton a Surprise Duet
On October 14, 2016 the first lady Michelle Obama, the first lady of the United States
gave some remarks at the Hillary for America campaign event. Throughout her speech Mrs.
Obama uses many appeals and rhetorical strategies to get her point across. One such example is
the ever present pathos appeal, throughout the speech she is targeting the emotions of voters by
using children and women. Another strategy Mrs. Obama uses is her tone. Her tone makes her
sound just like an ordinary citizen who is concerned for her country.
Mrs. Obama has a clear purpose throughout her speech, her main purpose is to inform
potential voters of the dangers of voting for the other candidate. She uses a plethora of examples
as to why the opposing candidate is the wrong decision. She mentions how he is involved in
many scandals with many women and she also mentions how he treats women with disrespect.
Mrs. Obama makes her purpose clear early on in the essay by briefly mentioning all the reasons
why her candidate is right and why the other is wrong. Later on in the essay she goes in depth as
to why the other candidate is the wrong decision by expanding on her reasons.
Mrs. Obama targets many audiences but the audience that she hits the hardest is the
voting mothers. As women she talks about how Mr. Trump uses women as objects and not as
people. She gives numerous examples of the many scandals and charges against Mr. Trump and
how nobody should treat women like that. She targets the parental side by talking about the

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example that Mr. Trump sets for the children. She expresses her concern on what would happen
if that example became the leader of the country.
Mrs. Obama uses all the appeals verbally and non verbally. She never vocalizes the
authority and experience that she has but it is clear that she knows what she is talking about
because of her position in this country. That Ethos appeal is a very important factor in her speech
because it puts extra meaning into what she says. The clear Aristotle appeal that Mrs. Obama
uses is the Pathos appeal, the appeal to emotion. She targets the hearts of the people by talking
about the terrible example that the other candidate is to the young generation of this country.
Mrs. Obama talks about the example that Mr. Trump sets, and how he makes it ok to demean
women and mistreat them. She talks about how he tries to get away with saying that it was
locker room talk. By saying that it shows the young men of America that they can say or do
whatever they want and get away with it because the potential P.O.T.U.S did and he got away
with it. She also uses the Logos appeal (logic) to try to convince the voters that the logical and
sound decision is the person who has the most experience, her candidate. She addresses the clear
gap in experience between any candidate in years and Mrs. Clinton. She clearly shows how
Mrs. Clinton has more experience to lead than Mr. Trump or Mr. Obama.
It is clear that Mrs. Obama has plenty of experience in public speaking. Her brilliant use
of rhetorical strategies, intentional or not was enough to capture the hearts and minds of potential
swing voters. Her clear purpose mixed with the force of her Ethos authority and her Pathos
context makes for a speech that really makes you wonder if you are right or validates what you
already know. She constructed a perfect speech for the audience that she was speaking to, the
voting mothers felt the same way about the other candidate and Mrs. Obama validated their

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claims. Mrs. Obama also used Logos matched with Pathos to create a speech that struck a chord
with the heart and mind in a way to get a very important point across.