Victory Speech

Though it is not Barack Obama's first public speech, it may be considered as his first real political speech. The promises that he declared might be considered as mandatory because he had just won the US presidential election and his role as the presidential candidate and the president-elected were different simply in this aspect of the liability of what he was saying.

Someone might assume that the speech which was presented so near to the time when Obama got to know that he had won the election would have been spontaneous and therefore not well-arranged. Naturally, it is not the case of this speech. Not surprisingly, Obama must have expected with his victory and thus the speech was carefully prepared before the election. This suggests either the overall structure of the speech, in which the arguments are well-formed and logically ordered, or simply the impression that fall on the listener or the reader.

The speech may be divided at least into four parts according to the topics. Firstly, president Obama tries to thank all persons who had helped him to gain his victory. The whole passage makes an impression of pomposity. Obama is concrete, lists all names and does not limit himself to mere general acknowledgment for all. The concreteness may be also among the characteristics of the next feature of the speech when Obama wants to list the essence of the United States, who are their members and also for whom this country is one home. The declarative sentence "...black, white, Latino American, gay, straight disabled and not disabled - Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of red sates and blue states; we are, and always will be, the United States of America" therefore helps to strengthen the impression of mutual unity and solidarity.

The feeling of a greater authenticity is reached by president Obama's reminiscence on 106 years old Ann Nixon Cooper, whom he had allegedly met as she had been casting her ballot, and the comparison of the significant changes that the United States has reached since this time. Even here Obama endeavors to sound more concretely and thus he compares for instance the fact that at the beginning of her life Ann Nixon Cooper was not allowed to vote simply due to the two reasons: she is a woman and, moreover, a black; at the end of her life these reasons play no role in defining whether she may or may not vote. It is evident that this reminiscence has practically no relationship to Obama's future presidency (beside the fact that he is the first black president in the US history), however, it facilitates to build a greater feeling of solidarity and pride in the signification and key ideas of the United States - liberty and democracy - which are also the main ideas of this speech.

And finally, at least for this introductory part of all speeches, Obama's victory speech offers a clear sign of promise. Although his victory speech may be rather generally marked as summative and declarative, he even wants to offer some kind of bounding message for the future. The promises are, however, unlike the rest of the speech, rather general and not so concrete, so the speech propounds suggestions like " there is new energy, to harness and new jobs to be created, new schools to build, and threats to meet and alliances to meet". There is stated a vague view of possible hindrances that would be necessary to overcome as well. This passage and the passage with promises are, as it has been previously said, more general and not so concrete. This enables Obama more free space for the future if his more concrete promises would not have been fulfilled. In such an unclear concept, it is not so easy to decide whether he does his job correctly or not.