CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – When John Murphy heard Barack Obama’s address to Congress this week, he also heard Franklin Roosevelt, John Kennedy and Ronald Reagan.
Like those three presidents, Obama knows how to order and make sense of the world when he talks, how to clearly explain problems and lay out solutions, how to talk to voters like responsible adults, says John Murphy, a professor of communication at the University of Illinois who teaches and writes on presidential rhetoric.
“I think there’s a pretty direct train of influence from FDR to Kennedy to Reagan to Obama,” Murphy said. “All four talk to us in ways that respect our intelligence, that make us feel like we are worthy of being American citizens,” Murphy said.
All four also have been able, at their best, “to talk about who we are as a people, yet link that to specific policies … to link how what we did (as a nation) flowed naturally from who we are.”
Obama faced a tall order in his address to Congress, speaking to a nation anxious by continuing bad news about the economy.
“He needed to convince the American people that he is a man with a plan … that somebody competent is in charge,” Murphy said. To do that, Obama needed clarity and comprehension, and to get that he needed structure.
“Structure in a speech clarifies the world for the audience,” Murphy said.
“The speaker wants to make the world in the speech as organized as he hopes he can make the world for the audience.”
Obama’s speech on Tuesday was “very clearly structured,” and largely because of that, Murphy believes, very successful. The president introduced three themes that ran throughout: confronting the problems directly, addressing them responsibly, and taking action. He then applied those themes in six topic areas and tied them together.
“Anytime you bring up a problem in a speech, people sort of expect a solution,” Murphy said. “And Obama builds off of those audience expectations. So in each one of those areas he says here’s the difficulty we face, here’s the solution, and how it will work.”
Obama has drawn from Abraham Lincoln in other types of speeches, which called for more symbolism or ceremony.
This week’s speech, however, most resembled Franklin Roosevelt’s first inaugural and the banking crisis address he gave soon after, Murphy said. Like those speeches, Obama’s was direct in laying out the problems faced, and in making the case for action, Murphy said.
Obama did this not only through structure and tone, but also in the use of similar words, Murphy said. FDR in one speech said “frankly and boldly”; Obama said “frankly and directly” and “boldly and wisely.”
A year ago, as Obama drew large crowds to campaign rallies, his rhetoric was often described as inspirational and soaring. Even though a compliment to his skills as a speaker, it often implied a reliance on emotion rather than reason.
According to Murphy, that was often the charge against Reagan. “Yet you go back and read Reagan’s speeches, and they tend to include a significant amount of evidence, they make claims, they make arguments,” Murphy said.
“What truly gets ignored sometimes is that Obama trusts the rationality of the American people. He trusts that if he explains things clearly, they will respond to him,” Murphy said.
“He talks to us like we’re adults, and that’s a rare quality.”
Video of John Murphy’s reaction to Obama’s first speech to Congress.
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