Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Obama - Major Argument/Stasis

President Barack Obama's speech can be analyzed with stasis theory. Facts presented by the president are mostly references to accomplishments by American space missions and their importance to the success of the country. A possible problem that Obama seeks to solve in his speech is a shrinking amount of public support for NASA and future missions. This issue is caused by the viewpoint of some Americans being that space exploration is too costly or not worth the rewards.

The problem addressed by Obama is a serious one. If America is to continue leading the world in space exploration, the public needs to support NASA. If the United States cuts funds to NASA, it will fall behind other countries, and lose the benefits that come with it.

 In order to increase public support and keep NASA well funded, Obama explains why we need the program and announces an increased budget. Obama explains that NASA is actually extremely important to the country as it provides jobs and creates entire industries that benefit all of mankind.

Both Obama and JFK claim that space exploration is valuable to the country and represents Americans as a people. The exigence of their speeches are similar in that they both speak during times of a new era of space flight. JFK spoke to push Americans to work to go to the moon and Obama spoke while plans of a manned Mars missions are being created. Their arguments differ because JFK's speech inspired the initial surge of American space exploration while Obama speaks to maintain its dominance and keep NASA the space industry giant it has become.

1 comment:

  1. I like the way that you bring the major arguments of President Obama's speech with JFK's speech. Juxtaposing their rhetorical arguments and mentioning their similar rhetorical situations really helps to make your blog feel like a consistent and continuous analysis rather than pieces that aren't interdependent.

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