Clinton Speech

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorHigh School, 12th grade November 2001

download word file, 2 pages 5.0

Downloaded 1362 times

Bill Clinton speech on September 11, 1998 Bill Clinton starts off his speech by sucking up to his listeners. “Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the White House and to this day to which Hillary and the Vice President and I look forward so much every year.” He claims he was “looking forward” to this speech, but this has to be a huge embarrassment to speak about cheating on his wife. The phrase “Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen,” is a good example of an idiom. Too many politicians use it, and it gets old.

Then Bill Clinton tries gain sympathy from his listeners. “So if you will forgive me, I will do my best to say what it is I want to say to you â€" and I may have to take my glasses out to read my own writing.” (Then he puts on his bifocals and pulls out hand-written notes.)

Clinton was most likely attempting to appear more honest by taking out his bifocals. He appears to be older, and more sincere with the addition of the bifocals. He also takes out hand-written notes to make his words more personal. He does everything he can to gain sympathy.

Bill Clinton compares the Monica Lewinsky situation with a journey. “First, I want to say to all of you that, as you might imagine, I have been on quite a journey these last few weeks to get to the end of this, to the rock-bottom truth of where I am and where we all are.” By using the word “journey,” he creates an image of a great journey through a forest or a mountain. This word also helps him seem like he is going through really tough times right now, and he is working hard to get out of this bad situation. The metaphor “rock bottom” is a well-chosen one. It creates the listeners to think how he feels “rock-bottom” too. Again, he is trying to gain sympathy from his listeners. He also says “where we all are” to make it seem like he is trying to gain understanding and be in good relations with everyone.

Then he actually says that there are no euphemisms to cover up the situation with Monica Lewinsky. “I don’t think there is a fancy way to say that I have sinned.” He actually admits that he has sinned. He is also trying to seem honest.

Then he tries to seem like a moral person. “what my Bible calls a “broken spirit”; an understanding that I must have God’s help to be the person that I want to be; a willingness to give the very forgiveness I seek; a renunciation of the pride and the anger which cloud judgment, lead people to excuse and compare and to blame and complain.” He uses the metaphor “broken spirit” to show that he is really ashamed of his actions, and make it seem like his actions with Monica Lewinsky was his first immoral act because he just broke his spirit. At the end of the paragraph when he goes on about “a renunciation…”, it’s a very vague sentence, and the word cloud creates an inappropriate imagery which create people to think about the imagery of cloudiness to much, and gets the listeners minds off the Monica Lewinsky sins.