Inaugural Address/Motivational Speech

If you've ever been in a locker room at halftime or watched pretty much any inspirational sports movie ever, you're familiar with the format of the rah-rah speech. But did you know that this is a subtle rhetorical art form?

There's a reason former presidents often make big bucks as paid speakers. The president's job isn't just making decisions and meeting foreign leaders. It's also about getting people to care. Some of the most famous presidents—for example, Franklin Roosevelt, Kennedy, Reagan, and Obama himself—excelled at inspiring people with a few words, even if they didn't always have perfect and immediate solutions for all of the nation's problems.

Major political speeches, and especially inaugural addresses, usually come close to using a motivational speech format. Ever heard of FDR's famous line "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself"? Well, that was straight out of his first inaugural address.

Sometimes people really need a pep talk, and who better to deliver it than Coach America?

Burgers

Structurally, it's pretty similar to "hamburger style," which a lot of folks learn in high school. It's this method where you eat a soul-inspiringly delicious burger while you write your speech. No, sorry, that's our patented (and extremely successful) Hamburger Method. "Hamburger style" is a writing technique with an intro, a "meaty middle," and a conclusion. Sorry, we know it's a cliché, but we are talking about motivational speaking, so it kind of comes with the territory.

In politics, speeches usually start with a report on why things need to change, followed by a call to action. The beginning usually paints a somewhat dark picture of the current state of things but also throws in a dash of hype to keep people engaged. The meaty middle is about the issues themselves: what to change. And the end is often about promises and reassurances, like a big pat on the back. By the way, political speeches almost always end with something about God blessing America. You can take that one to the bank. Classic crowd-pleaser.

This is the format for politics. Watch pretty much any speech—campaign speeches, State of the Union addresses, inaugural addresses, you name it. If the candidate isn't rattling off a Joycean thought stream, they're probably following this sort of format.

How It Breaks Down

Intro: Nation in Crisis

After a short opening where he keeps it light and gives his mini Oscars speech, Obama gets right into it, detailing all the reasons why the country is in bad shape. He backs this up with an appeal to measurable and scientific evidence: "These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics" (5.6). And he also gives a shout-out to negative stuff that can't be measured, like a general feeling of dread and loss of confidence.

People needed to hear the president-elect admit how big the problem was in order to be convinced he was going to tackle it head on. The economy was horrible by the winter of 2009—we're talking way worse than getting snowed in over the holidays with your relatives.

Inspiration

Before he gets into the nitty-gritty of the issues, Obama gets the nation's attention with some grandiloquent pep. He mentions a whole bunch of crises and challenges America faced in the past, going all the way back to the colonial period—"For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life" (9.1). This is kind of like when your grandma reminds you she left the old country with only the clothes on her back so that you could live a life of binge-watching Netflix and bedazzled phone cases.

On the Issues

Now we get to the part of the speech where Obama talks about, you know, issues. He doesn't get too specific about how he's going to fix the economy, wars, and climate change (pressure much?) because this isn't the place to do that. Instead, the inaugural address is an opportunity to focus on goals for the future.

Looking Back/Forward

Obama caps off the address with a surprising theme: the past. The guy who spent the whole campaign talking about "change" and focusing on a better and brighter future reverts here to talking about America's legacy—he even references George Washington. As your friendly history experts, Shmoop is a big fan of this approach.