Rhetorical Analysis

Rhetorical Analysis

“Hoover, Bush, Obama: Select company

Damian Henderson

            In an article published on 11 September 2012, the topic of discussion is the percentage of job decline in the United States. The staff writer of the Times-Dispatch argues that while President Obama has been in office the percentage of employed Americans has declined tremendously. The writer argues that the same decline and substantial government spending happened while George W. Bush and Herbert Hoover were holding office. I find this article to be very unpersuasive. President Obama has decreased the unemployment rate since he has taken office in 2008. Former presidents have put the United States deeper into debt than Obama can handle with just one term. The author states that President Obama “is only the third president in American history to see the percentage of Americans who are employed decline on his watch.” President Obama has added about 90,000 jobs for employers in about one month. The author also states that “almost four times as many people (368,000) gave up looking for work.” That means that people could be working, they have just clearly given up hope. The author happens to suspect that “things could be worse” after another term with President Obama in office. In his defense, Obama took office in the middle of an economic crisis, which means it would take more than just a little time to get America out of this deep slump former presidents have put the United States into.

            Just like those before him, the president is somewhat of a big government spender. However, since he has taken office, we have seen the slowest spending since Eisenhower. In the year of 2013, spending is scheduled to fall 1.3% under the care of President Obama.  The type of argument the author has used in this argument was logos because the author has compared the president to two previous presidents, Bush and Hoover, to having the same type of downward effect on the United States. Facts I have put into my analysis show that I do not find this article to be in anyway persuasive. The author however did not put many facts on the government spending rates which he has named in the article.