Kerry on the symbol of a struggling America

During John Kerry's "Four Days to Change America" speech, he uses three major images as a symbol of an America that is struggling under George W. Bush administration. In the speech, he is telling America that they have four days until the election in which they will have an opportunity to give these three people that he uses as examples a chance.

Kerry gives us the image of a "father [whose] job has been outsourced and his new job doesn't pay the bills like his old one did." Second, he presents the image of a "young woman [who wonders] how you juggle work and family and why no matter how hard she works she seems to fall further behind." Lastly, he gives us teh image of a "woman...thinking about the husband she said goodbye to so many months ago...[and] wonder how much longer he'll have to stay in Iraq."

Relating to the "Contemporary Perspectives on Rhetoric," Kerry is using these symbols of humanity in America to communicate that he is the one America needs to change this situation.

Moreover, nothing screams PATHOS more than this speech. Kerry is hammering emotional connection all the way home b/c he wants to connect to that father, that young woman, that lonely wife. So why did it not work? Well...aside from the (watch out, my personal opinion) many flaws of John Kerry, I feel that rhetoric was ineffective here. WHY! Kerry left out ethos - the crediblity of himself. Why would John Kerry leave himself out as a connector? Simply put: John Kerry has no way to connect to that poor father, the young jobless woman, or the lonely wife b/c he's always had more than enough. Married to two multi-millionaires, John Kerry seems a little aloof to be making that kind of connection. Therefore, it would take a lot of effective rhetoric to bring in elements of himself that could attempt to pull off that kind of connection, but its possible.

Here, John Kerry failed in his rhetoric and it cost him a lot of credibility.