Recasting the Villain in the Communitarian American Dream: Obama in Osawatomie and the 2012 Election

Rhetoric & Public Affairs Mar 2023

Recasting the Villain in the Communitarian American Dream: Obama in Osawatomie and the 2012 Election

Robert C. Rowland

Abstract

Abstract President Barack Obama faced very difficult electoral prospects in the summer of 2011. A slow economic recovery, along with Republican efforts to block his agenda, had undercut his message of hope and change. Obama's speech in Osawatomie, Kansas has been widely recognized as a crucial moment in his successful 2012 campaign. Obama's speech was important not because he supported new policies but because it corrected a major flaw in the community-oriented narrative at the core of his message. Obama reenergized his retelling of the American Dream by shifting the villain in his narrative from partisanship to the greedy rich.

Journal: Rhetoric & Public Affairs
Published: 2023-03-01
DOI: 10.14321/rhetpublaffa.26.1.0001
Open Access: Closed
Topics: writing across the curriculum archival research multilingual writers

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