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ABSTRACT
We argue that one important role of the contemporary president is to be a conductor of public feelings. To demonstrate, we analyze U.S. President Barack Obama’s national eulogy speech delivered on January 12, 2011 in Tucson, Arizona. We show how Obama acts as a musical or energy conductor, redirecting a soundscape of boisterous enthusiasm to be in concert with discordant feelings of national pain and anger and moving them toward social love that is non-partisan and at times civic-centered. This essay has implications for public policy, racial registers of feeling, and writing the bodies of rhetorical scholars into criticism.
Acknowledgements
A chorus moved this essay along for six years. We were honored to be on the top paper panel of the Public Address Division at NCA in 2013. We are also grateful for the enthusiasm and feedback from anonymous reviewers at several journals, the current editor of Quarterly Journal of Speech, as well as Celeste Condit, Emily Winderman, Joshua Trey Barnett, Craig Mattson, Joshua Gunn, Rebecca Kuehl, Marita Gronnvoll, and Obama’s speechwriter Cody Keenan.
Notes
1 Karlyn Kohrs Campbell and Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Presidents Creating the Presidency: Deeds Done in Words (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008), 73–103.
2 Jeremy Engels, The Politics of Resentment: A Genealogy (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2015), 4.
3 Ben Smith and Byron Tau, “Birtherism: Where it All Began,” Politico, April 22, 2011, http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0411/53563.html.
4 Wilson cited in “Joe Wilson says Outburst to Obama Speech ‘Spontaneous,’” CNN, September 10, 2009, http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/09/10/obama.heckled.speech/index.html.
5 Frank Rich, “No One Listened to Gabrielle Giffords,” New York Times, January 15, 2011, 10, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/16/opinion/16rich.html.
6 Peter Canellos, “Analysis: Expectations High for Changed Tone," Boston Globe, November 5, 2008.
7 For example, see David A. Frank and Mark Lawrence McPhail, “Barack Obama's Address to the 2004 Democratic National Convention: Trauma, Compromise, Consilience, and the (Im)possibility of Racial Reconciliation,” Rhetoric & Public Affairs 8, no. 4 (2005): 571–93; Robert E. Terrill, “Unity and Duality in Barack Obama's ‘A More Perfect Union’,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 95, no. 4 (2009): 363–86; John M. Murphy, “Barack Obama, the Exodus Tradition, and the Joshua Generation,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 97, no. 4 (2011): 387–410; Joshua Gunn and Mark Lawrence McPhail, “Coming Home to Roost: Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama, and the (Re)Signing of (Post)Racial Rhetoric,” Rhetoric Society Quarterly 45, no. 1 (2015): 1–24; Robert E. Terrill, Double-Consciousness and the Rhetoric of Barack Obama: The Price and Promise of Citizenship (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 2015).
8 Brian Amsden, “Dimensions of Temporality in President Obama's Tucson Memorial Address,” Rhetoric & Public Affairs 17, no. 3 (2014): 455–76.
9 David A Frank, “Facing Moloch: Barack Obama's National Eulogies and Gun Violence,” Rhetoric & Public Affairs 17, no. 4 (2014): 653–78.
10 Jeffrey B. Kurtz, “'To Have Your Experience Denied … it Hurts’: Barack Obama, James Baldwin, and the Politics of Black Anger,” Howard Journal of Communications 28, no. 1 (2017): 93–106.
11 “Conductor,” Oxford Dictionary, https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/conductor.
12 Gail Collins, “Obama Brings it Home,” New York Times, January 13, 2011, A29.
13 Jamie's journal.
14 Jenny E. Rice, “The New ‘New:’ Making a Case for Critical Affect Studies,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 94, no. 2 (2008): 200–12.
15 Debra Hawhee, “Rhetoric's Sensorium,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 101, no. 1 (2015), 5.
16 Deborah B. Gould, Moving Politics: Emotion and ACT UP's Fight Against AIDS (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009), 20.
17 Brian Massumi, Parables for the Virtual: Movement, Affect, Sensation (Durham, NC: Duke University Press), 35.
18 Gould, Moving Politics, 20.
19 Massumi, Parables for the Virtual, 28, 35.
20 Gould, Moving Politics, 27–28.
21 Drew Westen, The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation (New York: Public Affairs, 2007), 35–36.
22 Simon Clarke, Paul Hoggett, and Simon Thompson, “The Study of Emotion: An Introduction,” in Emotion, Politics and Society, eds. Simon Clarke et al. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), 5. See also work by Jonathan Haidt, Daniel Kahneman, and edited collections like W. Russell Neuman, George E. Marcus, Michael Mackuen, and Ann N. Crigler, eds. The Affect Effect: Dynamics of Emotion in Political Thinking and Behavior (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007).
23 Massumi, 10.
24 Massumi, 5, 74–75, 104, 118–19, 160.
25 Melissa Gregg and Gregory J. Seigworth, eds., The Affect Theory Reader (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2010).
26 Debra Hawhee, Rhetoric in Tooth and Claw: Animals, Language, Sensation (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016).
27 George A. Kennedy, “A Hoot in the Dark: The Evolution of General Rhetoric,” Philosophy & Rhetoric 25, no. 1 (1992): 1–21.
28 Catherine Chaput, “Rhetorical Circulation in Late Capitalism: Neoliberalism and the Overdetermination of Affective Energy,” Philosophy & Rhetoric 43, no. 1 (2010): 1–25.
29 Kennedy, A Hoot in the Dark, 5; Hawhee, Rhetoric of Tooth and Claw, 42.
30 Chaput, “Rhetorical Circulation in Late Capitalism,” 15. See also Joshua Gunn, “On Speech and Public Release,” Rhetoric & Public Affairs 13, no. 2 (2010): 175–216; R. Murray Schafer, The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World (Rochester, VT: Destiny, 1977/1994).
31 Simon Thompson and Paul Hoggett, “Introduction,” in Politics and the Emotions: The Affective Turn in Contemporary Political Studies, eds. Simon Thompson and Paul Hoggett (New York: Continuum, 2012), 3.
32 Gunn, 203.
33 Ann Cvetkovich, Depression: A Public Feeling (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2012), 4.
34 Cvetkovich, 4–5.
35 See also Jamie Landau, “Feeling Rhetorical Critics: Another Affective-Emotional Field Method for Rhetorical Studies,” in Text + Field: Innovations in Rhetorical Method, Sara L. McKinnon, Robert Asen, Karma R. Chavez, and Robert Glenn Howard, eds. (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2016), 76–77.
36 Gould, Moving Politics, 19.
37 Landau, “Feeling Rhetorical Critics,” 72–83.
38 Emotion words share some characteristics with Richard Weaver's “charismatic terms.” Weaver says charismatic terms, such as the “God term” of “freedom,” have a mysterious power or degree of force that is inexplicable until common consensus makes meaning of them, The Ethics of Rhetoric (Chicago: Regnery, 1953), 212, 227. Although Weaver singles out “Devil terms” that are repulsive, he does not emphasize the emotionality of “charismatic terms” as much as we do with “emotion words.” The “mysterious” nature of charisma is also not fleshed out like we do by drawing on affect studies. Finally, “emotion words” can be vernacular, which means they do not always have the hierarchical potency of Weaver's ultimate terms. This comparison between Weaver and our work, including the relation to “ideographs,” warrants further research that is beyond this essay's scope.
39 Gunn, “On Speech and Public Release,” 188.
40 Gunn, 189.
41 Samuel McCormick and Mary Stuckey, “Presidential Disfluency: Literacy, Legibility, and the Vocal Political Aesthetics in the Rhetorical Presidency,” Review of Communication 13, no. 1 (2013): 4.
42 Greg Goodale, “The Presidential Sound: From Orotund to Instructional Speech, 1892–1912,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 96, no. 2 (2010): 164–84; Greg Goodale, Sonic Persuasion: Reading Sound in the Recorded Age (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2011).
43 Cody Keenan (former presidential speechwriter for Obama) in discussion with Jamie, June 15, 2017. See also Ari Shapiro, “Speechwriters Deliberately Use Rhythm to Help Make Their Point,” NPR, June 19, 2014, http://www.npr.org/2014/06/19/323510652/speechwriters-deliberately-use-rhythm-to-help-make-their-point.
44 Jonathan Sterne, ed., The Sound Studies Reader (New York: Routledge, 2012); Joshua Gunn, Greg Goodale, Mirko M. Hall, and Rosa A. Eberly, “Auscultating Again: Rhetoric and Sound Studies,” Rhetoric Society Quarterly 43, no. 5 (2013): 475–89.
45 Schafer, The Soundscape, 7.
46 Schafer, 8–10.
47 Landau, “Feeling Rhetorical Critics,” 73.
48 Landau, 79–81.
49 Phaedra Pezzullo, Toxic Tourism: Rhetorics of Pollution, Travel, and Environmental Justice (Tuscaloosa, AL: The University of Alabama Press, 2007).
50 Charles E. Morris III, “Self(Portrait) of Prof. R. C.: A Retrospective,” Western Journal of Communication 74, no. 1 (2010): 4–42; Celeste M. Condit, “Pathos in Criticism: Edwin Black's Communism-As-Cancer Metaphor,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 99, no. 1 (2013): 1–26.
51 Anderson Cooper, “President Obama Speaks at Arizona Memorial Service,” Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees, CNN, January 12, 2011, http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1101/12/acd.01.html.
52 Bethany's journal.
53 Kathleen Hall Jamieson and Karlyn Kohrs Campbell, “Rhetorical Hybrids: Fusions of Generic Elements,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 68, no. 2 (1982): 147.
54 Campbell and Jamieson, Presidents Creating the Presidency, 80.
55 Campbell and Jamieson, 84.
56 Obama's presidential campaign used celebrity politics, including his emergence as a “super-celebrity,” “rock star,” or “idol,” Douglas Kellner, “Barack Obama and Celebrity Spectacle,” International Journal of Communication 3 (2009): 715–41.
57 Franklin Graham, “Prayer Service Turns to Rally,” Washington Times, January 19, 2011, B1.
58 Dan Harris remarks on Good Morning America with George Stephanopolous and Robin Roberts, “Obama's Emotional Speech,” NBC, January 13, 2011.
59 Greta Van Susteren, “President Obama Mourners, Palin, Limbaugh Defend Rhetoric,” Fox On the Record, January 12, 2011.
60 Gillian Flaccus and Bob Christie, “Some Question Pep Rally Atmosphere at Obama Speech,” Associated Press, January 14, 2011, http://archive.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2011/01/14/some_question_pep_rally_atmosphere_at_obama_speech/.
61 Gergen cited in Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees, “President Obama Speaks at Arizona Memorial Service,” CNN January 12, 2011, http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1101/12/acd.01.html.
62 Michael Waldman remarks to Mara Liasson, “Assessing Obama's Tuscon Speech,” NPR, January 13, 2011, http://www.npr.org/2011/01/13/132908947/Assessing-Obamas-Tucson-Speech; Cody Keenan (former presidential speechwriter for Obama) in discussion with Jamie, June 15, 2017, said neither he nor Obama anticipated this boisterous enthusiasm either:
We were shocked when we got there. It's a basketball arena and we were approaching the crowd through the lower concourse. I was with the president, we could hear people cheering, and we’re like, ‘Are we in the wrong place?’ There was even a beach ball bouncing around in the crowd! My first thought was, we wrote this eulogy not for a jubilant crowd, but for mourners.
63 Jamie's journal.
64 Bethany's journal.
65 Waldman, “Assessing Obama's Tucson Speech.”
66 Elaine Scarry, The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1985), 279.
67 John Heritage and David Greatbatch, “Generating Applause: A Study of Rhetoric and Response at Party Political Conferences,” American Journal of Sociology 92, no. 1 (1986): 110–57.
68 Plato, Phaedrus (New York: Penguin Classics, 2005); Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics, trans. H. Rackman (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1962); C. S. Lewis, The Four Loves (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1960).
69 Greg Goodale, “The Sonorous Envelope and Political Deliberation,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 99, no. 2 (2013): 219.
70 Agneta H. Fischer and Antony S. R. Manstead, “Social Functions of Emotion,” in Handbook of Emotions, 3rd ed., eds. Michael Lewis, Jeannette M. Haviland-Jones, and Lisa Feldman Barrett (New York: The Guilford Press, 2008), 458.
71 Sara Ahmed, The Cultural Politics of Emotion (New York: Routledge, 2004), 142, 124.
72 Jamie's journal.
73 Michael Scherer, “Obama Seeks Unity Over Divisive Rhetoric,” Time, January 13, 2011, http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2042201,00.html?xid=rss-mostpopular.
74 Emily Winderman, “S(anger) Goes Postal in The Woman Rebel: Angry Rhetoric as Collectivizing Moral Emotion,” Rhetoric & Public Affairs 17, no. 3 (2014), 381–420.
75 Linda Feldman, “Obama Calls for Unity, Humility at Tucson Memorial,” Christian Science Monitor, January 12, 2011, http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2011/0112/Obama-calls-for-unity-humility-at-Tucson-memorial.
76 Henry A. Lowenstein, “Letters to the Editor: Obama in Tucson: A Call for Healing,” New York Times, January 13, 2011, A26, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/14/opinion/l14arizona.html.
77 Jeff T. Larsen, Gary G. Berntson, Kristen M. Poehlmann, Tiffany A. Ito, and John T. Cacioppo, “The Psychophysiology of Emotion,” in Handbook of Emotions, 3rd ed., eds. Michael Lewis, Jeannette M. Haviland-Jones, and Lisa Feldman Barrett (New York: The Guilford Press, 2008), 180–83.
78 Al Veshi, “Discussion of Obama's Words at the Tucson Memorial Service; Words that Heal,” CNN, January 13, 2011.
79 Anderson Cooper, “President Obama Speaks at Arizona Memorial Service;” Michele Norris, All Things Considered, NPR, “Dionne, Continetti Discuss Obama's Speech,” January 12, 2011, https://www.npr.org/2011/01/12/132876637/Dionne-Continetti-Discuss-Obamas-Speech.
80 David Brinkley and C.J. Karamargin remarks on Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees, “President Obama Speaks at Arizona Memorial Service,” CNN, January 12, 2011, http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1101/12/acd.01.html.
81 Facebook remark in “Discussion of Obama's Words at the Tucson Memorial Service; Words that Heal,” with Al Veshi, CNN, January 13, 2011.
82 Paul Begala cited in Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees, “President Obama Speaks at Arizona Memorial Service,” CNN, January 12, 2011, http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1101/12/acd.01.html.
83 Lukas I. Alpert, “‘Obama Urges Togetherness in Speech for Arizona Shooting Victims,” Daily News, January 13, 2011, http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/obama-urges-togetherness-speech-arizona-shooting-victims-giffords-opened-eyes-article-1.153817.
84 Maurizio Viroli, For Love of Country: An Essay on Patriotism and Nationalism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995).
85 Ahmed, The Cultural Politics of Emotion, 124.
86 David Gregory remarks on Today Show, “Will the Events in Tucson Lead to a New Tone in Washington?” NBC News, January 14, 2011.
87 Bethany's journal.
88 Campbell and Jamieson, Presidents Creating the Presidency, 103.
89 Janet Staiger, “Introduction: Political Emotions and Public Feelings,” in Political Emotions: New Agendas in Communication, eds. Janet Staiger, Ann Cvetkovich, and Ann Reynolds (New York: Routledge, 2010), 4.
90 Frank James, “Obama Approval Ratings Nudge Upwards,” NPR, January 13, 2011, http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2011/01/13/132887465/obama-approval-ratings-nudge-upward.
91 Richard Green, cited in Richard Wolf, “Obama's Call for Civility Seen as Striking Right Tone,” USA Today, January 14, 2011, http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/2011-01-14-obama14_ST_N.htm.
92 David Jackson, “White House Cites Progress on Gun Control,” USA Today, June 18, 2013, http://www.usatoday.com/story/theoval/2013/06/18/obama-joe-biden-gun-violence-executive-orders/2432423/.
93 Jennifer Steinhauer, “Gun Control Effort Had No Real Chance, Despite Pleas,” New York Times, April 17, 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/18/us/politics/despite-tearful-pleas-no-real-chance.html?r=0.
94 Gunn, “On Speech and Public Release,” 22.
95 Mark P. Orbe, “Constructions of Reality on MTV's ‘The Real World’: An Analysis of the Restrictive Coding of Black Masculinity,” Southern Communication Journal 64, no. 1 (1998): 32–47.
96 Eric King Watts, Hearing the Hurt: Rhetoric, Aesthetics, and Politics of the New Negro Movement (Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press, 2012), 190–91.
97 Terrill, “Unity and Duality in Barack Obama's ‘A More Perfect Union.’”
98 Gunn and McPhail, “Coming Home to Roost,” 1–24.
99 Mychal Denzel Smith, “Trump's Rise is White Rage Veiled as Political Strategy,” PBS NewsHour, August 18, 2016, http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/trump-rise-white-rage/.
100 In fact, years before Trump's election, Westen claimed, “the Republican party has a monopoly on anger,” The Political Brain, 317. A central argument of Westen's book is Republicans more often than Democrats set the emotional agenda for the electorate and, thus, successfully persuade voters. Ronald Reagan's 1986 address after the space shuttle Challenger tragedy, a speech drafted by presidential speechwriter Peggy Noonan and which rhetoricians rank in the top 10 American speeches of the 20th Century, is arguably another example of how a Republican president has conducted public feelings.
101 Kathleen Hall Jamieson, “How Well Has President Barack Obama Chosen from Among the Available Means of Persuasion?” Polity 45, no. 1 (2013): 161–62.
102 Keenan discussion with Jamie.
103 Hawhee, “Rhetoric's Sensorium,” 12.
104 Patricia Ticineto Clough, “Introduction,” in The Affective Turn: Theorizing the Social, ed. Patricia Ticineto Clough (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2007), 4.
105 Elspeth Probyn, “Writing Shame,” in The Affect Theory Reader, eds. Melissa Gregg and Gregory J. Seigworth (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2010), 74.