Monday, September 17, 2012
Romney vs. Obama: Battle of the Web Pages
http://www.mittromney.com/
http://www.barackobama.com/
So I decided to compare and contrast the Romney and Obama websites to look at their rhetorical tools side by side.
Visually both websites are kind of the same, showing marvelous, hopeful, patriotic pictures of each candidate speaking to their adoring fans. It's actually kind of funny that both of them are set against glorious blue skies with puffy white clouds. I can only assume this represents the hope and "blue skies" ahead if you vote for this candidate. In their photos, not only do they look strong and powerful (the camera angled from below gives this effect), but their faces are formed in a state of concentration, showing that they have the country in mind... Or something. From the moment you come across the candidates' pages, they scream "Make me your president because I am awesome!"
All cynicism aside, this works to get the voter in the right mindset. A candidate must look presidential and powerful and must be a beacon of hope to all. These photos represent what the candidates will try to bring to the presidency and serve as a first impression for many voters.
The first thing you see on Romney's home page is a giant contest to win a chance to fly with Romney on the campaign plane. I think that this is an incredibly interesting choice. It seems to say, "I care about my voters so much, I want to fly with you!" It gives a sense that Romney cares about the individual. (In reality, I can only guess that this just opens the door to endless spam in your email inbox, but whatever!) Other than that, his home page focuses solely on Romney's plan for presidency. It is a completely logical approach. This makes sense to me; Obama has been president for four years which means that the voters generally know where he stands while Romney is new to the presidential stage and most voters will have had no idea what Romney is all about. He needs to push his issues to gain the voters who agree with him.
Obama's front page, on the other hand, opens with a great big demonstrative banner against the Republicans (take that, Romney!) It's kind of an enthymeme saying that they can do this while the republicans can't. Go team! Obama's front page is dripping with pathetic arguments with pictures of happy people in communities and how much Ohio and Iowa loves him and puppies and butterflies! This also makes sense for his campaign because, as I said before, the public knows Obama as the president. We want to know what an awesome person he is. No one wants to vote a bad guy into office. He also caters to the individual in a much different (and probably smarter and less subtle) way by including pictures of his voters on his page. His page is much more personal than Romney's and makes people think, "Wow! Look at those voters just like me! I can vote for Obama, too!"
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Meghan, you've got some interesting observations here about the two websites, and I think it's a great topic for a rhetorical analysis - the combination of visuals and gimmick and slogan all circulating around the same general idea - "America needs me more than they need the other guy" - give these pages some depth and richness. I like that you're working through some of the terms and concepts too, which also generates some of my main questions for you:
ReplyDeleteWhat do you mean by saying that Romney's argument is "a completely logical approach"? It's an interesting observation, but I wish it came with an example from the page, because I think you could make the case that there are plenty of pathetic and ethical appeals in this page too - that is, there are arguments here about character and emotion as well.
Likewise, when I look at the Obama site, I see plenty of pathos, but I see examples of other appeals too.
I think in general, when you're using terms, try to get more specific. How is the banner enthymemic, for example?
I would say Romney's website is mostly logical in the way it lays out the issues because he flip-flops so much. He needs a definitive area where he can articulate his goals, beliefs, etc. for voters.
ReplyDeleteThe butterflies and fluff, I think, like you said, help personify Obama...because he's cool! and has an iPod!. He doesn't really need to present his POV on the important points of the campaign as much as Romney because, like you said, most people knows where he stands.
ReplyDeleteWhat does this say about Obama and his campaign rhetorically? I mean for me, I would rather have more concrete and detailed descriptions about what he's done in his past 4 years as president and how those are going to continue, or get better in the future. It seems a bit lax, and to be suggetingthat he's really not done a whole lot except hang out with the locals for publicity.