State of the Union: The Tea Party Response

The Tea Party's response to President Obama's State of the Union address was an example of both rhetorical failures and a few successes.  The Bachmann speech was undermined by the off-center teleprompter that appeared to make the Minnesota Representative look to the left of the camera.  This just shows how the smallest of missteps can ruin any speech.   Michele Bachmann used visual evidence to bolster the idea that government spending has exploded.  However, the visuals got rather tacky when the pictures of the Constitution and the Capitol showed up in the background.  Bachmann’s speech was rather well written and well spoken, but the poor quality of the surroundings really hurt what she was trying to say.  Tea Partiers rallied around Bachmann’s claims and her graphs did help her argument, but I, for one, could not get over Bachmann’s off-line look.  Bachmann, who has proclaimed on the record to never use Teleprompters, clearly was reading her speech from the Teleprompter.  The Daily Show poked fun at Bachmann with Olivia Munn struggling to find the camera in her “correspondent rebuttal” of Jon Stewart’s jokes about the State of the Union beginning at 1:24 in this video. Also, there were the problems with some of the visuals.  The pictures of the Capitol and the Constitution really do not add to her message and turns off many viewers.  The Tea Partiers rally around the view of the rah-rah patriotic, fundamental Consitutionalism.  However, many Americans are not fans of what many people view as blatant propoganda.  Bachmann missed an opportunity to appeal to Americans beyond the Tea Party, without even having all that many speaking problems, proving that there is more to rhetoric that just speech.  Visuals and presence can be just as important to any speech.

Family Guy Rhetoric

There is no television show that uses as much rhetoric as Family Guy.  The show's creator, Seth McFarland, is clearly not a George W. Bush supporter.  Throughout the show, Bush is depicted having the intelligence and competence of an elementary school child.  McFarland puts twists on real events to get his point across.  For instance in this clip, Brian finds the former president hiding in a tree house instead of taking action to help the city of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.  Family Guy made Bush a recurring character in their flashbacks, which are a mainstay of the show.  McFarland uses his show to show his audience his views in a humorous way that sticks with those who watch it.  As a loyal Family Guy viewer, I can speak to that.  I can pretty much recall any of the flashbacks that make fun of different celebrities, in particular, the former president.  This obvious rhetoric actually has turned many viewers off from the show, who feel that it is more propaganda than comedy.  McFarland stands by his show’s political rhetoric and political incorrectness, even though he faces criticism from all angles.  Family Guy stretches real-life issues for many of the one-liners and flashbacks it uses to show McFarland’s opinions.  Family Guy is known for being a show that uses a lot of rhetoric to pass its opinions through to its audience, and there is no more evident use of that than with the criticism of George W. Bush.