Search

The First Lady and Top Talk: Michelle Obama's New Hampshire Speech

Samantha Lai
Dec 1, 2016
3 min read

As the 2016 US Presidential election ends, we are already hearing suggestions from social media as to who should run for president in 2020. She participates actively in causes she believes in such as healthy eating, she knows how to dance well and she also delivers amazing speeches.

Yup, it’s Michelle Obama, the wife of former president Barack Obama, who has believed to able to unintentionally garnered quite so much support from the public throughout the past 8 years, as American citizens have hoped to see her as our next President.

One of the many notable speeches she’s delivered would be the one she did in New Hampshire while campaigning for Hillary Clinton. Her speech was widely shared on various social media websites and many applauded for both the brilliant content and the impassioned delivery. Now let’s try to understand the defining factors that made her speech the success it was.

1. Speech Structure - Michelle's Smart Style

The structure of her speech is clear and unambiguous. She begins by talking about Trump’s problematic view on women and moves on to compliment Clinton on her experience and capability. Introductions as such are meant to draw citizens into listening to her speech.

Michelle ends with an impassioned call for people to vote, along with reasons why they should do so. Her speech is easy to follow, and that makes it all the more appealing to the audience.

2. Emotional Appeal – the Kid Formula

One of the many reasons why Michelle's speech is so brilliant is because it is rich with emotional appeal, particularly through talking about impacts on young people.

Throughout the thirty minutes, Michelle spends presenting her views. She repeatedly referred to how this election would impact the younger generation, in making supporters with children understand the importance of making the world a better place for the younger generation.

In the speech she said, “We need someone who is a uniting force in this country. We need someone who will heal the wounds that divide us, someone who truly cares about us and our children, someone with strength and compassion to lead this country forward.”

Talking about younger generations is an important speech technique in highlighting potential impacts the election may have on children and of future generations, with a strong emotional appeal by compelling people to consider voting for Hillary.

3. Delivery skills – the verbal and non-verbal way

Michelle Obama gives an impassioned speech with brilliant delivery. Evidently, she fulfilled all the basics required for one to become a good public speaker- she spoke with clarity, used an appropriate amount of pauses and hand gestures to create emphasis when necessary and actively engaged with the crowd.

There was variation in her tone and pace as she covered different topics, and such variation enhanced the emotional message she was conveying regarding her distaste of Clinton’s opponent’s views of women.

4. Catering to the Audience's Needs

Michelle is extremely conscious of who her audience is, and that could be seen from how her speech clearly addresses the concerns and experiences of various stakeholders.

A good example is appealing to women by referring to experiences that many may share. Talking about rape amongst women in her speech; “ It’s that feeling of terror and violation that too many women have felt when someone has grabbed them, or forced himself on them and they’ve said no but he didn’t listen – something that we know happens on college campuses and countless other places every single day.” She said

Yet it’s not just women she appeal to, because she understands that she is delivering a speech not just to women, but a majority of men also. She addresses them by differentiating them from Trump, highlighting how his behaviour should not be considered as ‘locker room talk’. “Husbands and brothers and sons don’t tolerate women being treated and demeaned and disrespected. Like us, these men are worried about the impact this election is having on our boys who are looking for role models of what it means to be a man.” She said

5. An Interactive Audience

Obama is not only conscious of her audience, she also uses methods to actively engage with them. One of such instances proving her immense capability in this regard would be when she delivered one of what would be the most quoted sentence people go for when they refer to this particular speech- ‘When they go low, we go high’.

She only says the first part of the sentence, ‘When they go low, we go-’, allowing the audience to fill it in for her. This form of active engagement allows the audience to exhibit their support and feel included simultaneously.