A Rhetorical Analysis of Obama's Re-Election Campaign Speeches in Swing States under "Universal Audience" Theory

Western rhetoric theorists generally believe that the proper use of rhetoric can purchase power, therefore rhetoric and politics are closely related. In all of the political speeches, the importance of rhetoric is frequently presented in presidential speeches, and the vote in swing states is always a decisive factor in a presidential election. Therefore, this paper, from the "Universal Audience" theory perspective, this author has selected two speeches that former American President Barack Obama delivered in 2 swing states, in order to explore how Obama applied the rhetorical skills to persuade the audience to vote for him again.