Introduction

I thank Professor Medhurst for the opportunity to edit this special issue dedicated to studies of Barack Obama's first year as president. My colleagues who have joined me consider this special issue a first draft of rhetorical history, one we hope rhetorical scholars will read with the principle of charity. We are all close in time (perhaps too close) to the speeches we study here, and as careful readers will note, our essays respond to the initial judgments of Obama's speeches offered by journalists and opinion editorialists who "write the first drafts of history." We use these judgments as touchstones for our essays. I am truly hopeful readers of Rhetoric & Public Affairs, both those who also share this moment in time with the authors and those who will read these essays many years from now, will find us innocent of presentism.

Readers of this special issue will, of course, place the authors in their rhetorical situation: We write in the wake of two terms of the George W. Bush presidency. Although many rhetorical scholars were quite critical of his rhetoric, Bush did win two elections and could marshal effective, if not formally eloquent, speeches. One illustration is his address at Goree Island on July 8, 2003.¹ This address demonstrated how it is possible to yoke foundational religious principles of justice to the need for white Christian American atonement for slavery. Obama, however, established higher standards of eloquence and some intelligent policy stances as a candidate, which seemed to stand in stark contrast with the norms established by George W. Bush and his administration. This contrast may explain the general euphoria—with significant exceptions—affecting many rhetorical critics' positive assessment of the Obama candidacy and presidency.

With our rhetorical situation in mind, this special issue includes six case studies of Obama's rhetoric during his first year as president. We begin with my study of Obama's inaugural address. This is the third study of Obama's rhetoric I have offered critics, which includes a rhetorical analysis of his speech before the Democratic National Convention in 2004 (with Mark McPhail) and his March 18, 2008, "More Perfect Union" address.² In my analysis of Obama's January 20, 2009, inaugural, I use the notion of "rhetorical signature"—a subset of Medhurst's idea of a Narrative Signature—to identify the framework Obama introduced, which, I argue, was designed to recall the more cosmopolitan expressions of American civic religion. I was surprised, when I heard the speech, by Obama's restrained delivery and use of clichés. On close reading of the inaugural texts, I found the prayers preceding and following the address, and the inaugural address itself, to be truly thoughtful mediations on faith, reason, and American identity, and that Obama's subdued delivery effectively joined the content and form of the speech to fit the occasion. ³ At the center of the inaugural, I contend, is a recasting of American binaries in a progressive direction, but one in which the George W. Bush of the Goree Island speech could see himself and his theology.

Ronald Arnett, well known for his studies of communication and ethics, offers insight into how Obama responded to the controversy surrounding his May 17, 2009, address at the University of Notre Dame. Rather than starting with the speaker and text, Arnett invites the reader to understand how Obama's audience, the Notre Dame community, formed over time—through dialogue, debate, and disagreement—the perceptions Obama faced when he delivered his speech. Readers will appreciate how carefully Arnett studies Obama's audience and the trajectory of local and provincial discourse preceding Obama's address. He charts this trajectory with care; indeed, he demonstrates how a Schrag-inflected model of criticism can work to illuminate rhetorical events. Arnett concludes Obama dealt with the local-cosmopolitan binary with a civic rhetoric.

Mark McPhail and his brother Roger McPhail "write together collusively" to place in the foreground Obama's rhetoric on race. Obama, they argue, has evolved in his rhetorical efforts, and they provide evidence of Obama's movement from complicity to responsibility in his public address. Obama's...