Obama's Q&A

analyze how the politicians use evidence. What do the politicians ask Obama (and what do they leave unsaid)? Consider the tones of different speakers. Consider the use of logos, pathos, and ethos, and find specific examples.

Almost all the politicians who ask questions give a long story of background or analysis about their question. It may be a little boy's story (the first question), their own experience and thinking (the freshman), and the data. They all want to tell the importance of their questions and some of them speak out some thoughts and suggestions. Actually, they have a small speech before the questions. And in my opinion the data is the most convincing, but the suggestions are the most interesting due to the difficulty for Obama explaining why things not happened.

The questions cover many area of Obama's policy and the society, such as job loss, health care, and energy. The time when this Q&A happens is the time when the economy just got through a hard time and everybody wants to move on. I do not think the politicians are calm since they perform excited. They use a lot of questions, they change their speed of talking, they give a lot of facts. They seem to be worried or angry.

As for the logos, pathos, and ethos, I found that both the Present Obama and the question-asking politicians use all of the methods widely. But the politicians use logos and pathos more, especially logos. They analysis a lot of data, and express the facts with a strong support of their data, like the second politician who asks about the budget, his exact but horrible numbers leave Obama no choice but explain all the numbers first. In contrast, Present Obama prefer using the ethos. He says he needs to listen to the experts of economy while answering the first question, listening to experts of environment answering the question from Virginia.