Yes We Can. Barack Obama’s Rhetoric of Hope in the 2008 Presidential Race

Seminar paper from the year 2016 in the subject American Studies - Miscellaneous, grade: 2,3, University of Passau, language: English, abstract: In the 2008 Presidential Election of the United States of America the democratic Afro-American Senator of Illinois Barack Obama won against his republican competitor, the Senator of Arizona John McCain. This was partly a consequence of Obama’s tactic to deliver speeches which transmitted hope and the faith to believe in America as a great country with a great future where everything is possible, by using common American cultural concepts like the American Dream, the American Exceptionalism and talking about an American Unity, an inclusive America where everyone is welcome. In the following paper I will firstly show what exactly the concept of the American Dream means, why it is still important until today and why Barack Obama fits very good into this construction of the fulfilled American Dream.