Analysis: Speech

On Sept. 6, 2012, Huffington Post writer Sam Stein wrote an article called "Barack Obama Speech at 2012 Democratic Convention: Perseverance Replaces Change." Stein emphasizes the speech President Obama's speech given at the convention before the election this past fall as a shift in political strategies for Obama and the Democratic party. Excerpts from the speech are sprinkled throughout the story, including an admission to the changes that are referenced in Stein's hypothesis. He also stresses the idea of the speech as the definition of the tone/mood of the entire Democratic Convention and the remainder of the presidential race.

Another way that the writer highlights the significance of the speech was by comparing and contrasting Obama's remarks at the 2008 convention. With the comparison, he further stresses the idea that the Democratic party and Obama's outlook on the presidency is much less optimistic and more leveled, as expressed in the title of the article. Stein also uses the speech as a signal of Obama's strengths in comparison to his opponent, Mitt Romney. Most importantly, the writer does not simply rehash everything the president said, he takes small portions of the speech and relays it to a common theme/thesis.