Speaker

The speaker is Barack Obama, who was in his second term as US President at the time of his 2015 State of the Union address. Prior to becoming the US President, Barack Obama was the representative of the state of Illinois in the US Senate. In the speech, he gives a few other details about himself: “…because I grew up in Hawaii, a melting pot of races and customs; because I made Illinois my home – a state of small towns, rich farmland, one of the world’s great cities…” (ll. 707-710).

At the time of the speech, Barack Obama also had an increasing approval rate among the population, mostly because the US had begun to enter a period of economic growth after a long recession.

During the speech, Barack Obama establishes himself as a credible and reliable speaker, qualities required to establish a r...