Intention

Barack Obama’s speech was delivered for the purposes of announcing his “candidacy for President of the United States” (ll. 67-68) in 2007. His speech focuses on the importance of American society being united to overcome various socio-economic issues.

He discusses topics like poor education, the war in Iraq, health and economic issues for the purposes of making the audience—the general American public—realize that overcoming such issues requires a joint effort and that Obama is the leader who can make this possible.

The speaker’s overall intention is to gain the public’s support in the race for American presidency. To achieve this overall intention, the first part of his speech is focused on presenting himself as a suitable, trustworthy candidate. For this purpose, Obama gives the audience some relevant background details about his past: how he worked with Christian charities, how he became a human rights lawyer, and how he served the interests of Americans as an Illinois senator: “After three years of this work, I went to law school, because I wanted to understand how the law should work for those in need. I became a civil rights lawyer...” (ll. 35-37)

In doing so, Obama’s intention is to show the audience that he can relate to their problems, but also offer solutions to them, which are in accordance with the Democratic Party’s leftist orientation: “That's why we made the tax system more fair and just for work...