Rhetorical situation

Circumstances

Barack Obama’s inaugural address was delivered on the 20th of January 2009 when Barack Obama took the presidential oath for the first time.

In the US, all presidents are expected to deliver an inaugural address at the beginning of their term in office. The inaugural address is part of a larger ceremony and series of connected events.

The theme of Barack Obama’s inaugural address from 2009 was “A New Birth of Freedom”, a phrase from the Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln. The theme choice was influenced by the fact that in 2009 the US was commemorating 200 years since Abraham Lincoln’s birth.

The speech was delivered in front of a live audience of a record 1.8 million people who gathered in front of the US Capitol in Washington, D.C.

When discussing the circumstances of the speech you should remember that Barack Obama was the first African American to be elected US President and that the beginning of his first term overlapped the beginning of the economic crisis of 2007-2009. This is why the speech is not particularly celebratory but a rather cautious reminder of the challenging situation the US was in:

Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this America: They will be met. (ll. 42-...