False Choices: Barack Obama's Balance Rhetoric

Abstract

Barack Obama's speeches have been analyzed by journalists and academic researchers from countless angles. There remains a hole in the literature, however, as few researchers have systematically noted the President's use of "balance rhetoric." In this paper I define that term and quantify President Obama's use of it by examining 20 speeches and comparing them to 20 speeches given by President Bill Clinton's. I find that President Obama was more reliant on balance rhetoric than President Clinton. I then lay out potential avenues for future research in this vein.