1-21-09 homework

The sample argument that I chose for this week is a youtube video of President Obama joking how McCain called him "that one" during a debate. The rhetorical appeal that drew me towards this argument was an emotional appeal or "appeals to pathos." Pathos include powerful tools for influencing what people think and believe, it has a lot to do with emotion. A subtopic that I chose to connect to my argument was :Humor. This youtube video was from the Alfred E. Smith memorial dinner and it took an argument and turned it into humor even though it was a very controversial subject. Many were mad about McCain calling President Obama, "That One," but President Obama used the term in a form of humor to deal with a sensitive issue. This quote was aimed at a particular target at first but was then turned into well humor. Many people get by with saying hurtful things but it seems that as long as they turn them into humor that everything is ok. An example of this is a Tv show called King of Queens where everything is a joke, and usually insulting but people avoid it due to the fact its humor. Out of all of the rhetorical appeals I connected with the emotional or pathos appeal due to the fact that emotion always pulls me to one side or the other.