Presidential Stances-Whoo

Click here and watch "Environment" video clip before reading. Strictly pay attention to the quote not the video.

To begin with, McCain uses pathos quite a bit. His word choice is very academic in a sense that it is apropriate to the topic, the audience, and the occasion but it is also very colloquial language in the sense that he uses words that are easy to understand and that get his point across. His statements sound as if he is a common human being wanting these choices to be followed through with. It seems as though he really cares which is what he wants the reader to think and what he wants his supporters to think. He wants to touch the reader somehow emotionally so they will want to support him.

He refers back to presidents who had made a big impact on the environment which could be related to three different strategies of persuasion: example, classification, or definition. It could be considered example because he's stating that Teddy Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan were examples of environmentalists. This would cause the reader to think back to the actions those presidents took for the environmental situations and get an idea of what McCain might intend to do, want to do, or what he believes is right in doing. With these same effects it could be considered classification because McCain is classifying them as environmentalists. By saying that "somehow we have lost our way on the environment" seems as if he thought what those two did for the environment was needed and a good idea and that we need to keep caring for the environment and doing something about it. By stating those two it could be definition as in the definition of an environmentalist to McCain is someone like Theodore Roosevelt or Ronald Reagan and the actions they took upon the same issues that McCain would have to deal with as the president.

The whole quote really shows ethos too. By using the "I believe" and "I think" or "I feel" comments shows his character. It gives his stances on different environmental issues which can help the reader get an idea of what McCain is like so they can decide on if he would be the best president or not.