As we noted last November, one of Barack Obama's secrets for stirring a crowd is the magic number three: the classical tricolon. In just the first few minutes of his address to Congress on Tuesday night, the president uncorked five of these forceful parallel structures:
- If you haven’t been personally affected by this recession, you probably know someone who has--a friend, a neighbor, a member of your family.
- It’s the job you thought you’d retire from but now have lost; the business you built your dreams upon that’s now hanging by a thread; the college acceptance letter your child had to put back in the envelope.
- We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before.
- The answers to our problems [exist] . . . in our laboratories and universities; in our fields and our factories; in the imaginations of our entrepreneurs and the pride of the hardest-working people on earth.
- What is required now is for this country to pull together, confront boldly the challenges we face, and take responsibility for our future once more.
For 45 minutes, with Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi bobbing behind him, Obama discharged one hopeful tricolon after another. On a few occasions he pushed the device into overdrive by combining it with anaphora--the repetition of an opening word or phrase:
- Now is the time to act boldly and wisely--to not only revive this economy, but to build a new foundation for lasting prosperity. Now is the time to jump-start job creation, re-start lending, and invest in areas like energy, health care, and education that will grow our economy, even as we make hard choices to bring our deficit down.
- Because of this plan, there are teachers who can now keep their jobs and educate our kids. . . .
Because of this plan, 95% of the working households in America will receive a tax cut . . ..
Because of this plan, families who are struggling to pay tuition costs will receive a $2,500 tax credit for all four years of college. - And if we do--if we come together and lift this nation from the depths of this crisis; if we put our people back to work and restart the engine of our prosperity; if we confront without fear the challenges of our time and summon that enduring spirit of an America that does not quit--then someday years from now our children can tell their children that this was the time when we performed, in the words that are carved into this very chamber, "something worthy to be remembered."
BBC reporter Kevin Connolly described that last line as "Churchillian"--even though Sir Winston favored the tetracolon climax ("blood, toil, tears, and sweat") over the tricolon. What's clear is that Obama has (as he confessed in The Audacity of Hope) a "certain talent for rhetoric."
Our hope is that when it comes to reviving the economy, three's a charm.
More About Rhetoric:
- Figures, Tropes, and Other Rhetorical Terms
- What Is the Value of the Figures of Speech?
- The Rhetoric of Tony Soprano and Uncle Junior
Image: President Barack Obama addressing a joint session of Congress on February 24, 2009
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