In the third and final presidential debate, Senators McCain and Obama, the final two presidential candidates, were asked for their opinion about Roe v. Wade, and how that opinion would effect decisions in selecting supreme court justices during their possible presidential term. Each candidate used applied ethos, pathos, and logos in a slightly different manner. Much of this seemed to be based on their particular personalities and their overall outlook on the issue at hand.
Senator McCain seemed to rely heavily on the employment of ethos and pathos. He employs ethos, the use of his own legitimacy, very strongly and consistently throughout his answer. He persuades the audience by stating who he is, how he feels, and how those feelings will affect his decisions. Throughout his answer, he constantly builds up this idea of him as a the president by saying things like, "I believe, I did, I voted, I am. " He tells the audience exactly how he feels about the subject. One particular example of McCain building upon his ethos is when he says, "I voted for justice." He implies here that he made the right decision and can continue to make those decisions.
In doing this he is also strongly providing pathos to his persuasion. His use of first person, and the tone of voice he uses makes it seem that this issue is important to him personally as a U.S. citizen rather than simply the election process. His use of I depicts a picture of himself that fully illustrates the fact that Roe v Wade is wrong, and he even goes as far to say that he does not believe a person in favor of abortion can be qualified as a Supreme Court Justice. The inflections of his voice, and his movements of his hands (the little two finger scrunch thing to say Obama afraid of so called conservative judges) further help to create this emotional outpouring in McCain's answer that is easy to grasp upon and evoke feelings of sympathy in the audience.
McCain does use logos a little in his persuasion, but nearly as much as Senator Obama. His logic comes in while he is stating that elections and nominations of Supreme Court justices a very important things and that they impact the overall out look of our nation. He brings in reasoning at another moment of his answer when he says that he would base his nominations of Supreme Court justices on their qualifications. This seems very logical to pick someone based upon their past qualifications rather then their genetic or intelligent potential.
Obama employs logos as his main tool in his persuasion. He continually applies to logic by his statement of facts and their applications to the Constitution and his use of a more passive tone. He does not seem to be emotionally excited and personally into this question like Senator McCain had been. He keeps an even tone without raising or inflecting his voice to apply emotional appeal to any particular detail. He uses eloquent yet simple language that also helps his persuasion through logos.
By presenting a point in third person, "It is true this is," rather than presenting something as I believe or think, he makes his facts seem more legitimate he builds his ethos. He sounds informed. It seems like he doesn't have a particular opinion about the issue in a yes or no manner. He simply has facts and evidence that are his knowledge and his opinion. To him they are indisputable and, therefore, he is unable to believe anything else. This use of ethos and logos appeals to the audience because it persuasively paints an image of Obama as a president who makes decision based on facts and statistics rather than his own opinions.
Although Obama rarely uses pathos or emotional appeal into his persuasion, near the end of his answer he tells the story of Louey Ledbetter. He describes her undesirable situation in life caused by unfairness created through a lack of responsibility in the U.S. governmental decision. He uses this story to build feelings of sympathy for this woman rather than himself. This becomes very effective as he turns these feelings of sympathy into resentment towards McCain when he says that McCain voted against supporting her, while he voted in support of her.
Each candidate chose a different rhetorical path in answering the question. Obama chose the smooth talking all business no nonsense logical route, while McCain chose the emotional and personal opinion route depicting this issue as one that effects everyone including him, a seemingly typical American Citizen. It is not apparent which candidate's use of rhetoric was more effective, it is simply apparent that each's differed.
