Bill Clinton

Clinton's speech makes many attempt at convincing his audience that he's simply one of us. For example, he starts with"My fellow citizens", then uses the words "we" and "us" repeatedly. Each word shows up sixty plus times throughout the speech.

He also uses running sentences in order to give off a kind of sincerity:

"And I thank the millions of men and women whose steadfastness and sacrifice triumphed over Depression, fascism and Communism.
Today, a generation raised in the shadows of the Cold War assumes new responsibilities in a world warmed by the sunshine of freedom but threatened still by ancient hatreds and new plagues." But there were also periodic sentences to convey the same ideas:

"Today, a generation raised in the shadows of the Cold War assumes new responsibilities in a world warmed by the sunshine of freedom but threatened still by ancient hatreds and new plagues."

Obviously, there was much mentioned about the American struggle in the past and how that effected the then present time.

Overall, I found his vocabulary simple yet elegant. Instead of using fancy words, he uses imagery and metaphors. "This ceremony is held in the depth of winter. But, by the words we speak and the faces we show the world, we force the spring." There were also a lot of simple sentences with poetic elements. His rhythm was strong and steady. "

My personal favorite quotes from the speech were: "Profound and powerful forces are shaking and remaking our world, and the urgent question of our time is whether we can make change our friend and not our enemy," and "Though we march to the music of our time, our mission is timeless."

I noticed there was a lot of mention of change, the word occurs eleven times to be exact. His mention of change went hand-in-hand with his emphasis on hope despite the evident struggles to be faced. This, of course, reminded me much of Obama.