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This dissertation examines President Barack Obama as a symbol and his rhetoric through an Afrocentric analytical lens. The problem that prompted my research was the current process (and future probability) of President Barack Obama's image and legacy being drastically revised from the current perceptions held by most who observe him daily. In this study, the researcher utilized an empirical, symbolic, and rhetorical approach to conduct an Afrocentric data analysis. This process included a review of the foundational terms and concepts utilized to express the Afrocentric idea (including Afrocentricity, location, and agency), and ultimately led to new concepts, analytical tools, and theories based on the evidence manifested over the course this study. This text represents an attempt to seize the magnitude of the "Democratic day" that Barack Obama was elected in a way that it could strengthen understanding of the Afrocentric idea. Based upon the analytical foundation of Afrocentricity I presented a methodology described as Beneficial Extraction method that will highlight the information, examples, strategies and attributes that can be utilized, salvaged and implemented for the uplift of African people. My findings include, the need for an increase in the appreciation for incremental progress in the African/African American community and the need to refine the ability to recognize and benefit from multiple and diverse methods of struggle throughout the African Diaspora. / African American Studies

Shortly after his inauguration in 2009, President Barack Obama set to work on health care reform. Little more than a year later the President signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which achieved a goal of so many previous administrations, into law. In order to encourage the passage of health care reform, Obama promoted a health care crisis in America. This study examines the President's rhetoric surrounding the health care crisis in order to explore the characteristics of a potential sub-genre of presidential discourse—domestic promoted crisis. Textual analysis of the President's remarks on health care revealed five strategies used in order to promote this crisis to the American people and encourage legislation to resolve it. In addition to characteristics, the concept of promotion of crises is discussed. / Master of Arts

Jana Leichterová Conservative Criticism of Obamacare and its Transformation in the Context of Donald Trump Running for President Abstract The thesis deals with the debate over the health care reforms in the United States. It focuses specifically on the debate over the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, a health care reform initiated by President Barack Obama that was signed into law in March 2010. The goal of the thesis is to identify the main arguments of the conservative criticism of the Affordable Care Act, and to determine whether the debate transformed with the emergence of Donald Trump onto the political scene. The thesis provides historical context of the three main approaches to the health care policies in the United States throughout the 20th century: the Social Security path of strong government in the 1930s, the mixed "American way" with government providing social benefits to citizens through private institutions in the 1970s, and the approach of unregulated free market since the 1980s. Obama's health care originates in the urge for a national solution of the high number of uninsured citizens (more than 50 million in 2009) and rising cost of health care. The reform has three essential pillars: 1. the reform of the health insurance market that unifies the diverse state approaches and...

Master of Arts / Department of Communication Studies, Theatre, and Dance / Timothy R. Steffensmeier / The 2008 presidential campaign controversy surrounding Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s sermons had the potential to derail Barack Obama’s candidacy. At the heart of the controversy was race, specifically Whiteness. Obama’s speech “A More Perfect Union” is perhaps one of the most significant political speeches addressing race to date, and warrants analysis. However, Barry Brummett’s book Rhetorical Dimensions of Popular Culture (1991) argues the critic should not be limited to discrete traditional texts, rather should be able to break outside such traditional speaker-focused boundaries. Brummett’s mosaic model allows an exploration of the intersection between popular and political rhetoric of Obama and The Daily Show. I will argue from the intersection we see the emergence of the comic frame as a homology that links the disparate texts of Obama and TDS. I will argue the reason the comic frame emerges from the texts is because there is a societal mandate for the comic frame. Thus, I will ultimately argue the mandate for the comic frame can be better understood as a social movement. However, it is a movement comprised of numerous individual movements, and warrants a new term: meta-movement. Obama and TDS are not leaders of this meta-movement, but instead should be seen as contributors. Brummett urges the critic to consider “the political or ideological interests served by ordering a rhetorical transaction in a certain way” (1991, p. 98). I will argue constructing the rhetoric of Obama and TDS with the comic frame serves the ideological interests of those who are fighting for social justice and working to subvert Whiteness. Thus, I have named the meta-movement to which Obama and TDS contribute a critical optimist movement, because the comic frame provides the tools to be critical of hegemony while ultimately reinforcing the optimistic assumption of the comic frame: all humans are ultimately both flawed and good.

Ce mémoire propose l'analyse de l'approche du candidat présidentiel Barack Obama à l'égard du dossier nucléaire iranien. Plus particulièrement, nous cherchons à déterminer s'il y a cohérence entre les promesses électorales de Barack Obama concernant l'Iran et la politique étrangère des États-Unis à l'égard de l'Iran mise en oeuvre durant la première moitié de son mandat à la Maison-Blanche (2009-2011). Menace à la sécurité nationale étatsunienne, l'Iran représente un enjeu capital lors de la campagne présidentielle américaine de 2008 en raison de son programme nucléaire. Contrairement au candidat républicain John McCain, le candidat démocrate Barack Obama préconise le dialogue et le multilatéralisme. Malgré l'impossibilité pour les Américains de rétablir les relations diplomatiques avec les Iraniens, en rupture depuis la crise des otages de 1980, il tend la main à cet ennemi des États-Unis. Durant la campagne, Obama s'est engagé à prévenir l'acquisition de l'arme nucléaire par l'Iran, principalement en conduisant une diplomatie agressive sans toutefois écarter l'option militaire.Ce mémoire conclut qu'il y a bel et bien cohérence entre les promesses électorales et la politique étrangère du président Obama, car celui-ci a respecté la presque totalité de ses engagements électoraux concernant l'Iran. Dans les deux premières années de son mandat, il s'est par exemple adressé directement aux leaders iraniens dans l'espoir d'ouvrir un dialogue avec ceux-ci, il a révisé la posture nucléaire américaine et a conclut [i.e. conclu] un nouveau traité avec la Russie en matière de désarmement nucléaire, et il a été en mesure de mobiliser une coalition internationale afin d'imposer de nouvelles sanctions au régime iranien.

This paper examines the causes of the rise in vacancies on the federal courts in recent decades. Under President Barack Obama, the number of vacancies on the federal courts has sharply jumped. This is due to firm opposition by Senate Republicans, who have used the various procedural tools of that body to make it difficult for nominees to get confirmation. This antagonism is the result of a shift in how the parties view the courts and their role in the American political process. The Warren Court's expansion of substantive due process rights increased the Court's powers to the chagrin of conservatives. Republicans responded by blocking the nomination of Abe Fortas for Chief Justice; Democrats retaliated by defeating several of Richard Nixon's nominees to replace Fortas. These battles, and the prominence of legal issues such as abortion, would culminate in the vicious fight over Ronald Reagan's nomination of Robert Bork to the Court, which influenced increasingly bitter fights in recent decades. I also propose a possible solution to the obstruction problem, inspired by procedures used in jury selection.

During the 2008 Presidential election, questions concerning Barack Obama’s religious views arose. Specifically, the controversy surrounding Obama’s former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, caused some people to wonder how Wright’s theology may have influenced Obama. This project investigates Obama’s religious views and examines several forces, including Wright, which influenced his theological perspective. Wright bases his theological perspective on the works of James Cone, a significant figure in Black Liberation Theology and a mentor to Wright. This thesis compares and contrasts Obama’s religious perspective with that of James Cone.