A certain mystique attaches to the inaugural address of an American president. The address is the first official pronouncement made by the new president to the people, and generally it is intended to set the tone for the four years to follow, indicating in broad strokes how the president views the task facing the nation. This is not the occasion for specific statements of policy, though newspapers and other commentators will comb through every word looking for some indication of the direction policy may take. Every inaugural address develops from the political culture and turmoil of the time in which it is delivered, and the incoming president tries to reassure the nation, set a tone for his presidency, and perhaps to offer a challenge to his enemies all at the same time. Presidents have had differing skill in shaping and delivering their addresses, drawing on rhetorical devices to convey a message, communicate a sense of meaning and value, and at times to create a slogan that will carry them into their first days in office. A comparison of the inaugural speeches of President John F. Kennedy and President Bill Clinton will show how some of these devices have been used to good effect.
Before considering the nature of these two specific addresses, it would be well to consider the importance and role of the inaugural address. Karlyn Kohrs Campbell and Kathleen Hall Jamieson state, "The presidential inaugural address is a discourse whose significance all recognize but few praise" (14). They cite historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr., who notes that the nation listens as one to the man elected to office; however, Schlesinger finds little value in the inaugural address:
Even in the field of political oratory, the inaugural address is an inferior art form. It is rarely an occasion for original thought or stimulating reflection. The platitude quotient tends to be high, the rhetoric stately and self-serving, the ritual obsessive, and t...