State of.......the Agenda

Upon reading Ramage's chapter four it is apparent that the rhetorical purpose of the 2003 State of the Union was to bend the minds of television viewers. Whether the Bush Administration was acting honestly or deceptively the agenda was clear, "We're going to invade Iraq, period" No matter how insignificant or cloudy the links between Iraq & 9/11(terrorism) were, Bush was steadfast in goal of democracy in Iraq. Ramage mentions "petition is reputation" certainly holds true with the administrations continous barrage of reasons to invade Iraq. The Weapons of Mass Destruction phrase was repeated ad nauseam to the American people and the threat of mobile nuclear weapons was a frightening thought. To specifically address "Stases" & "Toulmin's schema" here are my thoughts...I found Ramage using Toulmin to breakdown the 2003 SOUA very insightful and systematic. The use of the Claim, Data, Warrant, Backing. Qualifiers & Conditions of Rebuttal very similar to that of a debate format. When discussing the Claim, etc a clear picture of the speech is formed while the underlying problem with Iraq is stated as well. The SOUA contains absolutely no Qualifiers or alternative measures that could be possibly taken when the case for war was made. Ramage remarks, "The one element of the president's argument that most clearly marks it as propagandistic is the virtual absence of qualifiers" pg 130. President Bush & his administration were steadfast in their goal to invade Iraq and were not interested in alternatives or taking what they felt to be unecessary chances with WMD. Ramage's discussion of Stases leaves something to be desired. While he asked several questions and had the corresponding response I felt these points were long winded and less than clear to the reader. So hopefully during class I will have a better grasp of what Stases is.