Sarah Palin's Response (Ethos)

In this video, both candidates were both asked what are promises they have made to the people that they might not be able to keep. Joe Biden was the first to respond, followed by Palin. She opened her statement with "John McCain doesn't tell one thing to one group and then turn around and tell another thing to another group." Palin immediately uses the concept of ethos in her opening statement. She gives credibility to her partner in the race for presidency. She establishes that she is running alongside McCain because he does what he says he'll do and not switch sides. It appeals to his character by putting a sense of trust in him that he will not lie, and that he does what he says he will do.

Following this sentence, she then focuses on the topic of energy. She looks at Joe Biden and reminds him that Obama voted for a tax break in 2005 for big oil companies. This is a form of logos because it tells us exactly how Obama voted on this particular energy plan. She then directly goes into description about her own efforts in Alaska. She states that she had to personally confront the oil companies and tell them that it wouldn’t happen in her state. She promotes herself by appealing her efforts as a Governor and standing up to the oil companies. She uses ethos once again to show her authority and that she is a strong woman who can stand up to the big CEO’s of Exxon and multiple oil companies.

She also uses pathos largely when she states “the people are going to come first.” To any American, that is exactly what the people want to hear. It shows us that in this case, she was focused on making sure that the people wouldn’t suffer from the tax break, and that the people were going to get value from those resources, not the oil companies. However, it does illustrate that she is concerned about the well-being of the people and this is also another form of ethos. It enables us to see that her focus is to make sure that the citizens of Alaska are happy and that she is doing what is best for them, even if it means the oil companies are not happy with her. She ends that part of her response, saying “I, then, had to turn around as a Governor of an energy producing state and kinda, undo in my own area of expertise, and that’s energy.” This is the most effective and obvious form of ethos that Palin uses, because she tells us that she is an expert in the field of energy and she understands what needs to be done. If you are an expertise in a field, you usually know what you are talking about.

The end of the video, Palin uses ethos one last time in a statement about McCain’s and her campaign promises. She states there isn’t a lot she has promised, only running for the past 5 weeks, but she wants, “to do what is right for the American people, put government back on the side of the people, stop the greed and corruption on wall street, and the rescue plan has gotta include that massive oversight that Americans are expecting and deserving.” We see that she is confident in what she and McCain have promised to do and that each of them has not promised anything that they can’t or won’t fulfill if they are the ones to win the presidency.