Political debates as cultural differences

Our task for this week was to analize the language of political debates in the U.S. and in Italy and to compare them as there will be presidential elections in both countries later this year. I decided to analize the debates of senator Hillary Clinton - possible presidential candidate of the Democratic party in the U.S. - and of Walter Veltroni - presidential candidate of the Partito Democratico in Italy.

First of all, I'd like to mention that I noticed a very big difference concerning the behaviour of the voters, too. Watching Hillary Clinton's debates I thought her voters to be quite fanatic. They were applauding, cheering and celebrating her and every word she said. Whereas there was no such fanaticism in Italy when Veltroni held his debate. In my opinion, this has quite a big influence on how political campaigns are being held in these two countries.

Clinton's speech is very personal in the sense that she often refers to herself ("I personally") and to the voters by saying "you", e.g. "You are not invisible to ME.", "..from the bottom of my heart", "America needs a comeback like You gave ME a comeback" etc. I think by saying so she tries to put herself on one level with the voters and she wants to make her voters feel like she is one of them and like they're candidating all together to move into the White House. In fact, during her Super Tuesday Speech she said that she is the one who will stand for "your dreams, your values, your fututure and go to YOUR White House."

Hillary Clinton also uses often the words "challenge", "heart", "family" and "future". She addresses to young people, poor families and the middle class in general. At the end of every speech I saw Clinton thanks her family, especially her husband, her daughter and her mother, who - as Clinton says - "was born before women could vote and now she's watching her daughter on this stage". I think Hillary Clinton tries to get especially the female voters' attention here and to remind them of the process the female movement went through during the past 40 years. I think it is just possible that she's trying to say that the next step of women's liberation would be a female president. Furthermore, I noticed Clinton ends every speech by saying "God bless you." - which would not at all be common for European election campaigns - as she wants to let everyone know that she is a religious person who has faith like many other Americans, too.
Finally, I want to mention Hillary Clinton's strong gesture and her facial expressions towards her audience.

Regarding Walter Veltroni of the 'Partito Democratico' there is much less to say. His debate does not seem to be prepared as much as Clinton's debate. His gesture is not determined and during his speeches he his often sort of interrupting his debate to find the right words. Veltroni's speeches regard families with a low income, university students and self-employed people who run small companies. He often mentions that Italy's economy and inflation is the worst in Europe and that the Italian voters need to have faith and belief in their country. Veltroni wants the small companies to produce as much as they can without being pushed away by the multinationals. Moreover, he appeals to his audience by saying that tax liability is the most important thing in order to show respect for each other.

However, both candidates do not really explain in which way they want to achieve their goals and by which means. In my opinion, senator Clinton's language is more direct (or at least she herself seems to be so) than Veltroni's language. Clinton is naming her goals, e.g. better health insurance for U.S. citizens, whereas Walter Veltroni, in my opinion, is just listing all the problems concerning Italy's politics ( which the Italians are already aware of ) but doesn't really tell where he is going to start the change.

I think it is difficult just to stick to political debates and to build your opinion upon what politicians say in order to get the voters' majority. It takes much more to decide where to put the cross on a election day. The internet is always a good source to get information and to see political debates from different points of view, e.g. Hillary Clinton's speeches uploaded by someone who is actually going to vote her against videos put online by someone of the opposite party.