TOW #7 - The Empire Strikes Back

In an 11-hour hearing, Hillary Clinton once again assumed the role of the victim against her swarming Republican opponents. The topic of course; her personal email sever set up that consisted of "classified" information on Benghazi along with other intelligence. The author of the opinion piece, Maureen Dowd, believed that Hillary once again preformed when all eyes were on her. She also believed that the Republicans, such as Trey Gowdy, "came fishing without their fishing poles" or in other words, came to the hearing without any new information revealing more about Hillary and her personal server. Dowd, winner of the 1999 Putzler Prize for distinguished commentary has been an op-ed columnist since 1995 on topics such as American politics and international affairs. Such an accomplished writer clearly has credibility in a topic such as this. There were two specific rhetorical devices that she used in her piece. One of those was the repetition of the phrase "If her..." and the idea of her sympathy. Within the first three paragraphs, we see how Dowd views Clinton as masterful when playing the role of the victim. She states, "If her husband humiliates her... Hillary turns around and uses her sympathy." (para. 3). In the next sentence, Dowd states, "If her Republican opponent gets her in space...  she turns around and uses the sympathy." The reason for why this is so effective, is because one, it reveals how she is so masterful in the examples of when she is the victim, and two, it creates sympathy for Clinton, because we feel bad as the audience, seeing that she is often the victim. She also used inferior diction to describe the Republicans approach to the hearing. She states, "She was not amazed at what an amateur job they were doing..." (para. 8). This gives way to the fact that Hillary once again established herself as victorious in the role as the victim. By using words like amateur, the audience gets the sense that the Republicans weren't prepared for the battle with Clinton, and it cost them. In her piece "The Empire Strikes Back", Dowd effectively uses inferior diction as well as persuasive repetition in order to achieve her purpose, which is that Hillary Clinton was masterful and effective in her hearing on October 24th.