Rhetorical Distance

The other day I was reading an article that stated, "There's something about Barack Obama—his youth, his transcendence of race, his coolness—that has awakened the sleeping giant of the youth vote." http://www.newsweek.com/id/164358. This was very interesting to me because it made me think about how many youth votes Obama probably is gaining every day due to his own "youth." In my argumentative writing book, there was a section called "Voice and Rhetorical Distance." In this section, it is stated that "As a general rule, persuasion occurs more easily when audiences can identify with rhetors" and "Intimate Distance= Closer Identification, More Persuasive Potential" (Crowley, 213). I believe this is most certainly true. If a person in the audience can relate to the rhetor, his or her persuasion would be more effective. This is very true in the presidential election this year. As this article stated, "[Obama's] youth, his transcendence of race, his coolness" will most likely be an incentive for many young voters to head to the polls on November 4th. Although Obama is very charismatic and persuasive through his language, I believe he is also persuasive to a young audience because of his age. Many youth are more likely to relate to him than McCain, which may provide Obama with many votes from youth who were "sleeping" before. It is interesting to me, although it does make perfect sense, that a person can achieve more "intimate distance" to be more persuasive in ways that do not include language. It seems the trick for a rhetor in this case is to get the audience to more closely identify with you through language and other means as well.