I would say that this one is playing mostly with Ethos and Pathos. Ethos because it is questioning the credibility of the speaker, President Obama, in is statement of "doing fine." I would say that it is using pathos because the use of "fine" is not a very powerful word, or one that should be used to describe the economy, so Romney is using this statement to his advantage in order to get emotion out of the audience.
That's an interesting rhetorical question, yes? The structure of it, even, leads to a particular reading (instead of "Does President Obama think the..."), more sarcastic and surprised, I think. There seems to be, behind the question, a kind of enthymeme that has as its conclusion: "Obama doesn't understand the economy" - and perhaps has the premise "President Obama thinks the private is doing fine" and "The private is not doing fine" (this one unspoken). You can pack a lot into that, of course.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure about pathos here, though - I hear it more in the implied tone of the question...