Clinton's Inagural Speech.

Presidential rhetoric appears to be more effective when encapsulated in tight, neat, digestible pattern. Americans have grown to expect their leaders to inspire, uplift and reflect within the bounds of efficient familiarity. Clinton’s inaugural speech hits all the marks in the checklist, evoking cheers and tears through pattern within pattern, a speech with a Russian nesting doll system of sorts, where a period rests inside another.
Certainly recurring (and bound to) a periodic style, Clinton uses parallelism to provide the clues he’ll latter use to conclude in a climax, within another climax, within another. There is of course no room for running style, no one wants their president thinking aloud.
Let’s analyze the speech from the inside out. Parallelism is used in all layers-
“From our revolution, the Civil War, to the Great Depression to the civil rights movement, our people have always mustered the determination to construct from these crises the pillars of our history.”
The historical events he lists in parataxis provide suspension in a small scale. They are paralleled clues that lead to the period’s climax- the American tradition to “construct from these crises”. First he lists the ingredients, then he tells us why.
The paragraph before it uses the same formula:
“Though our challenges are fearsome, so are our strengths. And Americans have ever been a restless, questing, hopeful people. We must bring to our task today the vision and will of those who came before us.”
American attributes are listed in the same way the historical events are listed. First the clues that create the suspension and then the tiny climax.
Both examples rest in the same layer, and are thus parallel to each other. These two periods suspend a larger tension, working towards a larger climax.
On a broader level, we have broader pattern that houses periods of its own. The paragraphs starting with “To renew America… ” are connected to each other by their pattern- they start with paralleled opening phrases, an explanation an a conclusion. These then work as speeches within the speech with parallelism of their own inside of them.
The section starting with “To renew America, we must revitalize our economy” reaches its individual climax through a smaller pattern inside of it- Let us put aside, Let us resolve, Let us give this capital back. This entire portion about the economy suspends the entire speech in the same level that “To renew America, we must meet challenges abroad as well at home” and “ To renew America, we must be bold.”
The entire speech reaches its climaxed when it ties everything with its opening metaphor. Clinton compared the power of historical event with forcing the spring. The levels within the levels were thus working towards a climax for the metaphor, and achieves it with
“Yes, you, my fellow Americans have forced the spring. Now, we must do the work the season demands.” He told you it was coming, he explained what it demands, the speech is now tightly wrapped. Cue the applause.