“There is nothing like sharing a stage with Donald Trump. Donald wanted me drug tested before last night’s debate. And look, I am so flattered that Donald thought I used some sort of performance enhancer. Now, actually I did. It’s called preparation.”

This was a quote made by Hillary Clinton at the Al Smith dinner, a charity dinner held in New York City. Many politicians were invited including the two presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.  The dinner has always been seen as a casual event and because of that, both candidates had the opportunity to tell jokes. Out of all of Hillary’s jabs at Trump, this quote was by far the best.

I chose this piece of rhetoric because it caught my attention and got me to laugh while still having a point, a message. The message is that Hillary is always prepared while Trump is not and for the most part, it’s true. Trump is very impulsive, he says the first thing that comes to his mind and because of that, Trumps gets a lot of criticism. Hillary Clinton knows this and she managed to weave it into her joke. The quote also critiques Trump’s suggestion of a drug test. The only reason Trump wanted a drug test was because Hillary was still recovering from an illness and Trump implied that she needed drugs and medication to even turn up to debates. Again, Hillary is able to use this against him by saying that the only “performance enhancer” she uses is preparation. In general, this quote was actually funny and it fired back at Trump.

The quote is logos as it appeals to the listener’s logical thinking while drawing attention to Trump’s lack of logic.  This rhetoric works by claiming that Hillary uses preparation while implying that Trump does not.  Seeing as how this was said at a charity dinner and not a debate or rally, this piece of rhetoric may have been meant for people who aren’t really into politics, such as myself. The only language that is worth noting is the term, “performance enhancer”. In the world of sports, it is seen as a way to unfairly get an advantage. This is why the joke of preparation being a performance enhancer is funny. This piece of rhetoric is very effective because it is simple yet it grabs the listener’s attention.  Personally, I couldn’t stop laughing and I agreed with the point she was trying to make. If that was the point of Hillary’s  joke, then she was successful.