logos, pathos, ethos

I think the most effective form of rhetorical communication is probably pathos. Appealing to people’s emotions is generally the best way to get a response out of them. I think if you play off of people’s fears and worries, you will generally get more of a response out of them. I was watching the political debate tonight, and I was looking for examples of these three types of communication and which one would be used the most. I saw examples of the candidates using pathos appeals when talking about the economy. They tried to say that right now it is bad, but if you elect them they will fix it for you. This probably isn’t completely true, but nevertheless it makes us feel good.
I think the most popular form of appeal used was probably ethos. It seemed Mitt Romney and John Mccain wanted to question each others character a lot. They talked about who would be a better leader and why. Romney liked to talk about how he was an expert at business because of his background, and McCain wanted to be the expert in military because of his background. I think it was very interesting how they used the character charges more than any of the other types of communication. It seemed the lesser two candidates, Ron Paul and Huckabee, tried using Logos arguments to appear reasonable and knowledgeable, but probably aren’t going to get much points for not appealing to our emotions.