Anaphora

Senator Kerry used anaphora, a rhetorical strategy in
which the same word or phrase is repeated at the beginning
of a phrase, clause, or sentence, throughout the
debate to emphasize his points about the failures of the
Bush presidency. One example is from the third debate,
when Kerry stated, “he’s the only president in history to
do this. He’s also the only president in
72 years to lose jobs – 1.6 million jobs
lost. He’s the only president to have
incomes of families to go down for the
last three years, the only president to see
exports go down, the only president to
see the lowest level of business investment
in our country as it is today.”
Kerry wants Americans to know that the president is
“the only” president to preside in this way, stressing the
fact that Bush has been a horrible leader and that he has
worked on behalf of the wealthy instead of ordinary people.
Using anaphora, Kerry powerfully suggests that
Bush’s failures as president are not just appalling but
unique to U.S. history.