Face-Saving Strategies in Hillary Clinton’s 2016 Concession Speech SYNERGY volume 15, no. 2/2019 200 FACE-SAVING STRATEGIES IN HILLARY CLINTON’S 2016 CONCESSION SPEECH Antonia ENACHE 1 Marina MILITARU 2 Abstract The present paper looks into Hillary Clinton’s 2016 Concession Speech, delivered the next day after unexpectedly losing the American Presidential Elections to the Republican candidate, Donald Trump. While the belated speech is emotionally charged to a large extent, we attempt to show in our analysis that the idea of defeat is actually not accepted by the speaker (a feature deeply embedded in the American unconscious, highly competitive and victory-driven); Clinton is forced by circumstances to face loss and turn it into an opportunity to salvage her political persona. Hence, we will aim to prove in our paper that the 2016 Concession speech is at the same time an instance of inspirational discourse, and a discourse imbued with awareness of defeat and consequent face-saving strategies. Keywords: elections; presidency; speech; face loss 1. Introductory remarks Hillary Clinton represents a prominent figure in American political and social life, whose long-standing political career is marked by a significant number of achievements. “When Hillary Clinton was elected to the US Senate in 2001, she became the first American first lady to ever win a public office seat. She later became the 67 th US Secretary of State in 2009, serving until 2013”. 3 Perhaps most importantly, in 2016 she became the first woman in US history ascending to presidential nominee of one of the two major political parties, and also the first former first lady to run for presidency. We are fully aware that this approach pays tribute to the “rhetoric of the first” as described by Diane M. Blair (Blair, 2015: 1- 15); according to the author, the media coverage pioneering, ground-breaking women receive can be interpreted as controversial since, while highlighting the uniqueness, courage and novelty their undertaking entails, the underlying interpretation goes towards the unlikelihood, if not impossibility of their success. 1 Antonia Enache, The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, antonia.enache@rei. ase.ro 2 Marina Militaru, The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, marina.militaru@rei. ase.ro 3 https://www.biography.com/people/hillary-clinton-9251306, accessed on August 27, 2018.