It’s hard to think of many other occasions when more is riding on a speechwriter’s craft than the moment when a presidential candidate officially accepts nomination.
My biases are probably pretty clear, but for the record, I dearly hope President Barack Obama is re-elected. That said, I’m going to try to set that aside and listen to this not as a partisan, but as a practitioner. For those of us whose work includes helping leaders to tell their stories and inspire others, the next hour promises to be a master class on the art and practice of effective communication.
The ending was lovely. This time around, I didn’t hear a lot of the more poetic touches that 2008 offered, but there was an echo in those final lines: eyes firmly fixed on that distant horizon.
There was no missing that appeal to vote in November: clear and emphatic. Failing to call your audience to action is probably the single biggest missed opportunity I see in speeches.
He’s not dwelling on the burden of office, but describing where he’s found hope lets you draw the inference. And makes a virtue of adversity.
“You know, I recognize that times have changed since I spoke to this convention.” This sentence sets up a major transition, and acknowledges the sobering reality of the last four years.
A lot of parallel structure: “We don’t think government can solve all of our problems. But we don’t think government is the source of all of our problems.” “The election four years ago wasn’t about me. It was about you.”
The @Obama2012 feed is tweeting key excerpts from the speech. Like this one: https://twitter.com/Obama2012/status/243901731635867650
There’s another tension here: the need to mention a wide range of issues, and the need to convey a cogent message. In the rivalry between grocery list versus story, the grocery list can’t win.
There are acknowledgements the situation demands; Obama needs to quickly to get to the substance of his speech while still being gracious. And done.
No speech happens in isolation. Michelle Obama, Bill Clinton and Joe Biden have set the stage – and despite the fact that yes, Clinton went long and Biden said “literally” more than he should have, all three were terrific addresses. There are stories candidates can’t tell about themselves, but that others can tell on their behalf; that’s what this video is about, too.