There has been talk about Barack Obama's oratorical brilliance in various speeches, including his race and nomination acceptance speech. There was also the extraordinary performance of John McCain's choice of a running mate: Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. How would or could the 72-year-old political warhorse, a 26-year veteran of Congress, whose past speeches have been considered more pedestrian, compete against the eloquent 40-something's with just 3 years of Washington experience between them (and half of that on the campaign trail)?
Just fine, thank you. I don't think I can remember a more authentic, intrinsically compelling, powerful speech I've ever heard. A great political speech is more than a stemwinder, with the usual sound bites and applause lines. Any communicator wants principally one thing: to connect to the audience.
A Personal Example of Connecting With One's Audience
There have been a handful of times in my speaking experiences where I've been "in the zone": I suddenly become aware each pair in the room is on me, the room is quiet, each ear is intently waiting to hear what I'm saying next.
Songwriters often discover their biggest hits happened unintentionally, like Christian singer Bob Carlisle's "Butterfly Kisses", written for his daughter Brooke just before her sixteenth birthday.
In MIS research, there's a classic article by Bob Zmud on the dimensionality of the concept of information. I was developing a different measure at the time, but some of Zmud's factors seemed convoluted and unintuitive to me. I wanted to get more data from Dr. Zmud, whom scrawled back a note saying the data weren't available because of a recent move. I noticed that there had been no follow-up or replication study on this often-cited study, and so I designed a replication study involving confirmatory factor analysis, an analysis technique, in fact, I don't recall seeing in the MIS literature to that point in time. I wrote up the results, but I don't think there was interest from the journals, so I submitted the article to a national DSI conference.
I've been to a number of sessions at academic conferences before, and I thought I would be lucky to have a handful of people attending my session--after all, I hadn't seen any followup studies. I found myself in a room that was standing room only. There was instant rapport with the audience; they laughed when I described my brief exchange with Zmud, and they liked the research design and my writeup. It was a powerful validation to my MIS research credentials.
John McCain's Speech
This is one of the most intrinsically interesting speeches in American history.
-- John McCain vs. President Bush
John McCain doesn't even name the President, but basically thanks him and acknowledges him for the leadership and protection of the homeland since 9/11. However, John McCain is distancing himself from Bush--in particular, the insulated Bush, the "heck-of-a-job-Brownie" Bush, the "tread-water-on-Iraq" Bush. [McCain underscored one salient point by the way he approached the approaching Hurricane Gustav by traveling to the Gulf region states, deferring certain Republican Convention activities on Monday, and setting up a charity appeal at the convention for displaced families in need.] He does fault President Bush for not exercising the veto on spending and for not reaching across the aisle. He is promising to include Democrats and independents in his administration. "My administration will set a new standard for transparency and accountability...We're going to change Washington and stop leaving our country's problems for some unluckier generation to fix ,I've worked with members of both parties to fix problems that need to be fixed. That's how I will govern as president. I will reach out my hand to anyone to help me get this country moving again."
[FoxNews has an item blurb on its website about Woodward's new book on Bush and Iraq, The War Within, Woodward writes, "Republicans often voiced as much suspicion and distrust as Democrats." John McCain had been “advocating more troops for years.” Woodward said McCain expressed frustration with the White House, telling him “Everything is [expletive deleted] spin.”]
-- Criticisms of Both Parties
We had a standard bearer criticizing his own party for its complacency after its 1994 return to majority status in the House. He notes from 2003-2006, the Republicans had control of both the Presidency and Congress. He is noting the high spending increases and the corrupting effect of earmarks. "The party of Lincoln, [Teddy] Roosevelt and Reagan is going to get back to basics." The basics include personal responsibility, equal opportunity to a quality education through education alternatives, law and order, family values, lower government footprint (including health care market reforms), limited taxes and spending, a strong national defense, and free markets.
However, this doesn't mean he's forgotten the Democrats: "Let me just offer an advance warning to the old, big-spending, do-nothing, me first, country second crowd: Change is coming." This is a theme I've repeatedly mentioned in past posts: I interpret "me first, country second" in terms of JFK's exhortation not to ask what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.
-- John McCain vs. Barack Obama
John McCain repeats his classy congratulations on Barack Obama, originally in a paid ad on the night of his acceptance speech, being the first person of color heading a national ticket.
However, John McCain points out sharp differences between them. The quote in the next section about his not "being anointed" is an implicit criticism of Obama's presumptuous "we are the moment we have been waiting for" type statements. John basically notes Obama talks a good game of compromise and bipartisanship, but he, not Obama, has walked the walk and has the scars to prove it.
Obama is trapped in the same old same old liberal "solutions" of the past--punitive taxation on businesses and higher-income Americans, when, in fact, business taxes are among the highest and most uncompetitive among all developed economies. He wants to focus on the future--by providing some government contributions to workers taking lower-paying jobs and training for a better paying career. Obama wants to appease unions by trade protectionism, which actually closes outlets for American goods and services. He also notes by tax cuts like the child exemption, there will be more money in the economy, and by narrowing the twin deficits (federal and trade), he'll shore up the dollar, which eases inflationary pressures and promotes economic growth. This is why Barack Obama's lack of a coherent energy policy hurts. Barack is unrealistic in terms of how soon we will be able to displace hydrocarbons, and counterproductive corn ethanol pushes food inflation. Barack Obama's unilateral abandonment of domestic energy sources, especially in the short-term in terms of hydrocarbons, which we'll need from either domestic or foreign sources, creates a structural dependence of the US economy on foreign carbon sources.
-- Why John McCain Wants to be President
John McCain did talk about his POW experience. But, unlike Jimmy Carter's unconscionable suggestion that McCain was "milking" the experience for political benefit, we hear him talk about the transformational nature of his experience. We hear him mentioning before his plane was blown out of the sky, he was more into himself: a hotshot fighter pilot, brimming with confidence, paying lip service to God and country. John talked about how his Vietnamese captors finally broke him after a series of beatings, i.e., got him to "confess", how he felt he let down his fellow prisoners and his country. He mentioned how he had been left to die with other Americans, unable even to feed himself, depending on others to feed him. You feel his sense of shame, the hopelessness of his situation. "I was beginning to learn the limits of my selfish independence...a lot of prisoners had it a lot worse than I did."
"I'm not running for president because I think I'm blessed with such personal greatness that history has anointed me to save our country in its hour of need. My country saved me, and I cannot forget it. And I will fight for her for as long as I draw breath, so help me God... If you find faults with our country, make it a better one. If you're disappointed with the mistakes of government, join its ranks and work to correct them...Nothing brings greater happiness in life than to serve a cause greater than yourself...I don't work for a party. I don't work for a special interest. I don't work for myself. I work for you... "
John McCain's Crescendo Ending
John McCain's words at the end of the speech in inviting Americans of good will to join him in a cause greater than each of us, namely our beloved country, are stirring enough to quote without further comment.
I'm going to fight for my cause every day as your president. I'm going to fight to make sure every American has every reason to thank God, as I thank him, that I'm an American, a proud citizen of the greatest country on Earth. And with hard work -- with hard work, strong faith, and a little courage, great things are always within our reach.Fight with me. Fight with me.Fight for what's right for our country.Fight for the ideals and character of a free people.Fight for our children's future.Fight for justice and opportunity for all.Stand up to defend our country from its enemies.Stand up for each other, for beautiful, blessed, bountiful America.Stand up, stand up, stand up and fight.Nothing is inevitable here.We're Americans, and we never give up.We never quit.We never hide from history.We make history.
