Obama stealing speeches?

I doubt many people have listened to political speeches from more than a handful of people. I thought Bill Clinton was okay. I remember that 1984 speech Jackson delivered. I also heard a pretty solid speech from Paul Simon and another from Ron Brown back in the day. Reagan gave some good speeches. So did Oliver North.

 

Clinton is a great presence, a good engaging speaker, who never gave a great speech. Never even gave a memorable portion of a speech - not even a line.

 

Thinking about your question, Guy, it occurs to me that the '70s seem to be a vast wasteland of forgettable rhetoric. Surely, someone can fill in that gap in my knowledge.

Bill Clinton was great in small groups, great on the stump, not so great at the high rhetoric.

Though if the story of him giving the SOTU from memory when the prompter died is even half true, he deserves a lot of credit.

 

Urban legend.

 

All true, he is a man of immense political skill, and great speaking skill, (I've repeated here the great line I've heard - "Clinton can speak to a room full of thousands & make each feel like he's speaking sirectly to him; Gore can speak directly to you and make you feel as though he's talking to a room of thousands). But I've heard he would personally edit the hell out of every speech his writers gave him turning them into laundryy lists of his accomplishments & goals.

I can't imagine this is Hillary's problem, which makes me wonder: Is there no decent speechwrite in the country who is left of center? Hire someone to write you pretty words, and read them. Your manner will still stink, but at least it will look good in the papers, history books & Bartletts. She has the same content as Bill, without his natural charm & ability.

 

DOn't know, but it wouldn't surprise me.

 

I read it in the book of the guy who wrote the speech with Clinton -- drawing a blank, now -- but I also read it lots of other places. Given how obsessively he would write/edit/rewrite the things and his recall ability with facts and figures, it wouldn't surprise me.

 

Well, I remember talkingto a few people who did the TV side of those SOTU in the 90's. They all said they never knew at the time or since that it'd happened.

 

40 years takes you to 1968, dude.
You might want to rethink your timeline.
RFK in Indianapolis. MLK's "Mountaintop." Teddy Kennedy's eulogy for Bobby in St. Patrick's. And that's just one four week period.

 

Pretty much already did, but if you want to formalize it, let's call it 30-35 years.

 

Perhaps I missed the post, but I'm waiting to hear the names of the Republicans who have been bringing the noise for the past 30-35 years. I really don't know.

 

"Therefore, I shall resign the Presidency effective at noon tomorrow."

"Mr. Gorbechev, tear down this wall."

"Read my lips, no new taxes."

"Major combat operations in Iraq have ended."

Those are the only ones that come to mind, and three out of four are not what you would call significant in a, uh, good way.