What Makes Obama a Good Speaker?
After studying the speeches of Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy, linguist Mark Liberman found that their speaking styles are “radically different.”
Then there’s Barack Obama.
His keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention instantly earned him a reputation as one of the Democratic Party’s great contemporary orators. And that reputation has only been further hyped since the beginning of the presidential campaign, most recently because of the wildly popular music video, “Yes We Can,” which set to music Obama’s primary night speech in New Hampshire. The video, created by Black Eyed Peas front man will.i.am, was released on Feb. 2 and has been viewed almost 10 million times on YouTube and yeswecansong.com.
Liberman, a linguistics professor at the University of Pennsylvania, thinks the most distinctive thing about Obama’s speeches isn’t the delivery, but the lyricism in the writing.
“You can take a short phrase like that, spoken any kind of way as long as it’s not dragged out, and sing over it,” he said. “There’s also a certain amount of repetition — the ‘Yes We Can’ theme — that allows this kind of weaving of vocal lines. But if that’s right, then what’s really musical about that speech was not so much its delivery, but its composition. It was written like a song, but not performed like a song.”
Linguist Geoff Nunberg, too, sees elements of Obama’s speeches that he says lend themselves to song.
“He does these parallel constructions,” said Nunberg, a researcher at Stanford University’s Center for the Study of Language and Information. “For example, he says, ‘It’s not because of this, it’s not because of that.’”
In a Jan. 20 New York Times story, Obama’s head speechwriter, 26-year-old Jon Favreau, said when writing speeches for Obama, he draws inspiration from John Kennedy, King and Robert F. Kennedy, suggesting, again, that Obama’s reputation as a master speechmaker owes a large debt to the simple act of borrowing devices from great public speakers of the past.
But Nunberg said there’s more to it than the writing.
“He’s mastered a certain cadence that’s very effective,” said Nunberg. “He turns to the right to make his first point with a rise, then he turns to his left with a fall to close.”
Nunberg said these engaging cadences are similar to those of Dr. King.
Though the movement helps hold the audience’s attention, too much movement, Nunberg said, can convey a lack of control. Obama, he said, has been able to balance the extremes like Kennedy.
When Obama is speaking, Nunberg said, his arms move, but his body orientation does not change. Also, he doesn’t let his arms get too far away from his body and he keeps his hands closed, instead of open. “He’s very cool in a sense that Kennedy was cool,” Nunberg said. “His gesture and his posture are controlled.”
Another similarity Obama has with Kennedy is his limited pitch range, which enables him to “convey passion without exhibiting it,” Nunberg said.
Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, raises her pitch noticeably when trying to draw a response from her crowd. Also, she bobs her head and she “has a way with her eyeballs to signal a kind of exclamation point,” Nunberg explained.
But, he added, Clinton is much better in smaller settings, like debates, where the candidates are improvising. She goes straight to the answer, while Obama often starts his sentences one way, and restarts them with different structure.
Nunberg suggested that much of the excitement Obama has been able to generate in large gatherings has had to do with voters attending his events with the idea that he will deliver excitement.
“If you come with the idea or hope of being engaged, or sufficient numbers of people come with the hope of being engaged, it is engaging,” he said.
Liberman said, “There’s no silver bullet. I don’t think the answer is something so superficial as sentence structure, intonation, that kind of stuff. You couldn’t say if you adapted his style then you would be successful.
“I wish I could say otherwise, because then I could go into business as a political consultant.”
Crap! I don't anyone who is intelligent to use 'radical' in the same sentence with MLK, JFK and OB!!!! I certainly am not going to waste my time reading past beyond the first paragraph!!
__________________
Political Consultant - info@Katrinaalliance.org
Re: Mark Liberman / Geoff Numberg
Absolute gibberish...
every body is saying obama is another john f kennedy well
i hope not.
jfk put us in war for no reason killing 50,000 americans.
and only because he was shot like john lennon, he is now
regarded as a great prez, but we get attacked at 9/11
and bush gos to war and we get 3000 americans killed and everybody wants his head, obama is to liberal, he will gut the armed forces like jimmy carter, and when were attacked again we wont be ready, this election is really aboutforeign policy,
bill clinton, went 8 yrs we were attacke many times and he did nothing
the american people better wake up they want to kill christians, jews blacks, gays they dont care,
if they start bombing our stores. walmarts, schools our economy would shut down in days,, we need a prez who will take the fight to them,,,
Obama is not such a great speaker. This is hype!!!!!
I just don't see the attraction. Chrissie Matthews has a thrill running down his leg, and I consider these speech methods tedious and non-substantial.
Barack Obama has been morphed into an Elvis-like figure. Journalists eagerly await his next appearance and its attendant speech. The warm up band plays to an excited crowd waving their arms and signs, cheering joyfully when he appears, a God wrapped in a nice suit and smile. And he begins to speak of change, hope, a new beginning, an escape from the rotten life we presently suffer through.
Elvis delivered the same ecstasy, a release from the present to an hour of rhapsody.
The difference is that nobody thought Elvis should be the next President. The media tell us that Obama's aura is deserving of that honor. I think however that I shall wait to hear what he says of his plans for the country after he has finished his performance.
Hi,
Obama, Hillary, McCAin are socialists/liberals.
Socialism doesn't work and will lead to a collapse of the United States like socialism led to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Hey liberal mainstream media reporters and Democrats : Stop pushing socialism down the American people's throats.
We real Republicans believe in small and limited government , low taxes, and freedom and individual rights like the right to free speech and right to own property. We want the government to leave us alone. Capitalism works ( go to walmart of the mall or best buy to see for yourself).
A concerned Republican.
Frankly, he's not such a great speaker; he's just able to push the buttons that make his dilettante followers feel exhilarated. He prattles on with empty puff, pish posh, and pointless platitudes and this lowbrow mountebank is seen as the brilliant liberal reminiscent of Kennedy and his canned speeches. Please. Liberalism is a daydream at its best and a disaster in practice.
Mr. Obama TELLS THE TRUTH! That's WHY he is a "good speaker." The Clintons (and Bushes) do the opposite, w/smiles on their faces. Americans are finally paying attention because much is at stake. NY and DC were ATTACKED, for goodness sake! It's about time we did. The CLINTON MACHINE IS ALIVE AND WELL AND FIGHTING TO PREVENT US FROM DOING SO. Turn the page! r.
Unofficial Tallies in City Underestimated Obama Vote - NYT -2/16/08
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/16/nyregion/16vote.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slog...
[Black voters are heavily represented in the 94th Election District in Harlem’s 70th Assembly District. Yet according to the unofficial results from the New York Democratic primary last week, not a single vote in the district was cast for Senator Barack Obama.
That anomaly was not unique. In fact, a review by The New York Times of the unofficial results reported on primary night found about 80 election districts among the city’s 6,106 where Mr. Obama supposedly did not receive even one vote, including cases where he ran a respectable race in a nearby district.] - Excerpt NYT.com
Hillary Clinton is the Junior Senator from the State of New York and her husband has a faux Office in Harlem. They were welcomed by New Yorkers and supported over years by African-Americans. Their superdelegates are getting VERY BUSY and desperate, positioning Hillary Clinton to benefit by a State by State disenfrichisement of voters. A former President is part of this PLAN. Turn the page.
Charlie Rangel, Adam Clayton Powell is turning over in his grave. For shame. Turn the page on Charlie as well! Time for a NEW GENERATION of leadership and representation. I believe the quote is..."no taxation without representation?" That was the beginning of the American REVOLUTION! Seems like we have to address this same theme...again, in the 21st Century. Disenfranchised voters State by State...Election after Election. We don't just need a new Election process, we need a TRANSFORMATION and REFORMATION! Turn the page!
I guess when BOTH John McCain ("...I am fired up and ready to go..." this week) and Hillary Clinton knock off your THEME, MESSAGES, LANGUAGE AND IDEAS...that means notwithstanding their MOCKERY of Barack and those of us who like "the rhetoric" we are hearing...is the sincerest form of flattery. I am watching a Hillary Clinton speech where she is AGAIN co-opting Barack Obama's message and language. She is literally yelling -- "YES WE WILL" repeatedly and trying to get the crowd to yell it also...saying "we got a little hot on our rhetoric, but we got a little excited." She is belatedly pitching her website and tel. no. DURING THE SPEECH (and debates!). She is so inauthentic she will co-opt and steal ANYTHING. Cry. Yell. Mimic as if we don't SEE (like the MACHINE) how inauthentic. Sadly, the crowd was as amazed at the knock-off as I was -- and didn't respond and join her. John McCain is also leveraging Mr. Obama's words this week as well. Turn the page. YES WE WILL??? Pathetic. Guess she STILL hasn't "found her own voice" since NH. How many years does it take and WHY should we/the MEDIA allow her and John to simultaneously MOCK Barack and knock him off??? Maybe THEY like his speeches as well. Seems they are studying them very carefully. WE ARE WATCHING AND LISTENING THIS TIME as they mimic and mock him. Turn the page.
OBAMA TOO FOR GOD AND CONSTITUTION
The loyalties of the finest Ronald Reagan Conservatives are not for sale to Neo-Cons/Neo-Libs at any price. It is far better to be defeated now by a John Kennedy Liberal, Obama, than to be defeated by the Podhoretz Neo-Cons supporting McCain, who have corrupted the Republican Party; and Obama's defeat of Hillary will be a Republican victory over the Leiberman Neo-Libs, who have so thoroughly corrupted the Democratic Party.
In subsequent elections, more Neo-Cons can be defeated and expelled to restore the integrity of the Republican Party. Then, with both the Democrat and Republican parties finally restored to their traditional liberal and conservative social and economic foundations, the ideologically subversive Neo-Libs/Neo-Cons shall have the choice of either conforming, or again pursuing their fifty year old dream of creating an ideologically subversive Neo-Marxist Party.
The Ron Paul Libertarians are not fighting solely to elect Ron Paul; they are fighting in the Cultural War to restore the traditional cultural allegiance to God and Constitution. Ron Paul is joined by younger leaders who shall heroically carry on the American Reformation, by any Constitutional means necessary, until the Neo-Cons/Neo-Libs have been democratically defeated in the government, the universities, and the news media.
Republican-i SAID: Capitalism works ( go to walmart of the mall or best buy to see for yourself).
ME: Could any other comment have stripped this poster of more credibility? Wal-mart as an example of capitalism working? In reality, Wal-mart may be the chief argument AGAINST capitalism. Wal-mart exploits poor people; runs small businesses into the ground; resists unionization; and outsources its employee-benefits obligation to the American taxpayer because most of its employees can't get health insurance. Thus, when one of them gets sick and winds up in the hospital, I wind up paying for it. Meanwhile, Wal-mart's officers are taking home tens of millions.
Wal-mart should be destroyed.
"Liberalism is a daydream at its best and a disaster in practice."
I see. And the trillion dollar deficit is ......... what? It is amazing to me how conservatives today are able to blind themselves to what is right in front of their noses. BUSH has been a disaster.
It's truly impressive how Republicans today are able to justify what is going on in this country and delude themselves that it is the very policies they promote, and the guy they voted for, who got us into this mess.
You are rediculous and are over exagerating...also...sounds like you are overly protective of your walmart which tells me everything I need to know about you..small minded American.
Hope you still have your bomb shelter stocked.
This reminds me of the white woman saying "Ohhhh, he's so articulate." Translation.... That man speaks pretty well for a nigger. I've been hearing it all my life from my accountant's secretary to former bosses. I've been independent all my life. Truth is, this man does not speak well. He reads from a script and sounds like he's reading a book. He throws in some inflection here and there. He's more like a B student in a speech class. This is a pathetic piece.