Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

What Makes Obama a Good Speaker?
The New York Observer ^ | February 15, 2008 | Alvin Chang

Posted on 02/16/2008 6:37:19 AM PST by vietvet67

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.’”

(Excerpt) Read more at observer.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: barackhusseinobama; nobama; obama
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-77 last
To: Son House

You nailed it!


61 posted on 02/16/2008 8:49:20 AM PST by beckysueb (Pray for our troops , America, and President Bush)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: the invisib1e hand

Good answer. I think you got it.


62 posted on 02/16/2008 8:50:22 AM PST by beckysueb (Pray for our troops , America, and President Bush)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: vietvet67

The ability to read a teleprompter while saying nothing well.


63 posted on 02/16/2008 8:50:30 AM PST by jwalsh07
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Son House; All

Obama gives a good speech while saying absolutely nothing. The stupid sheople are falling for this charlatan


64 posted on 02/16/2008 8:51:28 AM PST by Kaslin (Peace is the aftermath of victory)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: nuconvert

Maybe he plans on making himself the world leader. Just a thought.


65 posted on 02/16/2008 8:53:05 AM PST by beckysueb (Pray for our troops , America, and President Bush)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: vietvet67
"What Makes Obama a Good Speaker?"

Answer: just change the title a bit: "What Makes Obama a Feel Good Speaker?"

66 posted on 02/16/2008 9:01:44 AM PST by R_Kangel (`.`)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: vietvet67

Cultists are susceptible to short snorts, constantly repeated.


67 posted on 02/16/2008 9:15:31 AM PST by Malesherbes
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Utah Binger

I’d like to hear your Fisher Beer Speech, but only if you’ll close with the theme from “Summer Place.”


68 posted on 02/16/2008 9:33:00 AM PST by colorcountry (To anger a conservative, lie to him. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]

To: Sender
Does anyone think that change involves a swing to the right?

Nope. But it sets him up in an unassailable rhetorical position. Since he refuses to define anything, if you question him on anything you are defined yourself as being "Against Change". Wanting to NOT "Heal the nation". and "not" Repair this world. You want to continue "the divisiveness". and not "Bring America together".

His speech writers are some of the best demagogues around. McCain better hope he can get Obama out from behind his TelePrompter or he is going to have real trouble with this one.

69 posted on 02/16/2008 10:42:49 AM PST by MNJohnnie (http://www.iraqvetsforcongress.com ---- Get involved, make a difference.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 51 | View Replies]

To: Sender
Does anyone think that change involves a swing to the right?

Nope. But it sets him up in an unassailable rhetorical position. Since he refuses to define anything, if you question him on anything you are defined yourself as being "Against Change". Wanting to NOT "Heal the nation". and "not" Repair this world. You want to continue "the divisiveness". and not "Bring America together".

His speech writers are some of the best demagogues around. McCain better hope he can get Obama out from behind his TelePrompter or he is going to have real trouble with this one.

70 posted on 02/16/2008 10:42:52 AM PST by MNJohnnie (http://www.iraqvetsforcongress.com ---- Get involved, make a difference.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 51 | View Replies]

To: Don Corleone
A failed Austrian artist was also a good speaker.

Not so much good, as powerful! He could whip a crowd into a frenzy.

Regards,
GtG

71 posted on 02/16/2008 11:06:22 AM PST by Gandalf_The_Gray (I live in my own little world, I like it 'cuz they know me here.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: vietvet67

Two great articles about Obama’s speeches *UPDATED*
http://www.bookwormroom.com/2008/02/14/two-great-articles-about-obamas-speeches/


72 posted on 02/16/2008 11:11:12 AM PST by anglian
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: vietvet67

There was an editorial by Jay Ambrose the Orange County Register about this very topic.

It compares the Obama effect to that of orators like William Jennings Bryan, and ends with this:

“Will many give thought to the content of his speeches after the moment’s exhilaration has passed? Will they then ask themselves, as one prominent figure in Bryan’s time asked later of a Bryan speech that had initially electrified him, “What did he say, anyhow?”

Or might they do as the Republican Ira Smith did after being blown away by Bryan, namely sit down and dispassionately read the speech the next day? Smith, the Bryan biography reports, found he “disagreed with almost all of it.”

http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/bryan-smith-speech-1980732-convention-kazin


73 posted on 02/16/2008 11:12:53 AM PST by anglian
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: vietvet67
What Makes Obama a Good Speaker?

Rampant idiocy in the audience?

74 posted on 02/16/2008 11:29:37 AM PST by CGTRWK
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: anglian
Thanks. Good cartoon someone on that site posted.


75 posted on 02/16/2008 11:32:13 AM PST by vietvet67
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 72 | View Replies]

To: vietvet67

I think BO stinks. He’s about as interesting as Al Gore.


76 posted on 02/16/2008 11:41:28 AM PST by beaversmom
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: vietvet67

It is an art. The basic sound has to be there, then the rhythm, and the rest can be grafted on. Got to have good sound first, just as in music.


77 posted on 02/16/2008 11:43:35 AM PST by RightWhale (Clam down! avoid ataque de nervosa)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-77 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson