Posted on 07/22/2008 7:46:04 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
When Senator Barack Obama steps onto the stage on Thursday, next to Berlin’s Victory column, the world will be expecting a momentous speech.
The bar is high because, as even his detractors concede, Mr Obama is a remarkable speaker.
He first shot to prominence when he moved many at the 2004 Democratic convention to tears.
He announced he would run for president last year with a beautifully-crafted address in Abraham Lincoln’s home town of Springfield, Illinois.
A pivotal moment of his epic primary battle with Hillary Clinton was his Philadelphia speech about race after the incendiary utterances of his former pastor Jeremiah Wright threatened to scupper his White House bid.
But what makes a truly great speech?
A team of Telegraph writers has compiled what we believe are the most significant addresses of the 20th and 21st centuries.
We have limited the list to one speech per historical figure – otherwise, Winston Churchill, John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King would have appeared more than once.
Our selections are based on such criteria as rhetorical brilliance, originality, historical importance, lasting influence, delivery and inspirational quality.
What do you think of our choices?
Who to include and in what order prompted an intense internal debate. We hope our list will also stimulate vigorous discussion amongst our readers.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
LOL, Obama’s speech at Kerry’s convention???? First, Kerry lost. Second, Obama hasn’t won anything yet. Third, it wasn’t even rememberable. Reagan has given a dozen speeches more significant and delivered much better than that.
OK, I don’t see why Barack is at #25. To me, great speeches should be ones that have a great historical significance. His convention speech is only getting light now because he is the nominee now. Otherwise, it would be a minor footnote.
Not a single Reagan speech on there, but Clinton? Oklahoma City? Puh-leez. The only speech he should ever be remembered for is wagging his finger and saying, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman—Miss Lewinski...”
The speech has been worked on for more than a year...
And putting Clinton’s OK City speech above Bush’s 9/11 is stupid. Which one is going to be more memorable? I guess they just couldn’t stand putting W ahead of Bubba.
Where’s the barf alert?
Odd to stick Ike’s D-Day announcement in as a political speech.
Ike wasn’t a politician and he certainly wasn’t running for anything. It seems to me a “political speech” should be primarily political in purpose.
Presumably, Reagan will be in top ten, though it wouldn’t surprise me if they left him off completely.
Forget Hitler’s Declaration of War on 11 Dec 41. His best speech was the “Antworte” speech he gave in ‘39 in response to a letter from [or speech by] FDR seeking German guarantees for Poland and other countries.
Content?
The momentum of human destiny.
The speech either pushes destiny forward or creates a focal point, crystallizing the events.
None of Obama's speeches have done either. Not even close.
Historians?
yitbos
Obama at #25!
The Telegraph is wacked out.
al obama has not even given the speech yet,
doesn’t that say something?
“You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of liberty loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers in arms on other Fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.
Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle hardened. He will fight savagely.
I have full confidence in your courage and devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full victory! Good luck! And let us beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.”
- Dwight D. Eisenhower, June 5th, 1944
- OR -
“Because, you know, uh, uh - it is just wonderful to be back and Oregon, and over the last 15 months we’ve traveled to every corner of the United States. Uh, I’ve now been in fifty......seven states? I think I have one left to go. Uh, one left to go, uh, Alaska and Hawaii I was not allowed to go to even though I really wanted to visit but my staff would not, uh, justify it.
- Barack Obama, Beaverton, Oregon campaign rally
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpGH02DtIws
You decide.
“LOL, Obama’s speech at Kerry’s convention????”
It was good, especially the put down of John Edwards “Two Americas” theme with Obama’s “One America”.
Which, now that I think about it, is strange because at the time he was attending a separtist church.
“The momentum of human destiny.”
How about the choice of location? Reagan at the wall, Reagan at the D-Day cemetery,
Obama before a monument glorifying German Imperialism, a monument so beloved by the Nazis they moved it to a treasured location and added to its height.
What?! The media has spent 8 years, from when GWB first began to indicate in 1999 that he would campaign for the presidency, telling us the man is a dunce, lacks gravitas, can't string two words together correctly, etc., etc., ad nauseam.
Now they tell us the man can give a great speech. NOW! With just five months left in his 2nd term. Amazing.
Personally, I have loved GWB's first Inaugural Address from the time I initially heard it on January 20, 2001, a scant 7 months, 3 weeks and 1 day before the events of 9/11/01.
It was a brief address, as such speeches go, and it was given as the sun shone down on the newly inaugurated President after a wet, cold morning. It ended with the most remarkably prophetic, beautiful passages ever in the history of our Inaugural Addresses:
After the Declaration of Independence was signed, Virginia statesman John Page wrote to Thomas Jefferson: "We know the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong. Do you not think an angel rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm?"Much time has passed since Jefferson arrived for his inauguration. The years and changes accumulate. But the themes of this day he would know: our nation's grand story of courage and its simple dream of dignity.
We are not this story's Author, who fills time and eternity with His purpose. Yet His purpose is achieved in our duty, and our duty is fulfilled in service to one another.
Never tiring, never yielding, never finishing, we renew that purpose today, to make our country more just and generous, to affirm the dignity of our lives and every life.
This work continues. This story goes on. And an angel still rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm.
Any politician can rattle off the same tired old bromides cobbled together in a speech. Very few are capable of meeting truly exceptional events with words that will inspire and instruct generations yet unborn. While George W. Bush definitely gave his share of standard political speeches, several times during his presidency he gave truly great speeches that are capable of echoing through the ages. I'm glad at least some in the sniveling, snooty, self-important media are finally beginning to acknowledge that truth.
I never, ever fail to get the chills when I read this speech and its lyrical closing passage.
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.