By saying that Obama speaks well, I was actually not referring to the way he delivers speeches, but to his pronunciation, which bespeaks a private-school education. The East Coast elites hear that and respond to it, gravitating toward it as to a homing signal. People in this country do not realize that we have class-based prejudices just as much as British society does, and much of it is founded on speech patterns, which Obama has mastered. That is why Peggy Noonan and Kathleen Parker and David Frum and a host of others despise Sarah Palin, too: she speaks like an ordinary person rather than like someone who went to Sidwell Friends.
It's an accent that the average American can relate to, unlike a New England or southern accent. Obama has learned to use it to his advantage. It makes him sound knowledgeable and no-nonsense and it covers up his true personality.