FOUR SCORE AND twenty years ago our leaders were better writers and speakers. Maybe even more recently than that, but I don̢۪t think I was born yet.
I don’t remember what President Bush said when the World Trade Center was attacked. And I can’t seem to recall what Tony Blair — or even the Queen, for that matter — said on the day of the London Subway bombings.
Yet, I can remember learning about William Jennings Bryan’s Cross of Gold Speech in AP US History. I first heard a recording of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dreamâ€Â in fourth grade and for many subsequent years thereafter. I’ve studied the Gettysburg Address and once memorized the opening to the Constitution.
I don’t know what has happened the great speeches and documents of our time. No public official makes a memorable speech any more. There are no more days that live in infamy, or if there are, the effect is ruined when Bush stumbles over the word “infamy.â€Â
Maybe that is why so few support the War in Iraq anymore — according to a USA Today poll in early July, seven out of 10 Americans supported the removal of US forces within ten months. People can’t get behind anything without words of reason and compassion.
Bush never delivered a compelling speech as to why we should go to war. Not that a few words could have saved the massive debacle that is the War in Iraq, War on Terror or whatever you want to call it. A smooth speech probably couldn’t even make the reality of what we got into more palatable. However, it would be nice to be able to point to one thing, even as insignificant as a speech and say, “that was well done.â€Â
Instead, all we are left with is, well, what we are left with.
So in looking ahead at the potential candidates for 2008, I am looking for an orator. My exposure thus far has been limited to Obama and McCain on The Daily Show and Fred Thompson on The Tonight Show, alongside news clips of Giuliani, Clinton and Romney from the mounting pile of debates.
And none of them stand out in my mind as great orators. Of course, we know that politicians today are blessed with a bevy of speech writers, who are apparently the most boring, unimaginative lot of all time.
Rumor has it that Lincoln did the Gettysburg Address all by himself on the back of an envelope while riding a moving train to the site of the most gruesome battle of the Civil War.
Actually, he really wrote it back in Washington and then just polished it up when he got there.
But the point is that he did it himself. He didn̢۪t have a team weighing the impact of each syllable.
Maybe it̢۪s the media̢۪s fault. Thanks to YouTube and television, our politicians are as overexposed as Hollywood starlets. I keep waiting to hear the shocking revelation that Cheney is in fact, prone to go commando.
Really though, I am waiting for the politician who does it for him or her self. The politician who gives a speech that gets even a phrase stuck in the back corner of my brain. The politician who, in a hundred years, will have schoolchildren looking up from their tests and sighing as they work out an essay question on why that speech was so dang important.
It doesn̢۪t seem to matter anymore. Today̢۪s politicians are just recordings of what someone else thought they should say. They are recordings of what someone determined was the safe thing to say. Not the intelligent thing, or the accurate thing and, we know, not the honest thing.
I know speech writers have been around for a while, but the delivery doesn’t even seem to matter anymore. Where are the Kennedys: “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.â€Â The political candidates for ’08 have about as much charisma as old cauliflower.
I am waiting for the words to count. Where are the Lincolns of today? I’ll take a Franklin D. Roosevelt or even a reincarnated Reagan. “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,â€Â — even if he was acting, it sounded good.
Kirstie E. Hettinga is a graduate student at Fresno State getting her master̢۪s degree in mass communication and journalism. She claims to hate television. In reality, she is a closet fan of Jeopardy!
Benjamin Baxter • Sep 10, 2007 at 4:42 pm
Well, more than usual.
Benjamin Baxter • Sep 10, 2007 at 11:42 pm
Well, more than usual.
Benjamin Baxter • Sep 10, 2007 at 12:55 pm
How many Lincolns were there back in the day? One.
How memorable, really, is the Cross of Gold, except maybe the one line with that part in it?
Except for maybe Clay and Douglas, who else in the nineteeth century is quite so ingrained in the educated American mind? For that matter, can you think of a single thing either of those two actually said?
Did Lincoln have any other speeches you remember off the top of your head? Maybe you’ll guess and say “First Inaugural” or a “State of the Union.” Good try.
Or do you remember he was a great orator — I’m not disputing that part, though — only because that’s what you remember your teacher telling you?
I don’t know about your AP US History class, but mine didn’t get past the beginning of Reagan’s second term — recent oration falls by the wayside.
If yours is anything similar, it’s no surprise you never heard Mario Cuomo’s renowned speech at the 1988 Democratic Convention — “A Tale of Two Cities” — or the cut-above speeches Clinton tended to deliver now and then.
Modern students aren’t treated, either, to the Obama’s speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, which had pretty good reception at the time. If he wins the nomination and the election, I wouldn’t be surprised if that speech becomes historically significant.
Of course, if your only real exposure to political candidates has been through the Daily Show, I don’t think you should expect great oration.
The greatest orator of the 20th Century is an exception, but we can’t all have Churchill — “Their Finest Hour,” or “Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat,” or that little one about an iron curtain.
Great orators are few and far between, and speeches almost as much. There were never really that many memorable speeches ever.
We’re not exactly in a dry spell.
Benjamin Baxter • Sep 10, 2007 at 7:55 pm
How many Lincolns were there back in the day? One.
How memorable, really, is the Cross of Gold, except maybe the one line with that part in it?
Except for maybe Clay and Douglas, who else in the nineteeth century is quite so ingrained in the educated American mind? For that matter, can you think of a single thing either of those two actually said?
Did Lincoln have any other speeches you remember off the top of your head? Maybe you’ll guess and say “First Inaugural” or a “State of the Union.” Good try.
Or do you remember he was a great orator ”” I’m not disputing that part, though ”” only because that’s what you remember your teacher telling you?
I don’t know about your AP US History class, but mine didn’t get past the beginning of Reagan’s second term ”” recent oration falls by the wayside.
If yours is anything similar, it’s no surprise you never heard Mario Cuomo’s renowned speech at the 1988 Democratic Convention ”” “A Tale of Two Cities” ”” or the cut-above speeches Clinton tended to deliver now and then.
Modern students aren’t treated, either, to the Obama’s speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, which had pretty good reception at the time. If he wins the nomination and the election, I wouldn’t be surprised if that speech becomes historically significant.
Of course, if your only real exposure to political candidates has been through the Daily Show, I don’t think you should expect great oration.
The greatest orator of the 20th Century is an exception, but we can’t all have Churchill ”” “Their Finest Hour,” or “Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat,” or that little one about an iron curtain.
Great orators are few and far between, and speeches almost as much. There were never really that many memorable speeches ever.
We’re not exactly in a dry spell.
Davis Carr • Sep 10, 2007 at 12:13 am
you must be a very smart person: AP US History AND Jeopardy? Wow!!
Davis Carr • Sep 10, 2007 at 7:13 am
you must be a very smart person: AP US History AND Jeopardy? Wow!!