Speeches
- Image by Jeroen Krah via Flickr
I read with interest in the newspaper last week that Jon Favreau, the 27 year-old head of President-elect Obama’s speech writing team, is working hard on the inauguration speech. It appears that Barack Obama sets the theme, reviews the drafts, and edits the results of Jon Favreau’s efforts to craft the speech.
There have been many times in history where speeches have roused a nation and changed the course of events. Being English, I, of course remember Sir Winston’s Churchill’s powerful speech to the British people… We shall fight them on the beaches…we shall never surrender… in the darkest days of the Second World War when Great Britain stood alone against an expected invasion of German forces.
We are all familiar with Franklin Roosevelt’s rousing speech to the nation at the height of the 1930s depression… We have nothing to fear but fear itself… Exuding confidence, he rallied support for the public expenditure programs that slowly pulled the US out of its industrial slump.
I was inspired by John F. Kennedy’s inauguration speech in 1961… “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country… I used another quotation from Kennedy’s inauguration speech for the title and introduction of my recently published espionage novel… We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and success of liberty.
The power of well crafted and well delivered speeches can have a profound influence on the course of world events.
During the past eight years of the Presidency of George W. Bush, among the long list of “worst’s” was the President’s inability to string together two coherent sentences. I, like many other Americans, cringed as he stumbled and bumbled over his set piece speeches around the world.
Maybe he has been “misunderestimated” but to many, he appeared to lack conviction and comprehension of the words that he was delivering. His inability to set out US policy and positions concisely and clearly has no doubt contributed to the US losing respect and its position as the leader of the world.
Clearly, Barack Obama has the power to inspire, the ability to communicate, and deliver rousing oratory. As he begins his presidency, the US is fighting two wars and is facing the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression. At this time, the American people need to be inspired and to regain their confidence. Hopefully, our new president will be able to start this process with his inauguration speech.
Perhaps on this occasion, as often in the past, such a speech will change the course of events for the US. It appears that much of this responsibility may well fall on the shoulders of a 27-year-old. That is certainly food for thought.
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Tags: Barack Obama, Great Depression, Roosevelt, speeches, writing
June 18th, 2009 at 9:31 pm
I never thought about speeches from this perspective.
I remember watching President Obama’s inauguration speech on youtube; I don’t think I fully grasped the importance of his speech, but I do remember thinking about what a great speaker he was and how neatly structured his speech was. He was brimming with confidence, even while he prepared to lead the already-worn Americans into another string of battles with the economy; this was something that I envied – how could he stand so tall, even with the weight of the world on his shoulders?
We are currently reading about the Civil War in my summer US History class, and I recently came upon an excerpt about the Gettysburg Address, delivered by Honest Abe. This was all too familiar for me, as my mom made me memorize this speech when I was in the 6th grade. Needless to say, the memorization process was complete torture for me, and I did not stop to appreciate the true meaning of the speech. But now, as I read about the speech in my history book, I can realize what a huge impact this simple 3-minute speech had on the people of the Union. As my history book says, his speech was what made the people say “the United States is” and not “the United States are”.
I have to say, if my speech teacher had shown our class this blog post at the beginning of the class, I would have been a lot more enthused about starting the required-to-graduate class.