Great salesmen do not make great speeches. It matters not if they are selling insurance policies or policies for a nation. What they do is make sales. Speeches that change minds are never considered great speeches.
The people who heard Lincolns Gettysburg Address were not convinced the Lincoln was doing the right thing in the Civil War. The Gettysburg address at the time was universally panned by both Republican and Democratic pundits. Yet historians have called it the best speech ever made by a president. At the time it was a failure and did not accomplish what Lincoln was trying to accomplish.
A cabinet member spoke before Lincoln and his speech was widely hailed as great. The consensus a the time was Lincoln as a speaker was not in the same class as his underling.
Great speeches will never get Bushes agenda passed in congress. Effective sales pitches will.
People who don't understsand what it takes to be an effective president selling an agenda, always misunderestimate George W. Bush.
Yeah, I didn't think this was a great speech and Bush isn't a great speaker, BUT...
People believe him.
People know he doesn't promise a lot of crap he won't really work on.
People listened to this speech and learned from his reasonable and clear explanation of Social Security's woes and what he was going to do about it. That was the cornerstone of the speech and the best part of it.
He sold his SS fix tonight.
Checkmate Harry Reid.