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What Makes Obama a Good Speaker?
The New York Observer ^ | February 15, 2008 | Alvin Chang

Posted on 02/16/2008 6:37:19 AM PST by vietvet67

After studying the speeches of Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy, linguist Mark Liberman found that their speaking styles are “radically different.”

Then there’s Barack Obama.

His keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention instantly earned him a reputation as one of the Democratic Party’s great contemporary orators. And that reputation has only been further hyped since the beginning of the presidential campaign, most recently because of the wildly popular music video, “Yes We Can,” which set to music Obama’s primary night speech in New Hampshire. The video, created by Black Eyed Peas front man will.i.am, was released on Feb. 2 and has been viewed almost 10 million times on YouTube and yeswecansong.com.

Liberman, a linguistics professor at the University of Pennsylvania, thinks the most distinctive thing about Obama’s speeches isn’t the delivery, but the lyricism in the writing.

“You can take a short phrase like that, spoken any kind of way as long as it’s not dragged out, and sing over it,” he said. “There’s also a certain amount of repetition — the ‘Yes We Can’ theme — that allows this kind of weaving of vocal lines. But if that’s right, then what’s really musical about that speech was not so much its delivery, but its composition. It was written like a song, but not performed like a song.”

Linguist Geoff Nunberg, too, sees elements of Obama’s speeches that he says lend themselves to song.

“He does these parallel constructions,” said Nunberg, a researcher at Stanford University’s Center for the Study of Language and Information. “For example, he says, ‘It’s not because of this, it’s not because of that.’”

(Excerpt) Read more at observer.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: barackhusseinobama; nobama; obama
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Good speaker that says nothing..Thank you teleprompter.
1 posted on 02/16/2008 6:37:23 AM PST by vietvet67
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To: vietvet67

Giggle. He is the last of his party.


2 posted on 02/16/2008 6:38:29 AM PST by freekitty (Give me back my conservative vote.)
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To: vietvet67

As El Rushbo said he is a blank canvas onto which you can place whatever it is you want to hear.


3 posted on 02/16/2008 6:39:54 AM PST by octobersky
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To: freekitty

What makes Obama a good speaker? (He isn’t) MSM says so.
Just like Hillary is the smartest woman (DOH).


4 posted on 02/16/2008 6:40:32 AM PST by JaneNC (I)
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To: vietvet67
I asked that question to answers.com

You asked What Makes Obama a Good Speaker. Here are some answers found on the web: Your version of American history is disturbing. Your inaccuracies are dumbfounding. So it doesn't surprise me that you are a Obama supporter based on your fictional version of history

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/_84303.html

Re: Obama is a good speaker but has no message and will never get elected

http://community.comcast.net/comcastportal/board/message?board....

He is a good speaker but not a leader http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2007/12/30/obamas_midd...

Of course Obama is a good speaker , he is kin to Dick Cheney

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1967903/posts

5 posted on 02/16/2008 6:41:47 AM PST by IllumiNaughtyByNature (Hillary Clinton - It's OBAMAS Party and She'll Cry if She Wants to?)
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To: vietvet67

It’s the timbre of his voice, his quasi-impersonation of Martin Luther King Jr. - whom we are taught/conditioned to revere, but this is because of the ideals King expressed. Obama is using a bit of trickery to conjure up those images of King and Kennedy to fool people into thinking he, too, has ideas of merit. Far better for people to read his speeches and judge them for their content.


6 posted on 02/16/2008 6:42:58 AM PST by Apparatchik
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To: vietvet67

He’s not a good speaker. His voice is melodious and he is speaking to the short attention span crowd. Peace! Love! Blah! Blah! Blah!


7 posted on 02/16/2008 6:43:13 AM PST by sageb1 (This is the Final Crusade. There are only 2 sides. Pick one.)
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To: vietvet67

Another thing that helps is that he’s black and you can understand every word that he says. Now there I went and said it. lol

Michael Steele should have run for the nomination. He would have been a great counter to Obama, and 100x better than McCain. Of course being a conservative, he wouldn’t have stood a chance in hell of winning the republican nomination.


8 posted on 02/16/2008 6:43:27 AM PST by KoRn (CTHULHU '08 - I won't settle for a lesser evil any longer!)
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To: vietvet67

What makes him a great speaker is he has great timing, rhythm, flow, pitch, inflections etc. Being a great speaker isn’t always about what you say. It’s HOW you say it. There is no doubt that he has a learned talent for public speaking.


9 posted on 02/16/2008 6:45:42 AM PST by kjam22 (see me play the guitar here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noHy7Cuoucc)
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To: vietvet67

Yes, we can change because change brings hope and without hope there is no change and the change that I will bring with your help is a change that is full of hope, for a change.


10 posted on 02/16/2008 6:45:52 AM PST by RepublitarianRoger2
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To: kjam22

What? Have you seen him in debate?
He fumbles and hims and haws all the time.

He is not a good speaker.


11 posted on 02/16/2008 6:46:37 AM PST by JaneNC (I)
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To: Apparatchik
It’s the timbre of his voice, his quasi-impersonation of Martin Luther King Jr. - whom we are taught/conditioned to revere, but this is because of the ideals King expressed.

Exactamundo!!! Like this: "You see, it's because I have B-E-E-E--EEEEN to the mountain top; and I have SE-E-E-E-EEEEN (shakes head) the promised land." And he sells his vacuous message by that very inflection. It's pretty amazing, actually.

12 posted on 02/16/2008 6:47:40 AM PST by Migraine (...diversity is great... until it happens to YOU...)
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To: JaneNC

He is a very good speech giver.


13 posted on 02/16/2008 6:49:24 AM PST by kjam22 (see me play the guitar here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noHy7Cuoucc)
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To: kjam22

“It’s HOW you say it.”

I heard a speech of Obama in South Carolina. He spoke slowly and in a distinct southern drawl. Growing up in Hawaii you don’t pick up that kind of accent. So basically he is phony!


14 posted on 02/16/2008 6:50:31 AM PST by BeAllYouCanBe (Until Americans love their own children more than they love Nancy Pelosi this suicide will continue.)
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To: vietvet67

What Makes Obama a Good Speaker?

An ignorant audience.


15 posted on 02/16/2008 6:51:39 AM PST by Son House (The Democrat's High Tax Rates Suppress American Freedom, Opportunity and Jobs..)
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To: octobersky

As El Rushbo said he is a blank canvas onto which you can place whatever it is you want to hear.

Yes, which is a great opportunity for Republicans. They need to get out there and define him as the infanticide supporting, America-hating, UN-loving, Black Value System, I want to tax you into oblivion, global socialist that he is.


16 posted on 02/16/2008 6:51:51 AM PST by KansasGirl
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To: kjam22
What makes him a great speaker is he has great timing, rhythm, flow, pitch, inflections etc.

This was the correct answer. His voice has a pleasing timbre and he has good awareness of his body as he speaks. He is comfortable speaking, and exudes confidence.

He could read the Chicago Phone Book and it would sound good.

17 posted on 02/16/2008 6:52:19 AM PST by Yaelle
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To: vietvet67

A failed Austrian artist was also a good speaker.


18 posted on 02/16/2008 6:52:44 AM PST by Don Corleone (Leave the gun..take the cannoli)
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To: vietvet67
What Makes Obama a Good Speaker?

Oh, let me guess. Could it be Satan??

19 posted on 02/16/2008 6:55:33 AM PST by the invisib1e hand (anyone can be a soldier in peacetime.)
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To: vietvet67
Good speaker that says nothing..Thank you teleprompter.

Yeah, absolutely nailed it in one. He is the most blank slate everything to every listener con man of a politician ever. When he speaks he is so empty, so vacuous that every listener is able to project what ever they want to believe onto him and believe he is promising it to them. He can say what ever he wants and his fans will simply lap it up. Talk about real mind numbed robots!

20 posted on 02/16/2008 6:55:36 AM PST by MNJohnnie (http://www.iraqvetsforcongress.com ---- Get involved, make a difference.)
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