Great piece on evolving political oratory in today’s New York Times. In the current political season, Hillary Clinton has been making the case that oratorical skills don’t mean much without the ability to work behind the sense to get things done, an endorsement for her experience and an implied attack on Barack Obama and John Edwards—good speakers both. Obama supporters make the point that rhetorical skills are intertwined with political skills. The article quotes Ted Sorensen:

“The most important quality for a president, as Kennedy and Roosevelt demonstrated, is not how many roll call votes he answered sitting in the Senate, but his qualities as a leader who can mobilize people, inspire them, galvanize them, arouse them to action,” Sorensen said. “The ability to inspire and excite an audience on the campaign trail is one of the reasons I think Obama will be a success as president.”

In fact, both the Clinton and Obama camps are right. Click here to read the full article.

Tags: Barack Obama, Hillary clinton, John Edards, oratory, rhetoric, Ted Sorensen

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 13th, 2008 at 2:42 pm and is filed under Government, Politics, Public Speaking Skills, Speaking, Speaking to Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.