John McCain can be a great speaker, especially when he is a little bit angry and speaking without notes. The problem is that he consistently (at least 50% of the time) is boring, mundane and flat, due to poor reading of a speech. Barack Obama is occasionally flat and has too many “uhs” and “ums” (especially during a media interview), but Obama is consistently (over 80% of the time) a great speaker. He’s smooth, fluid, emotional, and compelling.

My prediction: This spells doom for McCain. Since the modern TV era (1952), the general election candidate who is the better speaker has always won the presidency. (I grant you 2000 and 2004 can be debated due to the poor speaking skills of Bush versus the irritating speaking styles of Gore and Kerry).

But 2008 is a very clear-cut contest between someone who is a great speaker most of the time (Obama) and someone who is a poor-to-middling speaker most of the time (McCain). I’m predicting a clear-cut Obama based purely on his oratorical talents.

From TJ Walker’s upcoming book “The Wisdom of Your Audience”

How many Points should I cover in my speech?

Your Marketing Department: “Between all of our major accomplishments last quarter, plus our general corporate message, I’d say no more than 35 key messages.”

Your Speech Writer: “Limit yourself to ten key points.”

You: “I had better cover my a*&. If I list every accomplishment of the last year, every product innovation for the next year, and then cover our company’s entire history, then no one can criticize me for leaving anything out. About 95 points should it.”

*********

Your Audience “Unless you are our teacher and have the ability to flunk us, you are smoking crack if you think we are going to remember more than 5 key messages. We don’t remember a single message from most speakers we hear because they just do boring data dumps. Occasionally we remember 2-3 messages from speakers who use interesting stories and examples. On very rare occasions we can remember a handful of key points because the speaker took the time to paint pictures with words and to tell relevant stories and case studies.”

The following comes from TJ Walker’s upcoming book “The Wisdom of Your Audience” (The best advice always comes from your speaking audience)

What is the best way to begin my speech?

Your Director of Communications: “Start by thanking your hosts or order of rank.”

Your Marketing Director: “Be sure to weave in our branding slogan in the first 30 seconds. Then tell people about all of our locations.”

Your director of new business: “Tell people about all of our locations and branches.”

Your mother, “Tell people how humbled you are by the nice introduction you received.”

Your inner voice: “Good morning. As you heard, my name is ___ and my title is ___. I’m happy to be here today. Thank you for that lovely introduction. Before I begin today, let me tell you about the incredibly boring history of my company starting back to its founding in 1923. Next, I’d like to tell you about all of the cities we are in (that you couldn’t possibly care about, because you aren’t in those cities.)

*****

Your Audience: “Stop boring us to death! We don’t care if you are happy to be here; we don’t know you well enough to care yet. We already know your name and title; the person introducing you told us–we aren’t stupid!!! Stop talking about you, you, you. We don’t care about you at this stage of our relationship. Instead, tell us something interesting and relevant to us. We care about ourselves. If you address our needs, we’ll be more likely to pay attention to the rest of your speech!”

I’m not weighing in on the politics of the day regarding Bill Clinton’s involvement with his wife’s presidential campaign. However, I am interested in his thought process regarding public speaking. I take as a given that no serious person doubts Bill Clinton’s prowess as a public speaker.

In today’s New York Times, we get a glimpse of exactly why:

“When former President Bill Clinton took to the podium on Friday at the Chapman Cultural Center in Spartanburg, he told the audience a story. He said he had just inadvertently walked into the adjacent auditorium and was mortified to see that all the seats were empty. Then, he recounted, he saw a ‘tech guy’ in the back of the room and said to himself, ‘well, I’ll give my best speech to one guy.’ He pounded his fist. ‘I’ll give my best speech if it’s the last thing I do today.’”

There reeally are no small speaking audiences, just small speakers. Bill Clinton may be many things to many people, but he is never an unenthusiastic speaker.

RSS, Podcasts, PowerPoint as a CD, slideshows, MP3…the list of high technology solutions for communicating seemingly grows every day. But none of these has replaced the impact of a big speech. All of these high tech solutions serve as ways to amplify the big speech. If you doubt me, just try going to Google news and type in “Bill Gates” + keynote or “Steve Jobs” + keynote. Thousands of web pages pop up, all within the last few days.

The more high tech the world become, the more people want to see newsmakers in the flesh. Bill Gates’ speech is often the highlight of the Consumer Electronics Show. Steve Jobs keynote is the highlight of MacWorld. The keynote speech at the national political conventions plus the acceptance speeches of the nominees get the lion’s share of media attention.

My point? Sure you must continue to learn new technologies, but for every hour you spend learning or using a new technology, you should spend just as much time (if not more) learning how to give a great speech.