Uninterested in the SOTU address. Go back to the old written message way of doing it, That would also (maybe it would also eliminate the puerile response from the opposition).
Most modern politicians are abysmal public speakers, they would fail my public speaking 101 class. Few of the Presidents have actually been good speakers.
Uninterested in the SOTU address. Go back to the old written message way of doing it, That would also (maybe it would also eliminate the puerile response from the opposition).
Most modern politicians are abysmal public speakers, they would fail my public speaking 101 class. Few of the Presidents have actually been good speakers.
Instead of making it less, make theSOTU more! Videos, music, celebrities. Show the work being done on the bridges and roads. Dramatic charts of employment. Words of praise from mayors and world leaders. AND, the Democratic Dancers, just like at the basketball gamesЁЯШЬ
That would likely be more effective in today's environment--but could you imagine the great wailing and gnashing of teeth by the opposition (of either side) at the destruction of a hallowed tradition and the inappropriate methods ;)
Reagan was, and what did he do? Introduced one of the worst banes of the thing, the variety show segment of introducing the people sitting with the First Lady to mug for the cameras during what is supposed to be the President's most important message to the Congress. I'm with you: go back to sending it writing.
Actually, Reagan WASN'T a good public speaker. His forte was the narrative joke or home-sy anecdote. People kind of assume that he was because he was an actor (how many good Oscar acceptance speeches have you seen by actors--acting is NOT public speaking) and he got the Great Communicator label hung on him--he was a great communicator, but his style/approach was not one of public speaking in the traditional sense.
This approach was made possible by modern media (and its immediacy/intimacy)--and his style also kind of led naturally to the thing that you object to (the mugging for the camera and personal stuff).
KENNEDY was a good public speaker and he had some good speech writers (my PhD advisor was one of them). I admit to some small bias there ;)
Lincoln was both good speaker but also a great communicator in the same vein as Reagan. Very folksy and anecdotal/humorous when it suited the situation.
Lincoln was also a man with a brain and could talk about difficult issues without reducing them to media sound bites. He also had empathy, even for those who were his enemies. And he would never be elected today.
I'm far less concerned with the niceties of formal oratory than I am with the ability to deliver a cogent message and have it understood, and Reagan was unsurpassed at that as far as I'm concerned. He may have been no Edward Everett, but Edward Everett would have been booed off a modern stage after the first fifteen minutes, before he had even begun to warm up.
Which is why, to all intents and purposes, oratory is essentially dead in the public sphere. Circumstances and culture have changed enough that there are more effective ways to get the cogent message out.
So if oratory is dead, why don't we let it die a peaceful death instead of torturing it with things like SOTU ;)
There are still uses for it and circumstances for it.. IF you have a person that is capable of doing it. Few these days are--and it isn't so much about doing or recapturing what people like Everett did (especially in terms of "art") as it is about using it effectively as a tool to achieve a goal beyond simply communicating a message.
Uninterested in the SOTU address. Go back to the old written message way of doing it, That would also (maybe it would also eliminate the puerile response from the opposition).
Most modern politicians are abysmal public speakers, they would fail my public speaking 101 class. Few of the Presidents have actually been good speakers.
Instead of making it less, make theSOTU more! Videos, music, celebrities. Show the work being done on the bridges and roads. Dramatic charts of employment. Words of praise from mayors and world leaders. AND, the Democratic Dancers, just like at the basketball gamesЁЯШЬ
That would likely be more effective in today's environment--but could you imagine the great wailing and gnashing of teeth by the opposition (of either side) at the destruction of a hallowed tradition and the inappropriate methods ;)
And it lacks gravitas! heh.
Reagan was, and what did he do? Introduced one of the worst banes of the thing, the variety show segment of introducing the people sitting with the First Lady to mug for the cameras during what is supposed to be the President's most important message to the Congress. I'm with you: go back to sending it writing.
Actually, Reagan WASN'T a good public speaker. His forte was the narrative joke or home-sy anecdote. People kind of assume that he was because he was an actor (how many good Oscar acceptance speeches have you seen by actors--acting is NOT public speaking) and he got the Great Communicator label hung on him--he was a great communicator, but his style/approach was not one of public speaking in the traditional sense.
This approach was made possible by modern media (and its immediacy/intimacy)--and his style also kind of led naturally to the thing that you object to (the mugging for the camera and personal stuff).
KENNEDY was a good public speaker and he had some good speech writers (my PhD advisor was one of them). I admit to some small bias there ;)
Lincoln was both good speaker but also a great communicator in the same vein as Reagan. Very folksy and anecdotal/humorous when it suited the situation.
Lincoln was also a man with a brain and could talk about difficult issues without reducing them to media sound bites. He also had empathy, even for those who were his enemies. And he would never be elected today.
I'm far less concerned with the niceties of formal oratory than I am with the ability to deliver a cogent message and have it understood, and Reagan was unsurpassed at that as far as I'm concerned. He may have been no Edward Everett, but Edward Everett would have been booed off a modern stage after the first fifteen minutes, before he had even begun to warm up.
Which is why, to all intents and purposes, oratory is essentially dead in the public sphere. Circumstances and culture have changed enough that there are more effective ways to get the cogent message out.
So if oratory is dead, why don't we let it die a peaceful death instead of torturing it with things like SOTU ;)
There are still uses for it and circumstances for it.. IF you have a person that is capable of doing it. Few these days are--and it isn't so much about doing or recapturing what people like Everett did (especially in terms of "art") as it is about using it effectively as a tool to achieve a goal beyond simply communicating a message.