Whether you like his politics or not, it’s hard to argue that Bill Clinton knows how to give a speech. While Ronald Reagan has been touted as the Great Communicator, Bill Clinton was his equal on stage and with a microphone. They’ve met their match!
Joe Biden brought the house down. In comparison, he even made Bill Clinton seem like an average speaker.
Joe did everything right:
• Opening that was real—not histrionic.
• Meaningful stories and quotes from his mother:
“Joey, God sends no cross you cannot bear.”
• A glimpse into his nightly ride home, thinking about the people whose homes he passed.
o Almost every night, I take the train home to Wilmington, sometimes very late. As I look out the window at the homes we pass, I can almost hear what they’re talking about at the kitchen table after they put the kids to bed.
• Instead of reciting a list of issues that they might be discussing, he used the words they might be saying around the kitchen table:
o “Should mom move in with us now that dad is gone?”
o “Fifty, sixty, seventy dollars to fill up the car?”
o “Winter’s coming. How we gonna pay the heating bills?”
o “Another year and no raise?”
o “Did you hear the company may be cutting our health care?”
o “Now, we owe more on the house than it’s worth. How are we going to send the kids to college?”
o “How are we gonna be able to retire?”
• Great variety in his voice—pacing, pitch and projection. When Joe raised his voice, it was done with real passion, not just a technique. As a result, he did not sound not strident like so many other speakers.
It will be interesting to see if Obama, even the great speaker he is, can top his running mate’s example tomorrow night!
This post really speaks to me- the power of the roleplay dialog is strong. Whether someone is playing the voice of the people in the house on the train ride home, the voice of prospective employees or the voice of a customer it does not matter- if done with authenticity it pulls the audience into the speech and makes it relevant and real. Great point!