For the longest time I have followed the art of oratory of our nation's political leadership. We have not seen the likes of Mario Cuomo's keynote speech at the 1984 Democratic National Convention in some time but here is a look at Hillary Clinton's style of speech in comparison to others.
The New York Times story.
I have a favorites list of political speeches reaching back to Frederick Douglass', "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" Speech to the touching Martin Luther King impromptu funeral oration by Robert Kennedy. What is your favorite speech?
Compare it here to the top 100 speech's from the modern era, or any other.
2 comments:
I have to say my favorite isn't listed. It's the "Force The Spring" speech Clinton gave at his 1st Innaugural.
However, on that list, even though I'm a Democrat, I believe Nixon's "Great Silent Majority" is one of the most well-written presidential speeches of the modern era.
Overall, though, my favorite of those listed is Barbara Jordan's DNC speech:
"We are a people in a quandary about the present. We are a people in search of our future. We are a people in search of a national community. We are a people trying not only to solve the problems of the present, unemployment, inflation, but we are attempting on a larger scale to fulfill the promise of America. We are attempting to fulfill our national purpose, to create and sustain a society in which all of us are equal."
Beautiful oratory.
What a collection!!
I'd love to chose a great Democratic speech. However, as a teenager, I was so excited to know JFK was coming into office, that I remember being taken aback, listening to Eisenhower's Farewell Address and realizing, I had never really listened to him and I should have.
Re-reading it now, it only serves to strengthen my belief, that another 4 Star would bring an understanding that few have.
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