I usually make a point of not watching convention speeches, State of the Union addresses, and the like, because I can’t stand politicians’ blather. But I couldn’t resist the opportunity to watch such a historic event–the acceptance speech of the first African American major party nominee.
So here’s my purely stylistic take. I’ve heard Obama’s speeches a few other times, and found him to be an unusually compelling speaker, in large part because he delivers his speeches so naturally, as if he’s speaking extemporaneously. I was disappointed at first, this time. I thought he got off to a slow start, and sounded like he was reading from a text prepared by someone else. His initial attacks on McCain also seemed that way. Once he got past that, though, he got better and better, until he reached near perfection when he spoke of MLK. I would have ended the speech there.
Beyond that, I thought he should have looked more often directly at the camera, and less at the audience–better to play to tens of millions than to 84,000. And the missing visual, from my perspective, was Bill and Hillary cheering wildly for their recent opponent.
Consider this an open thread on the speech.
UPDATE: Why no comment on the substance from me? I’m not a political expert, so I have no idea how the speech will “play in Peoria.” And I can’t otherwise take the substance of a speech like this seriously. Some people watch politicians give speeches like this and see statesmen. I see Joe Isuzu.
