Rhetoric Still Matters

Huckabeestephaniekuykendalgetty

One aspect of this race that has not been given enough notice so far: Obama and Huckabee and Edwards are easily the best public speakers in this race. They won last night in part because of their ability to connect with people in large settings. You hear in Obama and Huckabee the cadences of the churches they come from –  "the holy places where the races meet" – but you also hear men who have honed their rhetorical skills over the years, and actually connect their own thoughts into words. Contrast these skills with Romney and Clinton, who are competent but programmed like a salesman and a focus group respectively.

In the television and internet age, old-style rhetoric is sometimes regarded as an anachronism. It isn’t. Huckabee’s brilliance in the debates gave him this opportunity. Obama’s public speeches have been the best in a candidate since Reagan and Kennedy. As someone who was trained in and loves debate, it’s good to see this old skill gain new salience. Lincoln would be proud.

(Photo: Stephanie Kuykendal/Getty.)

Obvious In Retrospect?

Josh Patashnik:

Politics is not rocket science. You have one party led by a deeply unpopular, unapologetic right-wing ideologue whom its presidential candidates nevertheless decided to embrace. You have another party that has spent most of the past quarter-century undergoing the painful but necessary process of taming its own ideological excesses and tacking to the center. As a result, it now boasts appealing, mainstream candidates with pragmatic policy proposals for addressing real problems. What, exactly, did people think was going to happen?

The World Reacts

Even a Brit is moved:

The cynicism of Europeans (and yes, Brits, this means you!) is sad and underwhelming. Compare and contrast Obama’s speech (and even Huckabee’s) with any one of Clinton’s (HRC), Blair’s or Merkel’s or Chirac’s or Brown’s or Cameron’s. Try to spot the difference.

Lebanon’s Daily Star:

The very moment [Obama] appears on the world’s television screens, victorious and smiling, America’s image and soft power would experience something like a Copernican revolution.

A German is skeptical:

The Iowa snow king has scant hope of reaching the White House. He’s too young, too inexperienced, too vague, and for many Americans, too black.