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June 07, 2004
An Observation
it seems that all the news has wanted to talk about these past 48 hours is the passing of ex-pres Reagan. my local one-hour newscast devoted at least 25 minutes last night to this one story. he's gone people, get over it! but there were two things that stood out to me while i endured the onslaught of eulogies.
first, i'd forgotten what a damn good public speaker he was. i was in high school and college during his reign and i hated his politics, but i never really noticed until now just how comfortable and charismatic he was behind a podium. watching him in those old news clips he reminded me of another recent ex-pres, Bill Clinton. although one could argue that politically and ideologically, these two couldn't be further apart, they did have this one thing in common -- they knew how to captivate an audience.
history has shown that the historical figures we remember most were good public speakers -- one only has to look to JFK or Martin Luther King for recent examples. we may not remember as well their accomplishments, but we remember their presence. perhaps this has something to do with the way the press is fawning over Reagan's passing? over time we may forget Trickle-Down Economics, Iran-Contra and other foreign policy blunders (central america, Lebanon, Libya), but what we won't forget is the man always provided a good sound byte. like him or not politically i have to say i enjoyed listening to him -- just as i enjoyed Clinton. funny how far down we’ve come when we look at our current leaders. Leaders like GWB, a man who can't seem to speak above a third-grade level, who seems surprised by half the words that tumble out of his mouth. 50 or 100 years from now, i think it's pretty easy to see who history will remember favorably and who will be forgotten. not that Al Gore does any better in this area -- i can't defend that man either. he seems to have gone to the Over-The-Top-School-Of-Public-Speaking.
the other thing that stood out was i saw a clip of George Schultz on Face The Press, reminiscing on the time he served under Reagan. he said, (and i'm paraphrasing here), "Ronald Reagan understood that being a strong military power was only the doorway to negotiation. he understood the importance of being able to negotiate from a position of power, not to use your power to simply push others around like other administrations have and are doing."
wow. was that a direct kick at the current administration from a former GOP Secretary of State? i think it might have been.
Posted by P at June 7, 2004 05:20 PM
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Comments
Mr. Schultz was indeed making a comment on the current administrations style. He has been making similar comments for awhile now.
Ronnie was a great speaker plus had a lot of charm. It got him places no doubt. He was also a compromiser (remember he was working with a Democrat ruled congress back then). In retrospect he did not play the partisan games that are now on display - the current bunch of egomaniacs don't teamwork from apricots.
Bubba Bill was a very good speaker but he rambled a lot. Bill was also very, very charming but his smugness was comically obvious (remember "it depends on what your definition of "is" is"). Saturday Night Live nailed his speaking style to women cold.
Al Gore. Is he having a melt down? I used to admire him and think he was a very intelligent and thoughtful man. He is losing it regularly in public. Weird.
Little G. Anne and I are always asking "what is up with his speech cadence"? He seems to put pauses and periods in odd parts of a sentence. Somebody please coach this man on speaking. He must write a lot of his own material because he says the same stuff over and over.
I'm rambling. Outta here!
Posted by: Erik at June 8, 2004 12:16 PM
all very good points.
Posted by: P at June 8, 2004 01:29 PM
yeowwwch! wish I'd seen that
Posted by: brian at June 8, 2004 04:41 PM