Is Obama the greatest orator who's ever held elective office?

[Unsane]

What say YOU?

Note: MLK did not hold elected office.

[yeswecan08]

1. The greatest orator in the world

[meow mix]

ill go with this.. he's amazingly awsomely good.

im with this vote

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. No, but he's very good.

Kennedy might have been better. FDR was no slouch, either.

[ananda]

3. He's good enough.

nt

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

4. Is this a joke of some sort? (Some said Pericles and Cicero were pretty good)

[Unsane]

9. Why would it be a joke?

JFK is the only one who comes to mind.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

37. If he's the best you're heard, that's cool.

But since public speaking is a key part of being a politician it would be pretty extraordinary if he was the greatest orator to ever hold an office.

For one thing, he's reading speeches... very well, but still. The great British parliamentary orators pride themselves on speaking for hours without notes, often while being challenged.

People were always being carried out of William Jennings Bryan's speeches on stretchers.

Huey Long was incredible, in his way. And I've seldom heard intellectual and moral force put across the way Mario Cuomo did.

And then there's Bill Clinton... the guy was no slouch back in the day. And Edwards two America's speech was spellbinding the first 500 times I heard it. (Back in '04... It got old)

Jesse Jackson doesn't enunciate as well, but his passion was incredible.

I think we can agree that Senator Obama is a very fine speaker.

[GodlessBiker]

5. I hear Thomas Jefferson was good. Have you heard him?

[Mojambo]

14. Thomas Jefferson was a terrible orator.

Wonderful wordsmith, but dreadful public speaker.

[melody]

48. His last CD put me to sleep n/t

[Darth_Kitten]

6. I'm speechless.

You are KIDDING, right?

[Ian David]

7. Al Gore was better during the 2004Convention. n/t

[Altec]

8. He's definitely the best speaker in recent time

but I'd say MLK was a bit better.

[Unsane]

26. ELECTED office

[Ian David]

10. Before anyone mentions it, Abraham Lincoln was a terrible orator with a funny voice. n/t

[TheWraith]

I don't know about that, but he's really, REALLY good.

In the same bracket with JFK and FDR, I think.

[RoyGBiv]

11. No ...

Just, no.

He's good. A lot of people are good. A great orator wouldn't have to be put up on stage at the DNC or run for President before phrases like that get thrown at him or her.

[blitzen]

12. Patrick Henry was no slouch at speechifying

[Omega3]

13. I'm not trying to flame here but my honest opinion is no, I don't think

he's that good of a speaker at all to be quite frank. I just don't get all the excitement, but clearly others do.

[MonkeyFunk]

umm.... he's very good

but I think you might be overstating it.

Churchill comes to mind as a better one. Cicero is still rather famous a few thousand years later.

[safeinOhio]

15. Sure beats McCain

[Spider Jerusalem]

16. There was a fellow named Churchill...

who could mop the floor with pretty much anyone when it came to oratory.

Obama's good...but...not the best ever.

[MonkeyFunk]

46. And the only person

to win the Nobel Prize for Literature based largely on his speeches.

[THUNDER HANDS]

17. he's the best I've ever heard

[jackson_dem]

18. William Jennings Bryan?

Over a century ago but he was so good he caused a stampede to him at the convention and won the nomination based on his speech.

[Catherine Vincent]

No. nt

[jlake]

19. Why don't you go spend a few minutes alone in your room.

[Sparkly]

20. I think he has a great voice.

Seriously -- a very resonant tone.

But "greatest orator" is a high bar, and I'd have to say no to that one.

[Mojambo]

21. Top of the food chain for his generation. n/t

[leftofthedial]

22. ha ha ha . . . wait. you're serious, aren't you?

he's good.

[C_U_L8R]

23. Compared to Bush...

hell yeah

[K Gardner]

24. He will come to be known as one of the Greatest Orators of Modern Times. JFK and RFK and MLK

were Great... but times are different and I think the desperation of these times and the internet and TV are making Obama a phenomenon.

[keep_it_real]

25. Wait, hold up now

JFK was good too; in his day.

[NastyRiffraff]

27. He's okay

sorry, but I just don't get his speeches. I know he has a beautiful voice, and can turn a phrase very well, but he really leaves me unmoved. And I wanted to like him. I don't hate him by any means, but I've seen a lot better.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

28. JFK wrote his own speeches and was an amazing speaker.

Edwards was also one heck of a speaker. So is H. Clinton. Obama is just more... motivating?

O8)

[speedoo]

"JFK wrote his own speeches"... I don't think so.

Pretty sure Ted Sorenson wrote his speeches. But I'm sure JFK was very involved.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

45. My ex-ex-ex-husband knows for a fact JFK wrote much of what went into his speeches.....

and in fact, check this out...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/10/24/RVGKL99JM61.DTL

[Dogmudgeon]

29. He's Bigger than Jesus!

:evilgrin:

--p!

[Adelante]

30. Mario Cuomo is really, really, really good

But so is Obama!

[Unsane]

31. Agreed.

[abburdlen]

43. scared me

to have to go this far down in the thread to see Cuomo listed!

[JBoy]

44. Cuomo's 1984 Convention speech

One of the best ever: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOdIqKsv624

[tandem5]

32. neh

[ddeclue]

33. No but he is much better than most in the Senate.

For my money here are some I consider better:

FDR
JFK
RFK
MLK (never held an office)
John Edwards
Bill Clinton

[mopinko]

34. go see him in person if you want to know.

i think this is a silly question. but if you think he is something when you watch him on the teevee, you really should see him in person. he will raise the hair on your neck. if not make you cry. crusty old politicians of my acquaintance get goose bumps. seriously.

[Egnever]

35. No

hes good but not the greatest to be sure. I know tonight is big but lets not lose our minds here.

[RoadRage]

36. Perhaps in my lifetime... but i'm only 30, so that's not saying much! NT

[woolldog]

38. What about Winston Chruchill?

"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few" --Winston Churchill

Sends chills down my spine when I hear it.

[melody]

39. NOBODY beats Barbara Jordan

She was absolutely the best orator ever to sit in Congress -- and probably anywhere in government. She was a brilliant,
eloquent woman.

[yellowdogintexas]

52. that's a fact. She.was.awesome. Period.

Mario Cuomo is pretty darn good too.

[JI7]

40. i have to say, he is the best orator there is/has been

maybe i'm not thinking of some people. if not the best, he is certainly up there.

[WinkyDink]

49. GET. A. GRIP.

[MADem]

41. I think he is a horrible orator, and I know I am in the minority here.

I think his speeches are general and generic (hope, change, yes we can, believe, fired up, ready to go, blah, blah, blah) bullshit, and I think they sound fake and put-on. He sounds like he's HECTORING people. I tune him out when he gets into his little groove, I find it grating.

He doesn't sound like a guy who grew up in Hawaii when he starts talking. He sounds like someone pretending to be someone else, and he sounds like he's trying, badly, unsuccessfully, to imitate some elements of MLK.

Now, I don't think Senator Clinton is a great orator, either (she's WAY better than she used to be, but she's still nothing to write home about either), so what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

I have to say that FDR is probably the best orator that I've heard who has held elective office. Of course, if we had a time machine, and I could go back and hear Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Lincoln...well, who knows?

[DB1]

42. Don't know, kids & I were watching Cspan, it switched from Obama to..

McCain, they went from riveted and talkative to can we change the channel now dad! WE watched Obama until cspan cut away to Mccain, we do not get cspan 2 so I said watch this just to see what your republican friends want for the rest of us. It looked a lot like Tales from the Crypt. Talk about deadwood that Virginia stage was loaded, they even featured out Tom Davis. It was beyond sad. Obama in a landslide.

[PurityOfEssence]

47. He's god's big brother; I think everyone agrees.

That is, except for the philistines, apostates, feeble-minded and other dross.

FDR could certainly work a crowd. Huey Long had his moments. Neal Kinnock could knock 'em dead. Others have mentioned Churchill; he's certainly no slouch, regardless of his posture. Teddy Roosevelt finished a speech after getting shot, so he should get a point or two for that. Folks LOVED Danton, but that's just hearsay. JFK certainly had some chops, and so did Bobby.

The dizzying frenzy is getting a tad worrisome here, but at least many others are voicing the same dismay...

[readmoreoften]

50. That's because he's Baby Jesus.

And Big Grown Jesus, too.

[Radical Activist]

51. No. Paul Wellstone could make me cry.

Obama hasn't done that yet. But Obama may have more appeal to people in the middle than Wellstone did as a speaker.

FDR had more impact as a speaker.

[democrattotheend]

53. He's up there

I'm only 23, so I wasn't around for JFK and RFK, but Obama sure is good. Definitely the best orator to hold elected office in my lifetime.

[QC]

54. Barbara Jordan at the 1992 convention.

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/barbarajordan1992dnc.html

[FDRismega]

55. greatest? no.

ppsssstttt!  ever hear of a guy named franklin roosevelt?

[stahbrett]

56. Is he as good as the current occupant of the White House? Check this video for perfection!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ux3DKxxFoM

:D

[FrenchieCat]

57. He's working on it! He's just gotten started.

Give him a little more time.

I'm looking forward to his first State of the Union Adress.

[LeftyMom]

58. No. He's roughly on par with Bill Clinton, perhaps a bit better, but nothing to scream about.

When Obama's got something on par with Bryan's Cross of Gold, then we talk about ranking him among great orators. He does have a nice voice and good delivery, but he only seems great because modern politics is very forgiving of, and thus unusually dominated by, absolutely incompetent orators.

For that matter, history has to get some perspective on these things. At the time, nobody thought much of the Gettysburg Address, including Lincoln.

Note: LM is a Communications Studies major, has boxes full of speech and debate trophies from her school days, and has read and seen performances of shitpiles of old speeches. She likes to think she has a pretty good idea of what she's talking about.

[LowerManhattanite]

59. Check up on Rep. Adam Clayton Powell Jr....

...who held Charlie Rangel's seat before Charlie had it.

He was the pastor of Harlem's Abyssinnian Baptist Church and was as brilliant—if not a better orator than MLK.

If you ever get a chance to listen to his speeches, you're in for a treat. His press conferences and appearances on the old Dick Cavett show were amazing.

[LowerManhattanite]

60. And right behind Powell, I would put Texas, Barbara Jordan...

...who God rest her, should have been this country's first woman president—end of story.