President Obama presents a dead Osama

Today (Monday 2nd May, 2001) President Obama announced that, finally, Osama bin Laden had been killed.  A video of his announcement is on YouTube here. It’s a remarkable speech. I offer some first thoughts about it here. Please forgive any typos and mistakes – I’m making this available as quickly as possible in recognition of the scale of the events involved.

_____________________________________________________________

Don’t get me wrong, its not perfect – there are occasional hesitations and so on – but for me they simply illustrate that the speech wasn’t overly-rehearsed (as is appropriate to give this kind of news quickly)… but it’s remarkable in it’s simplicity and clarity.

Obama is known as an exceptional orator, and this is another illustration of that fact. So what did he do that makes is so effective?

Well, firstly it is delivered clearly and simply; there’s no un-necessary ranting or displays of emotion that can distract an audience from the actual message. (As regular readers will know, I’m all about the message!).  He said what he had to say, looking straight at the camera, with no hype and no distractions.  Compare that, in your mind, to how such a message would have been given by, say, the previous President. Obama is dignified in his patriotism, not jingoistic.

Secondly, the words themselves were carefully crafted. Someone (or more likely a team!) has looked carefully at the message and not screwed it up. That’s harder than it sounds, of course, and worthy of blogs in its own right – but take just a moment to examine how the President’s address finished: he slid into quoting directly from the American Oath of Allegiance (One nation, indivisible…) in a way which was more natural and less ‘crowbar-ed’ in that I’ve seen in a long time.  The beauty of such an approach, of course is that he appears to be totally natural and at the same time utterly patriotic.

As such, he finishes the address on a confident (but cautious) up-beat note – a ‘call to action’ so to speak.

But still without hyperbole, without sounding jingoistic.

Thirdly, he uses emotive stories – “hijacked plans cutting through a cloudless September sky; the twin towers collapsing to the ground; black smoke…” to establish, quickly, a rapport with his audience. These big picture images are quickly backed up by specific, personal examples – things that everyone can understand (“the empty seat at the dinner table; children who were forced to grow up without their mother or their father…”). In short, he hits all the bases.

Fourthly, the President is physically skill-ful. His diction is excellent and his use of timing is generally very good.  This means, of course, that the can signal aurally, things like subclauses and brackets. These are easy enough to handle on the written page, as the reader can see them and take their time, but in the spoken word they’re notoriously tricky to handle.  By being able to signal to the listener that he’s taking a second or two aside from his direct narrative to give a little bit of background (such as in “today, at my direction, the United States launched a targeted…”) the President can have a more subtle, nuanced and sophisticated address than almost any other current political speech-maker.

Finally, the President’s voice is (as usual) grounded and rooted in his body. There is little by way of chest-breathing which in turn makes his voice more relaxed and confident sounding. There are clear signs of nerves, particularly at the start of his address, but considering the nature of what he had to say, I’m prepared to forgive those!  :)   By breathing low in his body and keeping the key, upper-chest/shoulder parts of his body relaxed, the President gives the vocal impression of authority, dignity and confidence.  This, his voice suggests, is a man who can be trusted: he’s confident in his skin and his message.

Put those tools together and you’ve got a potent speech, a classy presentations.  I’ll try and post a more sophisticated analysis when I’ve had chance to watch the video again.