***Barack's Abilities On The Podium

By Nancy Daniels, the Official Guide To Public Speaking
The official guide to Public Speaking

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When we first heard Barack Obama in his prepared speeches, we were all enthralled with his wonderful delivery – truly wonderful; however, in recent weeks, many are discovering something about this presidential candidate. His ability to read a monitor with a prepared script is excellent: his ability to speak extemporaneously is very, very poor.

As a voice specialist and former professor of public speaking at the college and graduate school levels, I have worked with thousands of students and clients and have had very few who were as good at delivering a prepared speech as Senator Obama. Were I to grade him on his abilities, I would give him an A. His strengths in this regard are unquestionable. He reads very well and exhibits a wonderful tone with good color or animation, emotion, life when he speaks. He is so good in this medium that we don’t realize he is actually reading to us, much like TV broadcasters who deliver the news in a similar fashion. (Many of them could learn much from this man!)

What is so unusual, however, is the stark contrast in his abilities to speak ‘off the cuff’. Were he to give a 40-minute presentation, he would put his audience to sleep because he is very weak in extemporaneous speech. He stammers and has a great deal of difficulty putting his thoughts together, often making mistakes in his responses, giving wrong information, etc.

While the world has laughed at President Bush’s speaking abilities, George W. is actually better at speaking ‘off the cuff’ than Barack. His reading abilities, however, are definitely not as good as those of the senator from Illinois.

Reading from a script takes much practice and I applaud Barack Obama for his excellent delivery in this manner. But if the man would like to become the most powerful person in the world, it might be an idea for him to practice more in his unscripted deliveries. My advice to him would be to stand in front of a camera, give a presentation (not a prepared speech) and then play it back so that he can learn from his mistakes.