The Gadfly On John McCain's Speaking Style

My friends, John McCain drives me nuts.

The speaking style of the nominee of my party for president is, as columnist Cal Thomas notes today, a "disadvantage" in McCain's bid to win hearts and influence conservatives.

"After eight years of the inarticulate George W. Bush," Thomas writes, "must we be forced to endure another president who can't ad lib a speech and has difficulty reading a teleprompter? In his speech after locking up the nomination...McCain must have said, 'my friends' at least a dozen times. It is a verbal crutch and cliche that quickly wears thin. There were some good lines in McCain's speech, but the way McCain delivered it, the words sounded as if he were reading someone else's speech and not expressing his own beliefs. At 71, it's probably too late to send him to speech school, but surely some improvements can be made."

A "speech school" for public speakers is exactly what I advocated 20-plus years ago as associate editor of Speechwriter's Newsletter. The only candidate in the presidential sweepstakes this year who has no need of such a school is Barack Obama. Hillary Clinton is better than McCain, but lacks the projected sincerity and conviction that Obama displays. She's also too quick to smile at her own attack lines, which gives her an unappealing smugness.

Simply put, McCain doesn't get it, and in this television age, his jarring mannerisms and sometimes-stumbling speech are magnified. McCain's eyes dart from side to side and when he turns his head, his eyes seem to search for the teleprompter. His body language is painful to watch; there's no connection between his words and his body movements. He often forces the words out, instead of letting them flow. He has no cadence, and sometimes puts emphasis on the wrong words. His facial expressions often seem forced and out of sync. He has no apparent sense of rhythm to drive his points home, or uplift his audience.

It's not likely we'll see anytime soon a GOP presidential candidate with the speaking ability of Ronald Reagan, but I'd settle for one right now who doesn't make me want to stick my head in the sand when he speaks.

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