January 30, 2009 by Jerry
In 2006, Time picked as the Person of the Year, “You,” and published that issue with a patch of Mylar on the cover as a mirror for the readers. The magazine was focused on the personal power enabled by the World Wide Web, but it also drew attention to the power of the word, “you.” If you search the WWW, you’ll find tens of thousands of references to a Yale University study (unsubstantiated by Yale) ranking the 12 most persuasive words in the English language. “You” leads the list. Unsubstantiated or not, Barack Obama fully appreciates the power of “you.”
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January 29, 2009 by Jerry
The rush to judgment of Barack Obama’s Inaugural Address was as predictably swift and as abundant as I expected in my earlier blog, “What Did Obama Say?” Within hours after he uttered his closing words, the media and the Internet were overflowing with post-mortem analysis. Surprisingly, many opinions expressed disappointment. Nearly a week later, after the gold dust of that historic day settled, Frank Rich of the New York Times took his turn and summarized the majority opinion: “Obama did not offer his patented poetry in his Inaugural Address… He did not recreate J.F.K.’s inaugural, or Lincoln’s second, or F.D.R.’s
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January 28, 2009 by Jerry
The passing of the torch of leadership on Inauguration Day is usually a lofty occasion, on which political differences are put aside for the sake of national unity. Most incoming presidents observe this protocol in their Inaugural Addresses and speak graciously of their predecessors, but in his, Barack Obama broke the string. Although he began graciously, “I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition,” Obama proceeded to take exceptions to George W. Bush’s track record. And although he did not charge Bush specifically, there was
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January 27, 2009 by Jerry
An accomplished orator, and Barack Obama is a very accomplished orator, has at his disposal a repertory of classic rhetorical devices – dating back to Aristotle – to enhance the expression of ideas in a speech. Our new president’s eloquence was best described by the chief book critic of The New York Times, Michiko Kakutani, “his appreciation of the magic of language and his ardent love of reading have … endowed him with a rare ability to communicate his ideas…to persuade and uplift and inspire.” In The Power Presenter, I described several tropes he has used throughout his ascent to
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January 26, 2009 by Jerry
Ingmar Bergman, the great Swedish film director, made a film called “The Devil’s Eye,” which opens with a scene of Don Juan in Hell. The legendary lover is about to seduce a woman, when suddenly, another woman bursts into the room in a fit of jealous rage. Brandishing a knife, she accuses Don Juan of infidelity. He stands up, bares his chest, and says, “Go ahead, stab me. My chest will open to your blade, just as your legs once opened to my blade.” The woman drops the knife and falls submissively into his arms. Don Juan swoops her up
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January 23, 2009 by Jerry
In my keynote appearance at a University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education event last week, I spoke to my audience, as I do to all audiences, about the essence of the Power Presentations methodology: to treat presenting as a series of person-to-person conversations. And I showed them how to deliver those conversations effectively by describing how to use their eyes, features, head, stance, hands, and arms. After the presentation, a young woman came up to me to share a personal experience she’d had with the presentation style of Bill Clinton. She described having been involved in the organization of
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January 22, 2009 by Jerry
Lesson One in Screenwriting 101 is Show Don’t Tell. In a well-made film, the story advances by action; in a lesser film, the story advances by exposition, the characters describe the action; in an inferior film, the story advances by an unseen narrator. The latter technique is drawn from books where, because of the absence of visual images, the unseen author must describe the images and the action. In books, the art of telling the story is in the author’s word craft; in films, the art of telling the story is in the director’s camera and editing choices. Three current
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January 21, 2009 by Jerry
The anticipation leading up to Barack Obama’s Inaugural Address yesterday was as emotionally loaded as awaiting the outcome of a lottery drawing, and as covered in print as much as the Super Bowl. Experts of every type from historians to speechwriters, and from journalists to speech coaches (full disclosure), offered their expectations of what Obama would say. In most cases, opinions focused in two general areas: themes and inspirations. It would be wise to allow the gold dust to settle a bit before commenting on the grand themes of this momentous occasion, so let me focus only on the sources
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January 20, 2009 by Jerry
Ever since the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963, security measures for our presidents have become virtually airtight. Occasionally, a breach occurs as did John Hinckley’s bullet aimed at Ronald Reagan in 1981 and Iraqi reporter Muntadhar al Zeidi’s shoe aimed at George W. Bush in 2008. The security for today’s inauguration of Barack Obama, already heightened because of the event’s exposed activities, has been heightened still further by “threats against him and intensified racist commentary on Web sites used by white supremacists,” as David Johnston reports in the New York Times. Johnston goes on to describe the $50
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January 19, 2009 by Jerry
John F. Kennedy had Ted Sorenson to help him craft his Inaugural Address; Barack Obama has had Jon Favreau, a 27-year old wunderkind, as his campaign’s head speechwriter. But Barack Obama also has himself. Before there was even a presidential campaign, he wrote his breakthrough 2004 speech himself and, in the middle of that campaign, when he had to deliver his crucial speech about race, the word is that he wrote it himself. Given the extraordinary circumstances and focus on his presidency, it would seem that his Inaugural Address, too, has to be a completely personal effort. And there is
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