While the market’s tanked today following the new President’s Inaugural address, his speech buoyed expectations and confidence across the board by democrats, republicans and independents.
Here’s my take on Barack Obama’s Inaugural Address. Hopefully the awkward stumble out of the gate during the first part of the swearing-in ceremony with Chief Justice Roberts stepping on his own words and tripping up the President-to-be is not a prescient moment that foreshadows what might happen in the forthcoming administration.
Nevertheless, with the aplomb and good-natured equanimity for which the President has become known, he pressed head with his oath and took the podium to make his address. His speech consisted of 2,395 words that took 18 minutes and ten seconds to deliver. The President needs no coaching on the importance of having good posture, a broad smile and making contact with his audience, even if it is a sea of 2 million people on the Lincoln Mall. Barack Obama is certainly likeable, friendly and telegenic as heck, all of which assuredly contributed to his winning this election.
A Well-Written, Well-Delivered Speech
It was a well written speech. It was lyrical and metaphorical, by the fifth sentence drawing upon the images of “storm and clouds,” setting a tempered mood that “there are tough times ahead, “ which is exactly what he needed to do. The words were well structured, the sentences well phrased and the speech overall well paced, delivering his words at a comfortable 135 words per minute. This is not a speech that could be delivered by, for example, George Bush (either of them, son or father), possibly by a Bill Clinton, who had much more flair for the spoken word and respect for oratory, but President Barack Obama is in a class of his own with regard to style and ability.
President Barack Obama: A Cross Between Dr. King and John F. Kennedy
The new President Obama did justice to these words and a fine job delivering this well crafted speech. But it was not a grand slam, nor do I think it met the great expectations riding on it. He has excellent oratorical skills that are unique to his personality and upbringing. His delivery falls just short of Baptist-fire-and-brimstone, a testament to as well as evidence of his strong religious and church upbringing. Moreover, it is equally as representative of is his respect, reverence and idolization of Dr. Martin Luther King, as a leader and no doubt as a speaker. The speaking style of this, our 44th president could best be considered a cross between Dr. King and John F. Kennedy. Each certainly a great speaker and each with their own distinct style. President Obama’s hybrid-delivery of the two provides him with extraordinary potential as he begins his evolution as a statesman.
A Good Speech, Not a Great Speech
The speech touched all the points that it had to, acknowledging the crises we face, recognizing the tough days ahead and giving us some sense as what we might expect from him on policies both home, and abroad. It contained a classic oratorical device employed two times, the “repeating of words at the beginning of a sentence in order to accentuate a point” (best compared to Dr. King’s “I have a Dream Speech”), but no such comparison could be made to this speech, nor do I think that the President or his writers were striving for such lofty rhetoric. I think that for all practical purposes this speech hit the mark. I don’t think that this one speech was a panacea for all the ills we are suffering here at home. The speech only received four applause breaks and did not ripple through the throngs crammed throughout the mall, but rather only recognized by a smattering of desultory clusters, even though many lines of this speech were carefully crafted and delivered as applause lines (testimony to the quality of writing and delivery). I think that these presumptive applause lines failed to generate the intended “applause response” more because this is telling sign of the nation’s somber and sober attitude than anything else.
Two Ways to Judge the Speech: The “Markets Reaction” and the “Peoples’” Reaction
As I mentioned in my immediately prior blog posting concerning the importance of this speech and what was riding on it, there are two ways to judge immediately the success of this speech. The first is how the markets reacted and the second is how “American’s” reacted. Even though the President, according to a CBS/New York Times poll showed 79% of American’s are optimistic about the next four years, that did not help the Dow (.DJI), which was down more than 2 percent in early afternoon trade, extending the 2009 slump to nearly 8 percent. Further, according to an end-of-day report by Marketwatch, U.S. financial stocks plunged today, falling almost 17% to match their biggest percentage decline ever as investors panicked at the likelihood that there is no end in sight for the sector’s need for capital, and no easy way to raise it. According to Chuck Mikolajczak, a Reuters reporter, “Wall Street ushered in the Barack Obama presidency with a record Inauguration Day drop on Tuesday amid fresh signs the global bank crisis was far from over. High expectations for details on how the new administration would address the growing banking crisis and faltering economy were dampened after the inauguration speech concluded with little new information to digest. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 332.13 points, or 4.01 percent, to 7,949.09. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index slid 44.90 points, or 5.28 percent, to 805.22. The Nasdaq Composite Index tumbled 88.47 points, or 5.78 percent, to 1,440.86.
“I think the expectations were over the top to begin with,” said Marc Pado, U.S. market strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald & Co in San Francisco. “When you have that kind of expectation, you’re going to get disappointed.”
Reaction by “The Public”
I think Mr. Pado’s quote hits the nail on the head. However, how the speech went over “in general with the public” is an entirely different matter. Planting seeds, building confidence and sending out signals for an agenda were part of the mission of the speech. Here’s how it was received by the public.
The content, findings and reporting below comes from an extraordinary website I found that you may want to bookmark; its www.mediacurves.com and it provides technical analysis on “people’s perceptions” backed up rigorous research. The Media Curves web-site provides the media and general public with a venue to view Americans’ perceptions of popular and controversial media events and advertisements. This kind of information is normally proprietary and costly. You might enjoy not only being aware of this site, but also reviewing the reactions and perceptions generated by our new President subsequent to his speech.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20071204/NYTU133LOGO )
The study was conducted by HCD Research today, the day of his speech (January 20th) to obtain Americans’ perceptions of President Barack Obama and what effect his presidency will have on the nation’s critical issues, including the economy, health care, education, the war in Iraq and energy supply and creation. Participants were asked to respond to questions before and after viewing the inauguration speech to determine if their perceptions changed after viewing the speech. Participants were also asked to rate Barack Obama based on 8 leadership attributes. To view detailed results, visit: www.mediacurves.com.
The study, conducted among 1,819 self-reported Democrats, Republicans and Independents revealed that the majority of Americans are more confident that the key issues facing the nation will improve during the next four years after viewing President Barack Obama’s inauguration speech.
Among the Findings:
· After the speech, 51% of Republicans were confident that the economy would improve over the next four years compared to 38% before watching the speech. Democrats were more confident with regard to the issue of Iraq. There was an increase of 17% of Democrats who believed that the issue of the war in Iraq would improve in the next presidency after watching the inauguration speech.
·
· Republicans’ perception of President Obama’s leadership also improved after the inauguration speech. Participants were asked to rate President Obama on an agreement scale based on 8 leadership attributes before and after watching the inauguration speech. Republicans increased their level of agreement for every leadership attribute after viewing the speech. The highest increases were seen in the following attributes: “Obama is firm and consistent in his views” (increase of 15%), “Obama is representing my values (increase of 14%) and “Obama is honest” (increase of 13%).
·
· Participants’ emotions were also measured while viewing the speech. The emotion that was felt the most by viewers during the inauguration speech was hopefulness. Hopefulness was the top emotion felt by Democrats (68%), Republicans (36%), as well as Independents (57%). Democrats and Independents also reported that they felt confident and attentive, while Republicans reported that they felt some skepticism.
The Bottom Line: Did the Speech Work?
On the whole, yes. Did the President hit it out of the park? No. Are there any memorable take-away lines or phrases? No. Were we inspired and invigorated. No. But did it hit the mark? Yes and then some. According to hard core research as noted above, people came away with a “better feeling for the President and belief that this country will be better off.” And given the state of our economy and the conditions inherited by this president, this was a decent first day at work.
Jeff Mustard authored his first speech for Congressman Benjamin Gilman while serving as an Intern on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. Since then, he has authored speeches to esteemed audiences delivered at the highest levels of government and business. In addition to providing speech-writing services, he is an accomplished speech coach, perfecting delivery for national television appearances.
