On July 9, 2008, the New America Foundation hosted Michael A. Cohen, Senior Research Fellow at the New America Foundation, to discuss his new book, Live From the Campaign Trail: The Greatest Presidential Speeches of the Twentieth Century and How they Shaped Modern America. He was joined by Jeremy Rosner, Former Speechwriter for Bill Clinton, and James Pinkerton, senior fellow at the New America Foundation. Steve Coll, president and CEO of the New America Foundation, moderated the discussion. An MP3 audio recording can be downloaded below, while video is available at right.

Cohen began by pointing out the ability of successful political speeches to assemble the jumbled and disorganized thoughts of people into a coherent and appealing narrative. This is the root of the Obama’s oratorical power. It is also a source of weakness for John McCain, who has been unable to articulate a compelling vision for his own candidacy and has failed to stir passion among his supporters.

Rosner pointed the resurgence of power that political speeches have experienced in the recent election. In large part, Obama won the Democratic primary on the power of his oratory and this continues to be a source of strength in the general election campaign. The development of YouTube and the internet has also increased the ability of the public to analyze and review speeches, allowing a political speech to echo for days or weeks throughout the blogosphere as opposed to disappearing after its nightly broadcast in the mainstream media.

Pinkerton elaborated on the potential for massive social impact that speeches possess. He also discussed the new life that Obama has brought back into the field of political speechwriting. The trend towards simpler language and shorter sound-bites that has defined the past few decades of public discourse appears to have been at reversed in this election cycle.

-Ian McAllister, Research Intern for the American Strategy Program