How Did Sen. Harry Reid Handle His Media Crisis? TJ Walker on what he's doing right.
There are a million and one problems any speaker could have, ranging from bad grammar to a weak voice to poor vocabulary. In my experience, if a speaker can speak in such a way that his or her ideas are clearly understood and come across as a likeable person, then that person will communicate a message well, even if he or she commits a lot of other speaking blunders.
Case in point: Former President George W. Bush. Bush is clearly not a "great" speaker or even a "good" speaker by traditional standards of speaking. In fact, most public speaking experts would rate Bush as "terrible."
I take a different view. When Bush ran for office in 2000 and for re-election in 2004, his message was clear "I'm a conservative. I will cut taxes, etc." I understand that he looked nervous, used words incorrectly and had bad grammar. I'm simply pointing out that most people understood his message, whether they liked it or not. Additionally, Bush came across as a likeable, average guy.
About this time, some of you are thinking "TJ has gone crazy. What is he talking about? George Bush was the worst President of all time and he is the worst speaker of all time!!!"
You don't need me to defend or critique the political skills or policy strengths of politicians; there are a million other pundits for that. I am not defending (or attacking) Bush in any manner; I'm simply trying to identify how he has been able to survive with the particular set of speaking skills that he has.
Yes, Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004 were better public speakers than George Bush, in almost every technical sense. But both Gore and Kerry were guilty of speaking in complexities that were often confusing to voters. And both Democrats occasionally spoke in such a way as to appear pompous, and therefore unlikable.
Yes, both men beat Bush 98 to 2 in a technical scoring of presentation skills. But Bush did win two points: one for clarity and one for likeability. And those two points helped Bush accomplish his larger goals of being able run the country for eight years.
Am I suggesting that more aspiring leaders try to emulate George Bush as a public speaker? No, no and no. (Try Reagan, Clinton, Blair or Churchill instead) But I do think that all speakers should spend more time ensuring that they communicate their messages with absolute clarity and that they come across as likeable human beings.
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