This techniques make Michelle Obama stand out as a speaker
In his recent blog post Charles Krauthammer gives an incisive and witty commentary on Michelle Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention. Here’s the link:
It also includes Krauthammer’s analysis of other speakers at the Convention.
I gave Mrs. Obama a 9.5/10 for her word usage, voice, face and body language. Overall, Obama’s delivery was a great example of ‘Perceived authenticity and passion sells’. It sold herself and her message very well. The speech clip is below.
The things she did well included:
– Beginning her speaking with low emotion, building to various points of high emotion and ending with a passionate crescendo.
– Gestures, body movement and facial expression naturally paired with her words.
– Repetitive and rhythmic phrasing. For example: “surely we can . . .surely we can” and “he’s the same man . . . he’s the same man.”
– Projecting a strong physical presence and posture while ‘owning’ and occupying the space in front of her body. Her well-toned biceps are impressive and add to her projection of confidence and certainty.
– Her ‘near-crying’ near the end of the speech conveying deep emotion and feeling. (This aligns with Krauthammer’s ‘feigned stammer’ comment). Obama has an uncanny knack of making this ‘near-crying’ genuine (ie. Not overplaying it into cheesiness).
Only when she started clipping her ‘ing words (eg. “Sacrificin’, gettin’ up”) did any hint of phoniness creep into her speaking.
