Obama vs Edwards, speech-wise

I'm at Campaign For America's Future's annual "Take Back America" Conference. Three thousand progressives, several dozen sessions, on policy and the practical side of campaigning. And 'the candidates' are here.


Just got out of the pre-lunch session in the main ballroom, Obama followed by Edwards, each running about 30 minutes. I was a delegate to the California Dem Convention in April, and saw each of them, and all the others, there, also. But not back-to-back, not to the same craowd at almost the same time. I'm just ending a year as the president of my Toastmasters Club, and as such I do speeches or speaker evaulations several times each week. This was an experiment in style, and I tried to do a side-by-side comparison.

Obama and Edwards both have a populist style of speechifying. They tell heartwrenching stories and give absolutist pronouncements. They use the string-of-examples-in-the-same-format that develop rolling waves of applause and get the crowd on their feet. And their comfort levels,both with their material and with the crowd, are comparable, and a hge improvement over Junior's discomfort at stringing two sentences together.

But here's the most important difference I've seen so far. Obama is speaking to a crowd. Edwards is talking to each person individually. Obama is speechifying, Edwards is talking to me over the fence. Obama is sticking almost exactly to his speech, while Edwards veered off to 'today' twice, extempore. I only noticed about a one-percent diff from the April speeches in CA for either. But I felt like I was hearing Edwards for the first time, not the third, while I'd already heard Obama's speech.

Maybe this is good for Obama. He's still a new item, unlike Edwards, whom we all saw a lot of in 2004. So Obama's speech, its' 'Turn The Page' mantra sticking in people's heads, may work in his favor. He packed the largest ballroom at the Washington Hilton, literally overflowing into the foyer. Maybe 10-15% left when he did, rather than stay and hear Edwards. So there's an energy for Obama that Edwards may not have anymore. But hell, Obama may not have it either, by the time the primaries actually arrive...NEXT YEAR!

But Edwards got huge applause as often as Obama, and the two folks sitting net to me, sold on Obama at the end of his speech, were equally sold on Edwards at his finish, both repeating his take-away lines/concepts: "That's Not Who We Are!"/"We're Better Than This" after examples of Republican failings, and still-existing problems.

The GOP is envious. The Dems are suffering from a wealth of riches, candidate-wise. The GOP looks at their ten dwarves and weeps.

Hillary tomorrow, 8AM