Hope-monger & Speechify!

I know it's "just politics."

I know she needs to blunt his strengths.

I know it's more a ploy than anything else...

But for this citizen, the easiest way to lose my vote is to belittle the power of speeches, and turn public speaking skills into a liability. Anyone up to date with American politics will know what I'm referring to, but here's a taste of it from MSNBC's FirstRead.

Now, as a youth who speech-ified, and as a man who still thinks giving & writing speeches is a Noble Goal, I may be overly sensitive to this kind of thing. That said, I've seen so many people in the professional world whose public speaking skills are laughable... at best. I see corporate big-wigs who make the big bucks but become insignificant chickadees when they approach the podium. I remember conference panels where brilliant academics couldn't express their research. Now, I watch potential candidates, 2/3 of whom are capable of little more than uninspiring talking points.

Did I miss something? If there was any job, any occupation in this great nation where the primary requirement is to speechify and inspire, I'd argue the Presidency is it. Remember the three branches of government? You know, in the time before President Signing Statement, our government divided power among the Executive, Judicial, and Legislative... Yeah, that last branch, what we call "Congress" in the States. I've always thought Congress as the workhorse of the government; that is, they legislate. They come up with... solutions.

Meanwhile, if there's a quality I want in the person leading the Executive branch to have, it's the ability to inspire me. We've had eight years of fear-mongering and seventh-grade speech skills; I'm ready for a leader who could give us the St. Crispin's Day speech from Henry V.

::sigh:: I guess I've got all my eggs in a single basket now. If November comes around, and my choices are another Imperial Legacy or Damaged Goods, I'll have to go third-party again. I really hope I don't have to.