Democratic National Convention '08

[Tom]

Then again, when Lincoln gave his speech, he knew that the vast majority of people would never hear the speech and would only read it in their local newspaper. He likely wrote it with that in mind, as Obama wrote his knowing that he would be delivering it before tens of millions of people on tv.

[innerSpaceman]

Originally Posted by Tom

Then again, when Lincoln gave his speech, he knew that the vast majority of people would never hear the speech and would only read it in their local newspaper. He likely wrote it with that in mind, as Obama wrote his knowing that he would be delivering it before tens of millions of people on tv.

Good point ... If a speech is written to be primarily read, then that's an ok way to experience it (if the letters are inscribed in marble 4 feet high and near a tremendously imposing sculpture of the author, so much the better).


But if it's designed to be interactive with a crowd, it is certainly not composed as if to be merely read. Perhaps the most extreme example of this at the DNC would have been my favorite speech, the one by Dennis Kucinich. The written words would seem nearly stupid ... while the delivered speech was the most crowd-raising oration by the Dems at the entire convention. Lost in a mid-afternoon at the Pepsi Center, and I daresay it got better crowd response than Obama's speech at the stadium.