Podcast Suspended

I am now the Podcast Editor at http://www.learningpublicspeaking.com

The new podcast is called 5 to Speak, a 5-minute public speaking lesson. We might resume this podcast later. But I will be at 5 to Speak for the time being.

Finally...

Mitt's gone. But with a very good speech that modeled Reagan's goodbye in 1976. McCain wins the nomination. For the Dems, Clinton and Obama are locked into a deathspiral that will last under April, maybe May and June.

Great for me. Because there will be more opportunities for speeches.

Starting with Mitt. I'll talk about that and the parallels with Reagan in the next podcast (hopefully) sometime this weekend.

Meanwhile, Time's Joe Klein has an article that talks a little about the inspiration vs. substance debate on the Democratic side.

"We are the ones we've been waiting for," Barack Obama said in yet another memorable election-night speech on Super-Confusing Tuesday. "We are the change that we seek." Waiting to hear what Obama has to say — win, lose or tie — has become the most anticipated event of any given primary night. The man's use of pronouns (never I), of inspirational language and of poetic meter — "WE are the CHANGE that we SEEK" — is unprecedented in recent memory. Yes, Ronald Reagan could give great set-piece speeches on grand occasions, and so could John F. Kennedy, but Obama's ability to toss one off, different each week, is simply breathtaking. His New Hampshire concession speech, with the refrain "Yes, We Can," was turned into a brilliant music video featuring an array of young, hip, talented and beautiful celebrities. The video, stark in black-and-white, raised an existential question for Democrats: How can you not be moved by this? How can you vote against the future?

Quick posting

Very busy and missed a lot of news. Mitt is back. Hillary wins Nevada. Things getting nasty everywhere. It's election time in the USA.

Chris Cillizza of The Fix at WashingtonPost.com basically did my job for me with the MLK day speeches. He has video of the Hillary Clinton speech in Harlem and the Obama speech in Atlanta, urging his readers to determine who did the best job. Hopefully, I can make a quick podcast from this question while predicting the South Carolina Primary and Super Tuesday. Maybe I can do it between teaching class, American Idol, sleeping, and traveling to Missouri for a speaking engagement.

Here is the link. More later.

Michigan Primary tonight

Sorry, no podcast. It's American Idol night. Besides, I am teaching tonight.

But I'll post the victory speech and other speeches. on the blog tonight. Also, I'll give you the react in a links post.

"Prediction?
Yes, Prediction.
Pain."

What movie?

Sorry, McCain by 2 points. Bye Bye Mitt.

Friday links

Last night's debate - First Read - msnbc.com
MSNBC's postmortem of the Thursday night South Carolina Republican debate

A comeback for competence - The Boston Globe
Analyzing possible new themes as we move to Super Duper Tuesday

Sound Politics: New Hampshire candidate speeches
Thoughts from a Republican (It's pretty obvious) about candidate speeches

A tale of two speeches - Los Angeles Times
A good, albeit old, analysis between two Obama and Romney speeches

A cynical, yet surprising accuracy view of concession speeches

Completely funny take on speeches from the losers, errr, I mean, every candidate who did not win an election. Spelling mistakes are the author of the article, not mine (for once). From Scott Hollifield:

(SPIRITED APPLAUSE. SIGNS WAVE. CLASSIC ROCK THEME SONG PLAYS. CANDIDATE SMILES. CANDIDATE WAVES. CANDIDATE POINTS TO SOMEONE IN THE CROWD HE PRETENDS TO KNOW. CANDIDATE KISSES WIFE NONPASSIONATELY.)

Thank you. Thank you. I don't know about you, but I feel like a winner tonight.

(MORE SPIRITED APPLAUSE.)

Even though we finished fifth in a field of five, the 418 people from the great state of (name of state) who want a change of course in this nation spoke loud and clear. Let me hear you!

(LEAD CROWD IN CHANT OF CAMPAIGN SLOGAN DEVELOPED BY A TEAM OF CONSULTANTS.)

As I traveled all over this great state of (name of state), I met people like (name of someone with a problem the government didn't solve.) And he said to me, it is time take government out of the hands of (name of opposite political party) and give it back to those to whom it truly belongs, the people.

(APPLAUSE.)

I traveled to (insert names of several towns to show you were actually in the state for a while) and in (name of one of those towns) I talked with (someone like crazy ol' Jerry, who rambled on and on about FICA contributions) and he let me know in no uncertain terms he doesn't like the direction we're headed.

As a boy, I worked (at some kind of job the rest of us worked at to show that he's not above us) and it taught me the value of a dollar. Those bureaucrats in Washington, those (members of opposite political party) seem to have forgotten all about that.

We may have finished fifth tonight, but we are not ready to give up. Let me hear you!

(LEAD CROWD IN CHANT OF CAMPAIGN SLOGAN DEVELOPED BY TEAM OF CONSULTANTS. POINT AND WAVE AT CRAZY OL' JERRY)

We are in this for the long run. Now, it's on to the great state of (name of next primary state.)

(BACK ON BUS, INSTRUCT WRITERS TO BEGIN WORK ON SPEECH ANNOUNCING WITHDRAWEL FROM RACE.)

By the way, a slight change in plan. No podcast this weekend or next week. There was a forum (yet another one) on FOXNews from South Carolina. I'll put up some links about the results later maybe.

Clinton Accepts New Hampshire Democratric Presidential Nod