Obama’s Oratory Skills Flourish in State of the Union Speech

President Barak Obama delivered a near flawless, well written, 61-minute State of the Union speech tonight. I will analyze his speech based on three important criteria that determine the success or failure of all speeches:

How he looked: Dark grey suit, white shirt, medium blue tie. Facially open, friendly. Smiled occasionally. Laughed a few times, especially when he mentioned that there are two agencies that deal with salmon (one fresh water, the other, salt water) and that it gets more complicated when the salmon are smoked.
The only distraction was that he folded his hands on top of the lectern. It would have been better to have put them down to his sides when not gesturing.

How he sounded: Excellent use of inflection (raising and lowering of tones), range (raising and lowering of volume, often to a whisper) and pace (speeding up, slowing down, pausing) to emphasize key points. He misspoke only once when he said that Brandon Fisher, who aided in the rescue of the Chilean coal miners, worked 3 – 4 hours a day, but corrected to
say 3 – 4 days in a row.

What he said: Obama gave a lesson in storytelling as he illustrated every major point with a current story. Many of the central figures in his stories were in the chamber. He began his speech by reminding us that the world as we knew it has changed. The days of working for one company for your entire life are over.

He began his speech by stating what a great country the United States is by having given opportunities to him, Vice-President Joe Biden and the new House Speaker, John Boehner, all of whom came from modest means.

President Obama then went on to point out the challenge we face from foreign competition. He said that these challenges are bigger than the parties.  He cautioned Congress that it will be measured by “the progress of our people.” “Let’s fix what needs to be fixed and move forward.”

To win in the future, we need to “out-innovate, out-educate and out-build the rest of world”. He then used the Rule of Three to prescribe three strategies to accomplish this goal:

1. Encourage American innovation. He said that although we have provided cutting edge innovation, we are slipping. Comparing our current situation to the space race in the late 1950s, Obama said that this is our nation’s “Sputnik moment.”
2. Focus on education. We have fallen behind. We need to teach kids that it’s not just about the winner of super bowl but the winner of the science fair.
3. Rebuild America.  From high speed rail to high speed internet, we said we need to redouble our efforts to rebuild country.

President Obama concluded his speech by mentioning that one of Brandon Fisher’s employees said after the Chilean miners were rescued, “we are little company, but we do big things”. He said that together we can do big things. And in an urge to move Congress to work together, concluded with “Our destiny remains our choice.”

Based on the criteria of how you look, how you sound and what you say, Obama has mastered the art of public speaking.

Keeping in mind that this is not a political discussion, what is your opinion of his speech? About how he looked? How he sounded? What he said? Send me your comments and I’ll publish them.