Did Bobby Jindal need a speechwriter?

By on February 26th, 2009 In Best Practices, Writing

I thought I was being a bit harsh when watching the Republican rebuttal the other day. I thought his speech was a badly packaged naive response. My main point was (you could see the full post here) from the basic: teleprompter training, to choice of anecdote, to simply weak speech.

I now see that others have thought he bombed, too.

Let’s put politics aside and see what went wrong. I like to hear your thoughts. If you’re a speechwriter, I like to hear what were the weak areas that could have been rescured, and what should have been off limits.

Comments

Marketing Sociologist Says:
February 26th, 2009 at 7:53 pm

“Did Bobby Jindal need a speechwriter?”

No. It was a well put together speech. Problem is, Bobby Jindal needed a “speech maker,” not writer. Guess they don’t have Toastmasters in Baton Rouge.

Jim Veihdeffer Says:
February 27th, 2009 at 3:02 pm

On a somewhat related note, is it my imagination or does Obama never look straight ahead during his prepared talks? I noticed at the State of the Union and then again the other night, his head swivels left and right, but never once (during the SOTU anyway), did he present to the middle portion of the audience (and main pool camera). This is not to say that he doesn’t deliver in an intelligible, dynamic way , but I am wondering about the audience scan.

Patricia Bathurst Says:
February 27th, 2009 at 4:53 pm

Now, see, I thought this was a case of “both- and.” It was both a not-exceptionally-well-done speech AND not delivered well, either. It led off with an exceptionally weak reference (“Gee whiz! Look who’s in the White House! Can you believe this!”) that demonstrates the GOP’s continuing failure to recognize exactly what sort of change Obama both represents and presents. This speech then went on to resurrect the policy suggestions that apparently have brought this country to its current state of affairs, rather than offering distinctly different and novel approaches to strongly counter what the President said. To be fair, neither Jindal nor his speechwriters had a copy of Obama’s speech to work from. On the other hand – kinda hard not to be able to figure out what the gist was going to be, and develop something beyond the “we gotta cut taxes some more – there’s gonna be a trickle down somewhere, sometime!” Technically speaking, though – yes, indeed. It was a well put together speech. It had a beginning anecdote, a following discussion with specific examples and a conclusion.

Wilma Mathews Says:
March 2nd, 2009 at 7:57 am

Jim,
I agree with you. Obama NEVER looks straight ahead. I don’t know if he just doesn’t have a teleprompter in front of him of if he was schooled in the head swivel. Regardless of the reason, he’s missing a huge opportunity to talk to his biggest audience: the people in front of their TVs or computers.

roy bergman Says:
April 24th, 2011 at 12:45 pm

Of course he doesn’t look straight ahead–he is reading the prepared text. You cannot have a teleprompter straight in front of you–it would be too obvious that you are simply reading. you would see his eyes tracking.
All his speeches are read–sometimes misread . When he has to wing it he has trouble putting two words together.
We need a LEADER, not a READER.

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