Hillary Clinton's Speeches

[DemocratSinceBirth]

It seems it's harder to grade Hillary Clinton's speeches because there isn't the easy reference point as there is when a male candidate gives a speech...When a male candidate gives a speech we can compare him to the great orators throughout history... It's more difficult with a woman...


on edit- Perhaps I'm not expressing myself well...I am not speaking to content but to presentation and delivery...

[Yael]

1. Because she is a woman, she has a different language?

I don't get your post.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

3. No

Most of the "great" orators of our time seem to be men... So there is an easy reference point...There doesn't seem to be that easy reference point with women...

We think of William Jenning Bryan's "Cross Of Gold" speech, Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream " speech, John Kennedy's "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech, etcetara...

[aquart]

21. Now would be a good time to quit digging.

[oasis]

22. I think men are better orators because their breasts don't distract the listeners.

:eyes:

[yourout]

6. Depending on were she is at ....Hillary has a different language.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

8. That Wasn't My Point

DSB

[Yael]

14. And a different voice. It is like she is trying them on

and waiting on the focus groups to tell her which one to use. :crazy:

[aquart]

2. What????

Women speak differently than men? Should we hold separate elections for women's offices and men's offices?

Is DU collectively out of its mind today?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

4. Please Don't Misconstrue My Point

I was referring to oratory...

[Yael]

9. I am not getting this either.

[journalist3072]

5. You get my vote for one of the most worthless posts on DU

My goodness... I'm just speechless by the idiotic nature of your post.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

7. I Was Discussing A Lack Of A Frame Of Reference

That's all...

[Yael]

10. How about a frame of reference on substance?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

11. Substance

Of course...

But there's more to a speech than substance...There's presentation and delivery... As I said it's hard to make a judgement because I don't know the criteria for making one...

[Yael]

15. Oh! I got ya now.

:hi:

[DemocratSinceBirth]

18. I Thought Twice About Starting The Thread

But I want to illuminate myself... Believe me I try to be gender as well as color blind... I'm just trying to see how one compares different speeches...

I was thinking about that at the movies when they had two trailers with fictional themes about American presidents...In both movies the president was a man...I can think of one movie where the fictional American president was a woman... I can think of dozens where the fictional American president was a man...

Maybe if Hollywood did a movie with a fictional female president who would most likely be played by Emma Thompson or Meryl Streep I would have a frame of reference...

And maybe me asking these questions highlight the unique challenge the first woman to be a serious contender for the president has...

[cuke]

24. You're still not making much sense

Speeches are given to achieve a certain purpose. They can be judged by how well they accomplish said purpose, regardless of the gender of the speaker.

What's so complicated about this?

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

12. Yes, there are few famed English language speeches by women

Many of Clinton's clunker oratorical effects would sound just fine coming from Obama or Thompson. (Or Barbara Jordan, who had a very deep, resonant voice.)

We are not comfortable, culturally, with anger from women, which is limiting, since righteous indignation and controlled wrath are important stem-winder effects.

Women have, on average, a physics problem. Higher tones (shorter wavelengths) don't carry... they are deflected by every object. (The effect of hearing only the bass in music heard through a closed door or wall) So female orators have to yell to have the same reach to an audience, and it's limiting, oratorically.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

16. I Am Not Even Offering A Critique Because It Would Be A Critique In A Virtual Vacuum

Because there is so little to compare it to...

Most of the widely recorded speeches were delivered by men... That's a empirical observation and not a normative one...

[Lucinda]

13. I'm really trying to understand why you think there would be a difference

Ability to speak is not a "gender difference issue." Unless she's giving a speech while popping a baby out, you just apply the same standards.

[patrice]

17. I hope she is trying to break our cognitive dependence upon

false dichotomies. There is a certain amount of risk in doing so. Complexities confuse and, hence, paralyze, the People. Confused people are taken advantage of.

What appears to be equivocation is regarded with mistrust.

What to do? Preserve cognitive im-maturity/simplicity in the status quo and, thus, leave the real decisions up to those who happen one way or another to have the power to make them? Or Facilitate cognitive development/complexity along with its risks?

I want say go for the latter and when it results in an impasse, people should go with their instincts to break the impasse. However, the devils-advocate in me says, because of the way that we live, most of us have lost track of our own true instincts or those true instincts have been seriously poisoned, thus resulting in what to all intents and purposes is a culture of death. Reading two LTTEs in this morning's papers, which idolized the deaths of Veterans, makes me think that this is the current state of affairs. It's a matter of emphasis that concerns me.

Do we have time enough to let people's minds mature "naturally"? Or, necessity being the mother of invention, should all of us experience some "tough cognitive love" now while hoping the destruction thus wrought won't achieve critical mass as we grow-up and beyond the culture of death?

[Bitwit1234]

19. You know I can't grade Obama's because of the puke factor

I puke so much I don't know what he says.

Isn't all this silly...Obama supporters have over and over found silly little things to dig her on....just look this poster has two in the last three or four.

[cuke]

23. How can we grade Obama when his ears are so large?

I can't even pay attention to what he says. I keep waiting to see if they will flap in the breeze

[Perry Logan]

25. Exactly. The nose is worrisome, too.

[blm]

20. Compare her June2006 floor speech AGAINST Iraq withdrawal timetable with Boxer's.

and then compare it with Lieberman's and then give an honest assessment.