Aug 26 2008
Michelle Obama Has a Great Speech Writer
I watched the Michelle Obama speech (which you’ll find below if you haven’t had the uhm..pleasure) and the conclusion I’ve come to is that she has a GREAT speech writer. Unfortunately her delivery didn’t do it for me. There were many powerful statements and moments within the speech, or there would have been if it had been given by a better orator… she sounded like someone delivering lines in a political movie, badly. I’ve tried to find out who her writer is, but haven’t been able to (if you know, please tell me). If she DID write it then I’m much more impressed and can forgive the less than stellar delivery.
Both Michelle and Barack Obama tend to write their own speeches. While I cannot guarantee that is the case for that particular performance, in general, she is her own speech-writer.
Michelle finished the speech while they were in Hawaii according the reports I have heard. In linguistics and I have worked with Barack’s speeches and from his first book, his speech patterns have not changed over the 12 or so years…I will say I think Barack Obama signed off on the Michelle Obama speech. As for her delivery—too fast, which my theater training tells me is nerves…and her vocal chords were tight, as reflected in her pitch, which is a completely involuntary “tell-tale” sign of nerves… At least that is what I was taught by my first Voice and Diction coach.