First Substance, Then Communication

The New York Times reports that besides Yankee ancestry, distant relatives, and Skull and Bones President Bush and Kerry share a common experience at Yale.

Both President Bush and Kerry, two years apart at Yale, shared the same oratory teacher and debate coach, Rollin G. Osterweis. They both took Professor Osterweis' popular class, History of American Oratory, which involved studying famous addresses, as well as delivering a speech to the class. Kerry went on and became a star on the Yale debate team, with Professor Osterweis as coach.

According to the Times, David Boren, a former United States senator and a 1960's Yale debater who is now the president of the University of Oklahoma, said that Professor Osterweis, his mentor, taught students two main lessons:

"First, you have to have substance - values and principles that are worth conserving," Mr. Boren said. "Then you have to communicate them in a way that makes the audience feel that they have ownership of the ideas. It's almost like you have to become part of the crowd, and have them go away adopting the ideas as their own."

Boren told the Times that the president, with his colloquialisms and regular-guy style, had clearly learned the second lesson. "Bush puts himself inside the head of the person listening to him," he said.

Regarding Kerry, Mr. Boren said, "I think Kerry obviously uses his speeches to be a teacher and to go into the nuances and complexities."

The Times reports that Kerry's most well-known Yale debate was in February 1966, when he defeated a previously unbeaten traveling British team with a defense of the United Nations.

Mr. Kerry's argument 38 years ago was that the organization had "supplied a meeting place for harmonizing differences."

With all due respect to Mr. Boren, I don't see any evidence that Kerry learned either of Professor Osterweis lessons. If Kerry had values and principles worth conserving he wouldn't constantly change positions, or flip flop. By speaking in semicolons, with all his nuances, Kerry fails to communicate principles in a way that makes an audience adopt them as their own.

Comments

[Tom]

If Kerry had any solid stances on issues he would either had a chance at winning either the Dem's primaries or the general election...but not both. As it turns out, I suppose the only way a Dem could have a chance at both would be to switch multiple horses in the middle of multiple streams. Makes me glad to be a Conservative =).