By Scott Benjamin
The National Speech & Debate Association – which sponsors the college debate tournaments and boasts Jane Pauley among its alumni - sells T-shirts and hoodies that read, “Words Matter.”
But do they matter as much as they once did?
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For decades there have been studies that report that 55 percent of communication is non-verbal.
Political columnist Martin Schram wrote in his 1987 book, “The Great American Video Machine” that Lesley Stahl, then a CBS News White House correspondent, braced for a withering phone call from the White House press office as her highly-critical five-minute, 40-second report on Ronald Reagan’s first term aired in October 1984 on the CBS Evening News.
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Instead, she got a call offering praise since much of the report presented Reagan in favorable visuals.
Schram wrote: “Night after night, Reagan had his way with television news. He had succeeded in setting their agenda and framing their stories by posing on one beautiful and compelling setting after another.”
“There was Reagan officiating the handicapped Olympics; Reagan dedicating a senior citizens housing project,” Schram stated.
Beyond that, do political speeches too often rely on buzzwords aimed as the base and eschew explanations on their policy positions?
Southern Connecticut State University Associate Professor of Political Science & Urban Affairs Jonathan Wharton said, “Too often there is really nothing empirical, evidence-based, substantive. It tends to be rhetoric, propaganda, silly statements.”
However, in a 2006 interview with the Rippon Society, the centrist Republican organization, Landon Parvin, who has written speeches for former Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and scores of business executives, said, “You can see the true power of words, however, when someone articulates an unarticulated truth, such as when Reagan called upon Gorbachev to ‘tear down this wall.’ It was so obvious but no president had ever said it. The logic of its truth was unassailable.”
What makes an effective political speech?
State Rep. Bob Godfrey (D-110) of Danbury, the Deputy Speaker Pro Tempore, said, “Brevity. To the point. Honesty. A little humor. Including character in your remarks so people know who you are, what you are thinking and who you represent.”
Wharton, a former congressional staff member, said, “[You have to try] to make them information-based. But you have to be mindful that it has to be concise and understandable.”
Godfrey added, “Coming to the right topics. Offering hope. A little stem-winding, shouting. It doesn’t hurt at all. It gets you noticed. Barack Obama is one of the recent examples of a great speech-maker.”
There was a time in 2007 and 2008 when you could not find an arena large enough to hold everyone who wanted to hear Obama speak as he climbed toward the Democratic presidential nomination.
However, former Washington Post economics columnist Robert Samuelson wrote in 2017 that “ Few presidents have worshipped their words more than Obama. To take one example: His farewell speech last week ran 50 minutes; the average for seven other post-World War II presidents was 18 minutes, according to The Wall Street Journal.”
Samuelson added: “Not only did he worship his words, but he assigned them more power than they possessed. At times, he seemed to treat the White House as a graduate-school seminar, where he was the smartest guy in the room and, therefore, deserved to prevail. At news conferences, he gave long, convoluted responses full of subtleties that may have impressed political and media elites — but didn't do much to shift public opinion.”
Godfrey also praised the speaking skills of Democratic former President Bill Clinton.
It has been said that Clinton could tell you everything you wanted to know about the bottled water you were holding and also make it interesting.
During Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign, Clinton, as a surrogate speaker, became known as “the explainer in chief.”
He presented issues in capsule form.
During a fundraiser for Democratic then-U.S. Rep. Jim Maloney at the Amber Room Colonnade in Danbury in September 2002, Clinton said, “We shouldn’t be surprised that we have a budget deficit. The Republicans told us two years ago they were going to pass this big tax cut. The reason that we had surpluses when I was in office was because [former treasury secretaries] Bob Rubin, Larry Summers and I knew how to count.”
Regarding Clinton, Godfrey said, “With the exception of Barack Obama and Thomas Jefferson, he probably was the most intelligent president to ever serve.”
Godfrey said that Obama, Republican former President Ronald Reagan and Clinton were “best able to get a point across.”
Parvin said to The Wall Street Journal in 2024 that candidates shouldn’t shout.
“Don’t be strident, don’t strain your voice, don’t try too hard,” he remarked. “When I was writing for Ronald Reagan, I would give him a sure-fire, tough applause line, and he would often deliver it gently, seeking no applause. And yet it landed, and he looked the stronger, the bigger and the more genial for it.”
Said Godfrey, “The worst thing you can do is be too long.”
Peggy Noonan, the former Reagan and H.W. Bush speechwriter, wrote in The Wall Street Journal in 2007 that State of the Union speeches are too long and lack a theme and direction.
She stated that the White House should issue two State of the Union addresses.
Noonan wrote, “The first would be a lengthy written document containing all plans and proposals for each agency, and a review of where we are. The second would be the address, a thematic speech devoted to the greatest, most pressing issue of the day. Just having a White House decide what that issue is would be illuminating. In 1962, for instance, John F. Kennedy might likely have spoken either of the struggle with Soviet communism or of the rise of the American civil-rights movement. Whichever he chose, and how he spoke of it, would say worlds about where we were going and who he was. History would respect it, as opposed to wading through it. And normal people would listen.”
Wharton said when he was writing speeches as a congressional aide, he would aim for five to 10 minutes at news conferences.
In his 1982 book on giving speeches, Jack Valenti, the former Lyndon Johnson White House aide, wrote that if, for example, you are talking to a Rotary Club, you should speak 18 minutes or less, particularly if there will be questions and answers afterwards.
Godfrey who was initially elected in 1988, commented, “I haven’t done one of those in a long time because those organizations aren’t as active as they were when I started.”
“If it is an intimate setting, I think the quicker you can get to questions and answers the better,” he said. “ I’m not an entertainer, but I try to be entertaining. But being entertaining is just part of the small-group dynamic. You just have to know your audience. The best way to do it is to ask them what they are interested in.”
There are college students that write on the Rate My Professor web site about how a professor just lectures and doesn’t utilize PowerPoint slides.
However, Parvin said in an interview with Pro Rhetoric that he hates PowerPoint in political speeches.
He remarked, “PowerPoint doesn’t help people project themselves as leaders.”
Parvin has said that political humor can be effective, but must be used with care.
He commented to the Rippon Society, “The purpose of political humor is to make yourself more likeable—not to stick it to your opponent. Once you are perceived as likeable, then you can good-naturedly tease your opponent.”
Godfrey recalled an example: “President Clinton said that Bob Dole is a good man, but he has bad ideas. Then he discussed Bob Dole‘s bad ideas.”
Godfrey has served under six governors. Which of them have excelled in delivering a speech?
“I loved Bill O’Neill’s speeches,” he said of the Democrat who was governor from 1980 to 1991.
However, He was criticized for mangling the English language.
Said Godfrey, “Don’t we all?”
He said that Democratic former governor Dannel Malloy, who served from 2011 to 2019 was “a pretty good speech-maker.”
Godfrey said that current Gov. Ned Lamont (D-Greenwich “Is not inclined to get speeches.”
Godfrey said he laments that the governors no longer deliver a speech to the General Assembly on the closing night of its regular session.
Who have been the best debaters on the floor of the state House?
Said Godfrey, Democratic state Rep. Steve Stafstrom of Bridgeport.
He added that former state Rep. Mike D’Agostino, a Democrat from Hamden, is high on the list. D’Agostino, a former House chairman of the General Law Committee, is now a state Superior Court judge.
Godfrey explained, “He could debate some of the most complicated issues.”
Resources:
Interview with Bob Godfrey, Patch.com, on Wednesday, June 18, 2025.
Phone interview with Bob Godfrey, Patch.com, on Tuesday, June 24, 2025.
Phone interview with Jonathan Wharton, Patch.com, on Tuesday, June 24, 2025.
Martin Schram, “The Great American Video Game,” William Morrow & Company, Inc., 1987.
Jack Valenti, “Speak Up With Confidence,” Grand Central Publishing, 1982.
https://prorhetoric.com/the-speechwriters-life-landon-parvin-on-the-unique-pleasure-of-this-work/
