Can a poor speaker really be a great politician?

Question

All the historically great political leaders seem to have first been great orators. Churchill, Lincoln, F. Roosevelt, Clinton, etc.

Any examples of great political leaders with the verbal acumen of, say, a George W. Bush?

Answer 1

No communication is the essence of politics - mind you they say Ronnie Reagan was the Great Communicator but I never thought he had any rhetorical skill.

Answer 2

I think the better question would have been.. Can a poor speaker be a good leader? To that I would have said yes. What you see in a politician is little about what you see on the surface. Politicians are molded by others. Rarely do you see a politician for the person he/she really is. A leader, good or bad, can't hide who he/she really is.

Alot of these great orators had speech writers who told them how to say what they wanted to say. They follow scripts. A talented speech writer either makes or breaks the person giving the address.

George Bush seems to me to be the type of person who doesn't stick to a script. I imagine this drives his speech writers batty at times. More often than not he strays off course during his speeches. It is easy to pick up on if you are paying attention. Does this make him a bad leader? No.

There are people who just can't give a public address eloquently no matter how much they try. That doesn't mean they can't do the job and do it quite well. I would tend to trust a person who gives a speech and doesn't follow a prearranged script as one who follows a script to the letter put together by a second or third individual diluting the message and in some respects misrepresenting the speaker giving the speech.

*lol* My goodness Armchair Goddess... Such intolerance for opinions that are unlike yours. You have issues lady.

Answer 3

There is a vast propaganda machine in place to push through an extremist agenda, and Bush is a bit of a puppet whose public personna has been molded and diligently monitored by the neocons who are actually pulling the strings in American politics today. Mel Carnahan was a rather boring speaker; however, he was beloved in Missouri as our Governor and would have been a wonderful representative for the American people in Washington had he not perished in a plane crash. Despite his death, Missouri voters chose him over the nutty zealot, John Ashcroft, and Mel Carnahan won an election against Ashcroft even after his [Carnahan's] death. Calling Bush "President" sticks in my craw, since he had to cheat his way into office---the voting public is not as gullible or inept as one of your respondents would have us believe. This being said, so much of Bush's public speaking pattern is rehearsed, staged and fake, and what is not is at best incoherent. There is not an area of our nation and our democracy that the brat-boy-who-would-be-czar and his neocon handlers have not damaged or distorted. He is the anti-Christ personified, and I (a military veteran from the Vietnam era) have never felt more concerned about America's future as a powerful nation as I have come to feel under this administration. There is NO WAY this administration (Bush, especially) should be considered great except as a major screwup whose messes have historically been camouflaged or cleaned up by someone other than himself throughout his life. Should your question not read: Can a poor speaker be a great public servant? The act of being a politician is far different from actually getting elected and serving in office, wherein greatness can be a boon. An effective politician may not necessarily be a great leader, as in Bush's case (and Reagan and Bush Sr., before him). Bush Jr. is not a great leader by any stretch of the imagination, but when backed by the imbedded propaganda machine and controlled by the likes of Chaney, Wolfowicz, and Rumsfeld along with the behind-the-scenes lobbyists, he can be thought of as an effective politician, selling an evil agenda in the same manner as Hitler did in Germany before and during the Holocaust.

Answer 4

Orators use their voice to convince the people how great they are,Hitler , Stalin , Marx , Mao were great speakers also .
Bush may not be the most inspiring speaker but he speaks from the heart .
History will list him as one of America"s great Presidents , a strong determined leader in bad times , key word ,LEADER .

Answer 5

G. Bush is not a poor speaker, he is plainly stupid.
Kostas Simitis in Greece was a lousy orator, but he was Prime Minister for a long time and I think he was the best Prime Minister of the last 20 years.

Answer 6

Your right, Tony Blair is a good speaker and on the surface he appears a good leader (he isn't but thats another story). Bush has a poor vocabulary and sounds like an idiot. It make his administration a laughing stock.

Answer 7

no beacuse in our professor we learned that one of the elements needed to become an effective speaker is to have a good speaking skill. an effective speaker can catch the attention of many people. like abraham lincoln and demosthenes. when they are poor speakers they think of a way to become a good politician. because they always lost in the election.
they trained themselves to become a good speaker

Answer 8

Usually demagogues make good politicians but the case of george bush is an exception.

Answer 9

May I submit, Truman, Eisenhower, Carter, and Ford as very challenged orators. But if your point is simply to slam Bush, you could have done it much more simply.

Answer 10

Right, Bush is neither. Stupid electorate trumps verbal acumen.