Obama's Inauguration Speech

I tragically missed the first few minutes of Obama's Inauguration Speech due to chem lab but I rewatched the whole thing afterward on everybody's favorite youtube. Just some thoughts:

In a word: "wow" President Barack Obama is certainly one of the best speakers of all time. Every time I listen to him speak I can't help but be drawn in, mesmerized by his words. I literally get goosebumps. Having debated for 4 years, I've seen good speakers, bad speakers, intelligent speakers, dumb speakers, charismatic speakers, and likely any other description you could think of. Obama's speeches, be it his Democratic nomination speech or that at today's inauguration, absolutely blow away 99.9% of all speeches I've ever heard. The remaining .1% include only the best of the best, Lincoln's Gettysburg Address (no I have not heard an actual sound clip but the words speak off the page), JFK's inauguration, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s "I Have A Dream,"

So why? what makes his speeches so powerful, so moving? I'm sure linguists will dissect his style for years to come. Whole books will be written on the subject. But for me, it is the sincerity of his words. I don't know the man. The closest I've ever come to him is by reading his book or listening to him speak at a rally, but for some reason I implicitly trust him. When he says that he will transcend right and left politics, I believe that he will transcend right and left politics. Every. single. one. of. his. words are delivered with force. No word is wasted. No word is thrown out there as filler. It is the hallmark of every great orator to rouse the masses and to stir the hearts of even their fiercest critics. Obama has done so consistently from his first step into the limelight at the Democratic convention in 2004. Say what you will about his ideology, but he is undisputably one of the great speakers of our time. You might think "hope" is just a cute catch phrase, but now even the most critical side of me can't help but do just that, hope.