Public Speaking Skills: Hillary vs. Obama

During the Clinton/Obama debate from California, Barack Obama seemed to get off to a good start, making his point (“I am the future, she is the past.”) at the end of his opening remarks. As I listened, I was made aware of the power of going first. I thought that Hillary Clinton would be at a disadvantage because she had to go second.

But then she began to speak, and I found myself even more deeply engaged than I had been listening to Senator Obama. She was confident, assertive, and crisp. But even more important, she was concrete. She used images that we could see in our mind’s eye. She made her point (“I have more experience”) better than Obama made his.

Let me illustrate this with passages from the transcript.

Senator Obama

After acknowledging the contributions of John Edwards to the political conversation in this election season, and announcing that he (Obama) has been and will be a friend to Senator Clinton, Senator Obama got down to his message:

“I believe we’re at a defining moment in our history. Our nation is at war; our planet is in peril. Families all across the country are struggling with everything from back-breaking health care costs to trying to stay in their homes. And at this moment, the question is: How do we take the country in a new direction? How do we get past the divisions that have prevented us from solving these problems year after year after year? I don’t think the choice is between black and white or it’s about gender or religion. I don’t think it’s about young or old. I think what is at stake right now is whether we are looking backwards or we are looking forwards. I think it is the past versus the future.”

In a nutshell, he’s saying this is an important election, we’ve got a host of problems to deal with, and I am the new guy with the new ideas, while Hillary is part of an old administration that caused deep divisions in the country and has already had her chance.

Senator Clinton

Hillary Clinton didn’t waste her opening moments when viewers would be most engaged: she got right into a story to illustrate her point, a story that enabled us to visualize the future. Here’s what she said.

“On January 20, 2009, the next president of the United States will be sworn in on the steps of the Capitol. I, as a Democrat, fervently hope you are looking at that next president. Either Barack or I will raise our hand and swear to uphold the Constitution of the United States.

And then, when the celebrations are over, the next president will walk into the Oval Office, and waiting there will be a stack of problems, problems inherited from a failed administration: a war to end in Iraq and a war to resolve in Afghanistan; an economy that is not working for the vast majority of Americans, but well for the wealthy and the well-connected; tens of millions of people either without health insurance at all or with insurance that doesn’t amount to much, because it won’t pay what your doctor or your hospital need…

… an energy crisis that we fail to act on at our peril; global warming, which the United States must lead in trying to contend with and reverse; and then all of the problems that we know about and the ones we can’t yet predict.

It is imperative that we have a president, starting on day one, who can begin to solve our problems, tackle these challenges, and seize the opportunities that I think await.

… there are still 37 million Americans who are living below the poverty line and many others barely hanging on above. So what we have to do tonight is to have a discussion about what each of us believes are the priorities and the goals for America. I think it’s imperative we have a problem-solver, that we roll up our sleeves.
I’m offering that kind of approach, because I think that Americans are ready once again to know that there isn’t anything we can’t do if we put our minds to it. So let’s have that conversation.”

In essence, she said “You want me walking into that room on January 9th, sitting down at that desk, rolling up my sleeves, and digging into that stack of problems. I am the practical, problem solving candidate, not the dreamer, the poet, or the guy whose never really run anything other than a social services agency.”

Much stronger than Obama, at least at that moment. Concrete, specific, story-like in structure.

I was impressed.