Obama's best speeches have always revolved around stories. Which one will he tell on Tuesday?

[babylonsister]

http://www.slate.com/id/2208776/

The Storyteller
Obama's best speeches have always revolved around stories. Which one will he tell on Tuesday?
By John Dickerson
Posted Saturday, Jan. 17, 2009, at 4:40 PM ET


Barack Obama has a lot of ground to cover in his inaugural address. He has to create optimism, kick off a new era, give the country a vision of happier days, act humbly, thank God, thank his family, live up to his own sky-high rhetorical expectations, and not get frostbite.

He will undoubtedly hit these marks. What I'm wondering is whether he's found a story for the moment. Some of Obama's most memorable campaign speeches were powerful because of the news—after his Iowa victory and after his defeat in New Hampshire—but the ones that were most successful on their own always ended with a story.

snip//

To convince Americans to make a collective sacrifice, Obama first has to convince them that they face a collective danger. It's clear from Obama's recent statements that he believes the economy can only be improved for the long term if people genuinely embrace a new feeling of shared responsibility. "There are going to be very difficult choices," he told the Washington Post, choices requiring "sacrifice and responsibility and duty."

Will Obama find his story? One might have landed in his lap in the heroic actions of Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger III, the pilot who safely landed that US Airways jet in New York's Hudson River on Thursday. There are rumors he might make an inauguration appearance. What better tale for the times than one of calm, collective action at a moment of crisis?

Then again, storytelling can feel forced, and it's certainly not crucial for an inaugural address, which is a clear departure from the campaign rhetoric. Kennedy's famous address did not include any anecdotes, yet for inspirational punch, it ranks alongside the one Martin Luther King Jr. gave at the other end of the Mall two and a half years later.

Of course, there is another approach available to Obama. Maybe he doesn't need a new story because just by standing there, he will be the story. In many ways, despite what he's said about Tuesday, the story will not be about us—it will be about him.

[Berry Cool]

1. I was just waking up this morning thinking about parallel the story of Sully is

to the story of Obama and this country at this point in time.

The only real difference is, Sully and his crew and passengers didn't know they were going to have trouble before they even took off. Obama and his crew, and this country, do. That's about the only difference.

We already know we're in serious trouble, just as Sully's plane was soon after leaving the ground. And our pilot also has to be able to think quickly, wisely and well in order to decide what to do to avert complete disaster. And his crew has to stand behind him as he does.

He needs to have the cool and the wisdom to steer us in a direction and to a place that may look completely irrational and crazy to us, that may terrify us, that may make us think he doesn't know what the hell he's doing.

Some of us may be scared. Some of us may be angry. Some of us may panic.

It will help if some of us try to remind the rest of us that the guy wasn't chosen because he was incompetent. That we should trust and believe that he has a handle on this.

He won't be able to do it alone. He will need a crew he can trust. And when he executes his plan, at first it may well look as if he's made things worse rather than better. It may look as if everything is going to sink, and we'll all go down with it.

But that won't happen with a competent crew and people to help make the rescue work, just like all those boats that came to help the downed and half-submerged flight.

Everyone wasn't rescued right away. One of them even had some bad injuries--survivable, but bad. Some of them had to stand out there on the wings for a while and wait. And everyone had to cooperate to evacuate the plane in an orderly way and then wait for everything else to work out.

And the pilot also went back and checked and made sure that no one--not a single person--was left behind.

That's the patience that will be required of us. It doesn't mean we can't speak up when we have an issue or a problem. But it does mean we have to give the plan a chance to work, and that it won't work unless a lot of people work together. He can't do it alone.

It takes a good and competent pilot, and a good and competent crew. Passengers who don't panic but who help each other. And other forces that also support and help the effort.

Working together, they can take a catastrophe and turn it into a triumph in which everyone is saved.

[babylonsister]

3. Your post needs its own thread. Or send it to PE Obama

for some ideas. ;) Excellent analogy.

[FrenchieCat]

2. I love how each time Obama is to give a speech,

so many let him know all of the elements that need to be in the speech.

I remember the Race Speech and then the Convention speech each had a long list of "things the speech needs to do".

Perhaps this is a good sign...since with each of the other two exampled I named, he surpassed what he was requested to do.

[babylonsister]

4. I have NO DOUBT this speech will be one for the ages.

And I'm so damned happy! :toast: