As both a speaker and an American voter, I was keenly interested in what the presidential and vice presidential candidates had to say at their conventions over the past two weeks.
American political conventions have turned into extended informercials for their political parties. The party candidates have long been selected in the primaries, and the parties work after the front-runner has been decided to present a show of unity. Look how far the Clintons went to show enthusiastic support for former Democratic rival Barack Obama. So, there isn’t any real drama at a political convention. (The revelations about the Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin made things interesting in St. Paul. Still, the Republicans still went out of their way to show unified support for her.)
So, what did I think about the speeches for the candidates? Here is my assessment based solely on the quality of their presentations, not their political viewpoints. Read the rest of this entry »
