September 25, 2004
THE UNDEAD CICERO:
John Kerry: Comfortable with format, but television won't help (SCOTT SHEPARD, 09/25/04, Cox News)
As the debates approach, Bush campaign officials have tried to portray John Kerry as a modern-day Cicero, unequaled in his command of political rhetoric.But while few presidential candidates have come to the debates with the experience of Kerry, the four-term senator from Massachusetts has a distinct disadvantage.
"Television is not a great friend of John Kerry's," said Tobe Berkovitz, the assistant dean of the communications department at Boston University, who has studied Kerry's debating talents for years.
Kerry is "an exceedingly confident debater [with] an unusual command of facts and specifics that makes him almost impossible to stump," Berkovitz said. But "television turns him into a caricature of himself, aloof and patrician," sometimes preventing him from connecting with viewers, he added.
The point is not to debate him, just let him talk and thereby alienate people. Posted by Orrin Judd at September 25, 2004 8:19 PM
Mr. Judd;
He can't be stumped in a debate because he's mastered the art of speaking without saying anything. When you can answer questions like "Do you support or oppose X" with a 10 minute digression that contains "yes", "no" and "maybe" you're clearly unstumpable.
Posted by: Annoying Old Guy at September 25, 2004 9:25 PMYes, the trick is not to try to unravel the mush.
Posted by: oj at September 25, 2004 9:39 PMWhat a damning indictment of academia -- that there's anybody that has spent years studying Kerry's debating style.
Posted by: Twn at September 26, 2004 3:23 AM"...a caricature of himself, aloof and patrician."
I just wanted to highlight that.
Posted by: jsmith at September 26, 2004 9:57 AMCicero? Mark Tully was more than a great orator, author, philosopher and stateman: he was a founding father of conservative thought. Hanoi John is no Cicero. More like Cataline, maybe.
Posted by: Lou Gots at September 26, 2004 2:02 PM