McCain and Obama's oratory jousting - not worth it John

Image taken from the New York Times video.

Despite undergoing an intensive training programme to improve his public speaking abilities, John McCain made one of his worst blunders yet last week, when he failed repeatedly to pronounce the title of his energy plan, the Lexington Project.

It's no secret that John McCain is a poor public speaker when it comes to big audiences, which is why his campaign team has set up training practice to get him up to scratch against smooth talking competitor Barack Obama. The autocue lessons don't seem to be working though. "I have proposed a thing called the Lexxigdon, the Lexington project, let's call it the Lexington Progjet" he announced at a speech in Las Vegas on Wednesday. He later added "the Lexington, the Lexington Project, the Lexington Project"... "and that's why I call it Project Lexington". Despite his poor reading skills however, the Republican candidate is better at talking in small groups and in unplanned debates. His Democratic candidate on the other hand, renowned for his awe-inspiring "performances", is often criticised for having more style than substance.

You can watch the video of McCain's blunder on the New York Times site.

McCain's worst speech so far

It was after this speech in New Orleans that bloggers resigned McCain to being a "really, really bad public speaker". His overuse of the phrase "my friends" along with stuttering, mispronunciation, a nervous laugh following gallant statements and a frighteningly false grin drove bloggers to ask "has he ever used a teleprompter before?"

"His skill set is not very good for defeating a charismatic opponent"

Let's face it: John McCain is really bad at public speaking. (...) Unfortunately for McCain, he's running for president. And while I'd probably rather the press attack him for, say, any of his actual policy stances, any one of which would be horrible enough to drive voters away from him, it's still rather amusing to read how his campaign has decided that they've got to try to make him into a good public speaker (...). See, here's the thing: he's pretty much damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. McCain's a really bad public speaker, but making him blander won't make him better, it will just make him less gaffe-prone. (...)

Now, McCain has his moments - he's slowed a bit, but he's still pretty good in a town hall setting, and he's reasonably comfortable speaking off the top of his head. But really, his skill set is not very good for defeating a charismatic opponent [Obama]. Especially in a year when Republicans are polling slightly below food poisoning. (...) It would make me feel sorry for the guy, if he wasn't going to make a disastrous president."

"John McCain actually expresses ideas when he opens his mouth"

Alexander Stone Dale runs a blog called "Punk Rock Republican". He's worked as a taxi driver for twenty years and plays in a punk rock band in New York. His blog.

Senator John McCain doesn't have to prove anything to anybody. (...) True, he says "my friends" too much. Spend five goddamn years alone in the dark and you appreciate having friends. John McCain actually expresses ideas when he opens his mouth. His idea of replacing the United Nations with a League of Democracies is what ‘they' call a bold concrete new policy initiative. (...)

As long as Senator Barack Obama can pronounce the word Lexington then - Iran will not go nuclear. Hamas will stop shelling Israel. Hezbollah will stop expanding into South America. Russia will not use energy supplies to hold the entire European continent hostage. China will stop building the largest navy on earth. And America will become independent in its energy needs. Every time Senator Barack Obama opens his mouth he proves that ignorance will not be bliss and that talk will not be cheap."