This years election brought two very good speeches in my opinion. John McCain of course started the night with a very genuine and sincere speech. In comparison to Gore or Kerry, I thought his speech was far more genuine than either of theirs, gore especially. He didn't blame anyone but himself, he took plenty of time to congratulate Obama and didn't beat around the bush in any way when it came to fully backing him as the next president of the USA. He kept it rather short which I thought was an effective way to not make it seem like he was trying to steel the spotlight away from Obama. He was awarded his due time and I think he used the perfect amount. With respect to Obama, despite being a little put off by the massive crowd and unorthodox location, I thought his speech was also good. He payed his respects to John and his family also acknowledging president Bush and his kind phone call. Interesting considering he did nothing but bash bush for his whole campaign. It shows that his speech was based in large part, just like all other concession and victory speeches are, about healing the country and moving together as one. He discussed his plans for the future a little, but was careful not to make it a policy speech. He also used the catchy phrase, Yes we can, which I think caught on quite quickly among his supporters. My only complaint, maybe just a tad long.

Political Speech

I chose to watch John Kerry in his concession speech from the 2004 election and was astounded at how close the format was from that of Al Gores. The themes were the same: we must come together, bridge partisan divides, support President Bush, move forward as one country, ect. The one very obvious difference to me was the attitude behind the speech. Unlike Gore who seemed to be less than sincere at times, I felt that Kerry was very genuine. He even chocked up at one point when talking about all the Americans that he had met along the campaign trail over the last couple of months. Although he was disappointed I’m sure, I really felt as if he was talking from his heart rather than just reading what someone handed him. Despite this, I have seen Kerry appear on news shows quite a few times over the last few years and he always seems to make very unproductive clear jabs at republicans saying stuff like it is all there fault, ect, while proclaiming how correct democrats are. So although he might have been genuine, his record since the election shows just how much of a one-sided politician he is. So many politicians, especially in times of reflection such as this, talk about working together going forward, but with just a little bit of time, it is right back to one sided government. I am anxious to see if Obama will do the same.