Given the right moment and motivation, a mediocre communicator can also rise to greatness, as did President George W. Bush on Sept. 20, 2001. Likewise, heralded orators can sometimes cross the line into demagoguery, as FDR did in his 1933 inaugural address. I hope Bush’s speech will be replayed on next year’s tenth commemoration of 9/11, and remind us of how good he could be. Roosevelt’s speech is also pertinent today, something to show to Obama voters just now learning about the grave dangers of over-reaching.
C-SPAN’s JFK videos illustrate how a political leader must grow quickly. Shortly after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in April 1961, the Kennedy presidency hit its nadir with a temporizing speech and an uncharacteristically evasive press conference. On October 22, 1962, he returned to the airwaves and forcefully announced a naval blockade to force Soviet missiles out of Cuba.
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