It’s that time again, that special season that comes once every four years: presidential hopefuls are making their big announcements, sometimes to large booming crowds, others via commercial-style video. Some of our candidates are old hats at public speaking – so much so that they seem to bore even themselves with their rhetoric. The absolute control they exert over their speech can sometimes manifest into a near-robotic delivery. The method is stiff, the hair even stiffer. On the plus side, we can understand them completely, regardless of whether or not we believe their promises, since they don’t ramble or go off topic. On the negative, we’ve heard it all before.
At the opposite end of the spectrum are those candidates who lack control to such a degree that even they seem mildly surprised by what comes out of their mouths. In the audience, this can be perceived as extemporaneous, “real.” But in the playback and transcription, it may come off as deranged.
The content of these announcement speeches varies greatly, and ostensibly the goal is to set the tone for the entire campaign. What sorts of sweeping changes are planned, what inspiration have they to offer, what major life hurdles have the candidates overcome to get to this point? If we had to vote today, what and whom exactly would we be voting for?
Though Mayor Bill de Blasio has been waiting to hear Hillary Clinton’s “vision” before he endorses her, and said that the speech at her kickoff rally last weekend lacked some of those “details,” many attendees at early campaign events are looking for style over substance. And, to be fair, it’s hard to pack too many meaty platform highlights into what is meant to be a rousing, inspirational event.
The musical track alone at a rally can carry more weight than the candidate’s stance on campaign finance reform. As we saw at Donald Trump’s bizarre, overly lengthy announcement speech this week, Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World” — an anti-President George H.W. Bush song – may have rocked the crowd, but the song’s author, who supports Democratic Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders, was none too pleased…since the song was used without his permission. Also, and this may not be altogether meaningful (at least to Sanders’ supporters), Young is Canadian.
When Hillary Clinton announced for the Senate, someone left the Billy Joel Greatest Hits CD on a wee bit too long; “New York State of Mind” soon led to “Captain Jack.” The latter, while arguably a “good” song, is not one you expect to hear as patriotic banners wave proudly behind your pantsuit-clad First Lady of the United States senatorial candidate. There is speculation now about what her “official” 2016 Presidential campaign song will be. Again, style over substance. But everyone loves an anthem.
Of course, the inappropriate use of a song wasn’t the most egregious part of Trump’s speech, by a longshot. The bad-haired mogul droned on for 45 minutes and managed to insult a number of people in the specific as well as some, namely Mexicans, in general. He wants to build a wall on our southern border and make Mexicans pay for it? It may sound like a Saturday Night Live sketch, but so far, it appears to be 100% pure, grade A Trump.
As farcical as the speech may have been, it was certainly not the first bad one of the campaign season, and it won’t be the last. Death, taxes, and mediocre to horrible campaign speeches: all inevitabilities. But at least the soundtracks are getting better.
