The Three Reasons Why Obama’s State of the Union Addresses Were So Extraordinary
Regarded as one of the best speakers of our time, President Barack Obama shined during his annual State of the Union addresses. As we near the 2020 State of the Union, scheduled to be given by a President with a very different speaking style, let’s reflect on how President Obama’s oratory made him such a visionary leader.
First, let’s dispel the notion that the ability to inspire an audience - whether it’s a board room or an address to the entire nation - is somehow magical or innate. It’s strategy and skill, patience and practice, tools and techniques. You may not be Barack Obama, but we can all learn from his style. Here are three things President Obama does that make him stand out as a world-class orator - things which you can emulate with just a bit of practice.
President Barack Obama, 2016 State of the Union Address
1) Rhetoric
Obama’s speeches employ masterful use of rhetorical tools. Metaphor, repetition, parallel constructions - there’s no doubt his speeches aren’t just well-delivered, but they’re well-written. Obama makes use of a particular kind of repetition. By itself, simply repeating a phrase can sound boring and inartful. Obama soars, however, with the use of anaphora. Anaphora is when you repeat a particular word or phrase, usually at the beginning of a sentence, over the next few sentences to tie them together.
Here’s Obama from his 2012 SOTU:
[Transcript] “But I will not back down from making sure an oil company can contain the kind of oil spill we saw in the Gulf two years ago. I will not back down from protecting our kids from mercury poisoning, or making sure that our food is safe and our water is clean. I will not go back to the days when health insurance companies had unchecked power to cancel your policy, deny your coverage, or charge women differently than men. And I will not go back to the days when Wall Street was allowed to play by its own set of rules.”
This is one of Obama’s relatively simpler uses of the tool. The really powerful thing about the way that Obama uses this is that he can take longer, more compounded sentence constructions, and make them accessible to the listener. The use of this kind of repetition helps it stick in our minds.
Obama’s frequent use of the tool harkens back to another once-in-a-generational speaker.
“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
Who knew this even had a name? Anaphora! It’s easy to use, and a great way to level up your speech.
2. Gestures
Body language is a critical component of communication, especially in politics and advocacy. Our job is to inspire or persuade people. Studies have repeatedly shown that your body language can betray your spoken words, and that when they do, people believe your body, not your words.
But gestures at the State of the Union? Yes. Even here, how you move your body matters. Typically, the body language of a president giving this address is reserved, and for the most part Obama keeps his hands folded in front of him. This makes the gestures he does make, when he makes them, stand out even more.
In an article published in the Observer after Obama’s 2013 address, Linguist Geoff Nunberg talks about how Obama’s body has a certain cadence to it.
“He turns to the right to make his first point with a rise, then he turns to his left with a fall to close.”
Nunberg said these engaging cadences are similar to those of Dr. King.
Though the movement helps hold the audience’s attention, too much movement, Nunberg said, can convey a lack of control. Obama, he said, has been able to balance the extremes like Kennedy.
When Obama is speaking, Nunberg said, his arms move, but his body orientation does not change. Also, he doesn’t let his arms get too far away from his body and he keeps his hands closed, instead of open. “He’s very cool in a sense that Kennedy was cool,” Nunberg said. “His gesture and his posture are controlled.”
Gestures and body language are particularly important for women and people of color addressing predominantly white audiences. In addition to the challenges of such an important address, implicit biases ingrained into all of us by society around us throw up additional challenges to the speaker.
One of the reasons why Obama is so extraordinary is his appeal to all audiences, including those unaccustomed to seeing black leadership as part of their everyday lives. Of course, there’s plenty of criticism for his approach (too “professorial”) and plenty of people who will always cling to their biases (too angry) no matter what he does. But when he wants to, President Obama has been able to emote better than most presidents. He does so not by just his words, but with his face. Here’s an analysis from body language expert Tonya Reiman from the Center on Non-verbal Communication on Obama’s 2013 SOTU, published in the Washington Post,
“His eyes flashed anger when he spoke of guns and the children of Newtown. The tightness of his jaw registered frustration when he spoke of AIDS. His eyes widened, a sign of intensity, when talking about people learning English. His eyes blinked faster as he spoke of terrorism, a sign he was touching a raw nerve. And he smirked, one side of his mouth drawing up as he spoke of CEO salaries never being higher as wages for the poor and middle income have remained stagnant.”
A picture is worth a thousand words, and Obama, master wordsmith, knows this. He doesn’t shout or scream or hurl invective, but you understand the emotional weight of a speech when he wants you to.
3. Structure
I reference Martin Luther King, Jr quite a bit in referring to Obama, despite the fact they are very different speakers in terms of style and vocal control. We remember King as passionate, and see Obama as cool and collected. Nonetheless, they share common traits in their speeches. It’s not just rhetorical tools, like Anaphora, that Obama emulates. Obama borrows overall structure as well.
As I wrote about in my previous piece on Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” address, a good inspirational speech must be aspirational. It must talk about the world we ought to have, and in order to do so effectively, it must acknowledge the darker realities of the world as it is today, and acknowledge the distance and tension between the two. It can even cycle through this tension repeatedly. Sure enough, Obama’s speeches start with challenges ahead of us, and move into the solutions to get through them. First some darkness, then a reminder of light -- and how, together, we can get there; Here’s how. Take a look:
2010 SOTU:
“It's tempting to look back on these moments and assume that our progress was inevitable -– that America was always destined to succeed. But when the Union was turned back at Bull Run, and the Allies first landed at Omaha Beach, victory was very much in doubt. When the market crashed on Black Tuesday, and civil rights marchers were beaten on Bloody Sunday, the future was anything but certain. These were the times that tested the courage of our convictions, and the strength of our union.”
Then..
“And despite all our divisions and disagreements, our hesitations and our fears, America prevailed because we chose to move forward as one nation, as one people.
Again, we are tested. And again, we must answer history's call.”
2012 SOTU:
“Let’s remember how we got here. Long before the recession, jobs and manufacturing began leaving our shores. Technology made businesses more efficient, but also made some jobs obsolete. Folks at the top saw their incomes rise like never before, but most hardworking Americans struggled with costs that were growing, paychecks that weren’t, and personal debt that kept piling up.
In 2008, the house of cards collapsed. We learned that mortgages had been sold to people who couldn’t afford or understand them. Banks had made huge bets and bonuses with other people’s money. Regulators had looked the other way, or didn’t have the authority to stop the bad behavior.
It was wrong. It was irresponsible. And it plunged our economy into a crisis that put millions out of work, saddled us with more debt, and left innocent, hard-working Americans holding the bag. In the six months before I took office, we lost nearly four million jobs. And we lost another four million before our policies were in full effect.”
And then…
“Those are the facts. But so are these. In the last 22 months, businesses have created more than three million jobs. Last year, they created the most jobs since 2005. American manufacturers are hiring again, creating jobs for the first time since the late 1990s. Together, we’ve agreed to cut the deficit by more than $2 trillion. And we’ve put in place new rules to hold Wall Street accountable, so a crisis like that never happens again.
The state of our Union is getting stronger. And we’ve come too far to turn back now. As long as I’m President, I will work with anyone in this chamber to build on this momentum. But I intend to fight obstruction with action, and I will oppose any effort to return to the very same policies that brought on this economic crisis in the first place.”
2016 SOTU:
“America has been through big changes before – wars and depression, the influx of immigrants, workers fighting for a fair deal, and movements to expand civil rights. Each time, there have been those who told us to fear the future; who claimed we could slam the brakes on change, promising to restore past glory if we just got some group or idea that was threatening America under control.”
And then..
“And each time, we overcame those fears. We did not, in the words of Lincoln, adhere to the "dogmas of the quiet past." Instead we thought anew, and acted anew. We made change work for us, always extending America's promise outward, to the next frontier, to more and more people. And because we did – because we saw opportunity where others saw only peril – we emerged stronger and better than before.
What was true then can be true now. Our unique strengths as a nation – our optimism and work ethic, our spirit of discovery and innovation, our diversity and commitment to the rule of law – these things give us everything we need to ensure prosperity and security for generations to come.”
President Obama does this repeatedly. He sets up a problem - but follows it up with the path forward. For those who are expected to lead, it’s important to project the ability to solve problems, and in order to do that, one can’t just paper over the problems themselves. Instead they’re used as a starting point to a greater aspiration. In politics, this means it’s just not enough to list of policy positions - we have to discuss the conditions which require solutions first. It’s surprising how few political leaders grasp this concept.
These three easy steps will turn you into a Barack Obama level speaker.
Just kidding. But it is true that inspirational speaking is a matter of skill and practice. The above techniques are just a few of the things that make President Obama such an incredible orator - but that’s all they are, techniques which you or any speaker can adopt to level up your public presence.