Columnist HUGH SELBY writes in awe of a spellbinding speech by former US president Barack Obama at the Democratic Party’s National Convention in Chicago this week. “We should watch it… to see how poorly we are served by the speeches of our current political leaders.”

Why this topic? Obama spoke. Obama declaimed. Obama inspired – the crowd went wild at this week’s Democratic Party National Convention in Chicago. 

Whether or not one agrees with his views, whether or not one judges his presidency a success or less, no one can deny that he is a great orator. It is not just a matter of being in awe of his public speaking skills. It is more than that: it is spellbinding.

Students of American politics will watch it in the years to come. We should watch it now, not only to see how poorly we are served by the speeches of our current political leaders, but to see and hear how a speech by a politician can carry credibility, keep our interest for more than 30 minutes, unite us and inspire.

Catch it, all 35 minutes, here. Meantime, being time poor, before you read any further click here to catch the late, great Freddie Mercury with his Queen colleagues singing Radio GaGa at the 1985 Live Aid concert. This is a daytime concert so it broadcasts the sight and sound of his interaction with the crowd. For this article Freddie and the London crowd are an appropriate stand in for Barack and the Chicago crowd.

Both Barack and Freddie interact with their audience in a symbiotic way: the energy in the atmosphere surrounding the crowd and the performer grows over the duration of the performance. 

Obama’s magic

Our CityNews articles tell our readers what the article is about, and include headings that mark stops and changes of direction along the way.

Timeless speeches don’t need those guiding elements because the audience, be it for Abraham Lincoln in his Gettysburg address – “a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal”; Winston Churchill on fighting for survival – “we will fight them on the beaches”; John F Kennedy at his inauguration – “think what you can do” or Gough Whitlam responding to his dismissal “for nothing will save the governor-general”, know the challenge and the circumstances and do not need to be reminded.

So it was too on that August day, in the summer of ’63, at the Lincoln memorial when Martin Luther King spoke to the crowd of his “I have a dream”.

That was the legacy that Obama, as an orator, inherited. That is his starting point.

This week in Chicago the crowd knew there were some topics that had to be handled at the start. Obama had to open by thanking and praising Biden “thanks for the memories”, not just for Biden’s term as president, but for the eight-year collaboration they shared and their enduring friendship. Teamwork matters. 

This was followed by the baton passing, endorsing the new team and their backgrounds, which he then tellingly contrasted with that of the “born-to-money” Republican candidate and his fellow travellers.

Those people, he said, stood for themselves, “more for us and less for you”, not for Americans striving to succeed. He shared the backgrounds of hometown, traditional values and the struggles and success faced by Harris and Walz and their families. 

An Obama speech is custom made. It is not “off the shelf”. He seamlessly picks up issues of interest to voters (for example, housing, jobs, healthcare, reproductive rights, personal safety, immigrants) and weaves a compelling narrative as to why the Democrat Harris-Walz team (unlike the opponents) can and will pursue those issues to benefit all.

Obama, whether by innate skill, hard work, or both has the voice, and the gravitas that compels attention to what he says. Besides those attributes he also has a sense of timing that no one betters.

He can wait out the cheers, tell engaging self-deprecating jokes, join the dots on the importance to his career of his wife Michelle’s mother and his grandmother (different skin tones, different generations), and reach out to Republicans asking them to reflect on for whom they are voting – all in a few moments.

‘We unite, share and heal’

He mixes the serious with moments of lightness to allow the audience to relax and catch its breath.

Obama entertainingly captured one of the Republican candidate’s narcissistic foibles, by putting his hands just some inches (sic) apart as he commented about that candidate’s “weird obsession with crowd sizes”. The crowd roared.

But the underlying and serious message in the speech was clear and repeated: “Our opponents divide. We unite, share and heal”.

He captured the hearts and minds of his audience with a tangible, feasible vision of what can be “our future, for all of us”.

He spoke to people everywhere with that repeated message of let’s be inclusive, not divisive (unlike populist ranters, past and present). He reminded everyone of the need for grace between us, whatever our views. He ended with a note of shared destiny for all Americans.

He joined fingers of hope and fashioned them into hands that reach out beyond the convention to all those who might vote this November.

Obama’s speech is like music that stays in your head, that you want to listen to again. It’s like dance that has you flying in your dreams. It’s like live theatre or the best of film where there are magic moments that keep coming back to front of mind. His words soar and souls fly with them.

Former barrister Hugh Selby is the CityNews legal columnist. His free podcasts on “Witness Essentials” and “Advocacy in court: preparation and performance” can be heard on the best known podcast sites.