![]() ![]() In 1948, Hubert Humphrey stepped into the national spotlight with an impassioned platform speech on civil rights. Roosevelt enhanced his ambitions with his rousing speeches nominating Alfred E. Though getting picked to give a major speech at a national political convention offers up-and-coming politicians a glorious launching pad, it's an opportunity with a mixed history of payoffs. "His public image changed because of that speech." Valerie Jarrett, a veteran Chicago politico and one of Obama's longtime friends, puts it more succinctly: "It changed his life." But once he got going, the speech-and his career-took off: "Without that Boston speech, there's a question whether Barack would be running today," says his fellow senator from Illinois, Dick Durbin. And even after all the preparation, the editing and vetting by aides to Obama and Kerry, and the three run-throughs at the convention, the speech almost didn't take flight-on the dais, Obama was slow to hit his stride. He is said to have been furious when one of his best remarks was cut by Kerry's speechwriters. Obama labored over it for weeks, harvesting lines that he had already tested on Illinois crowds. Obama's selection as keynote speaker was carefully plotted by all sides for maximum effect, and the speech itself was no outpouring of inspiration scribbled on the back of an envelope. After the speech, observers from across the political world hailed the address as an instant classic, and Obama was drawing comparisons (deservedly or not) to Martin Luther King Jr. Senate race, he would enter that powerful body ranked 99th out of 100 in seniority. Before the speech, the idea of Obama running for president in 2008 would have been laughable he was a lowly state senator from Chicago's Hyde Park, and while he stood a good chance at winning his U.S. The 2,297 words uttered over 17 minutes changed Obama's profile overnight and made him a household name. The keynote speech that Barack Obama delivered on Tuesday, July 27, 2004, galvanized the delegates who packed Boston's FleetCenter and electrified a nationwide television audience. "His public image changed because of that speech," says Illinois senator Dick Durbin. "One thing that he was very clear about telling us," says Gibbs, "-and I think it was largely out of that experience of the weekly radio address-was he wanted to write this speech and write it in a way that was personal."Ī star is born:Obama soaks up the cheers moments after finishing his keynote address. ![]() So it was not exactly a surprise when, one week later-after John Kerry's campaign manager, Mary Beth Cahill, called Obama and told him that he had been picked to deliver the Democratic National Convention's keynote address-Obama gave his aides a firm directive: he would write the speech himself. "It was kind of obvious that he was recording the words of somebody else." "It was good, but it was nothing awe inspiring," recalls Gibbs. And the radio waves showcased Obama's trademark baritone-deep in pitch, authoritative and reassuring in tone.īut Obama thought the address came off flat. The eloquent and well-argued talk hit all the right Democratic buttons. In his remarks-written entirely by his longtime media adviser, David Axelrod, and by his chief press aide, Robert Gibbs-Obama criticized Bush on a litany of economic issues, from rising health-care costs and unfair tax policies to job outsourcing. The speech offered the new Democratic Senate candidate from Illinois one of his first big moments on the national stage. On Saturday, June 26, 2004, Barack Obama sat in a recording studio in Chicago to give his party's response to President Bush's weekly radio address. ![]()
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