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One of the main roles of a national leader is to appear as a public speaker. A speech, news conference or interview by a president can move the world. The choice of words, the intended outcome of those words, the manner in which they are spoken and the way in which a president presents himself carry many times more weight than one can imagine. The perceptions one receives from seeing and hearing a president speak and the emotional impact one takes away have a serious impact on listeners and the pundits who try to interpret the president. As a public speaker myself, albeit one that has far, far less influence than a political leader, I am very sensitive to how a president and how presidential candidates present themselves. As a public speaker, I also know the kind of preparation that goes into creating the phrases, the thought flow and the structure of a message, whether that is a brief sound bite or a major speech.

And so I may place more emphasis on the public speaking abilities of a candidate than others might. I do not only look at the style and delivery, but also the substance and the sub text. I am not purely looking for good diction, good audience relations or good use of metaphor and analogy. I am also looking at the underlying principles as they show themselves, the ability to clearly form and deliver ideas, the examination of those ideas and the discussion of implementation of those ideas.

I also look at a presidential candidate as a public speaker in terms of pragmatic politics. The president is our nation’s main spokesman, the face and voice that the world associates with the United States. The president is our leader, our figure head, our representative to the whole nation and the whole world. So it is that policies and initiatives may not be as important as how they are discussed, how they are presented and how they are framed to the listener.

One could easily say that the president is our nation’s lead sales person, selling us on national policies, international relations and future directions. Would you rather buy from someone who carries himself well and speaks well and knows how to sell, or someone who is a lousy salesman? We have all had experience with good sales people and lousy sales people and you know exactly what I mean without needing any explanation. The president is selling items of huge value, of huge expense and of huge importance. Your well being and mine, as well as the well being of our children, their children and their children’s children depend not only on what the president sells us, but also the manner in which we are sold.

The machine that runs our country is so large and so intricate, that one cannot believe that a president can ever get his arms around day to day operations. However, the influence and power of the choices a president makes in his focus, in his priorities and in his manner of public speaking are tremendous.

I could go on in some length examining past presidents as public speakers and the impact of their styles on how we were sold a long list of government actions. I could examine each president as a spokesman for our country and discuss how they were perceived. In deed, our standing in the world, our safety and our livelihoods often hinged upon the impact of a single speech, news conference or state of the union address. But instead, let’s talk about the US presidential election of 2008.

It is not unusual to find that a public speaker could come from any range of political persuasion. So I don’t think being a public speaker has any influence on how one might vote. The mere fact that I am a public speaker should in no way cause you to think I might lean one way or the other.

As a business leader, I do have a certain perspective on the world. I do see the president as the CEO of USA, Inc, with the congress acting as the boards of directors, the Supreme Court acting as the legal department and every American citizen as a share holder. If you subscribe to this interpretation of the president’s role, then it is essential to have a president who is a good public speaker. CEOs that cannot move, inspire and direct with well chosen words and well presented ideas tend to run their companies out of business. Our country is at a point in history when our brand is in trouble. Our customer satisfaction ratings are low. Our internal and external customers are loosing faith in our ability to deliver on our promises. In fact our ability to even come up with viable strategies for identifying our shortfalls and implementing swift actions to get past them and turn things around is in serious doubt.

In times like these it is even more important to have a presidential leader who can craft a good speech and deliver it well. There are many topics that need discussion. There are many fundamental issues that need good direction. Each and ever one of us American citizens need a leader who can talk us through these challenging times, who can give us the confidence that someone at the top can see what is going on and can come up with realistic strategies for making things better quickly. We need to see someone standing out in front who can present the future to us in a way that will help us invent a positive, prosperous, bright future.

There are so many aspects of our world that are in transition, or that seem to need transitioning. Our nation has worked through many times of transition before. Sometimes we have fallen short of the challenge and we suffered for it. Sometimes we rose to the occasion and used our collective talents and enthusiasm to create very positive outcomes that the nay sayers told us we couldn’t create.

I realize the conventional wisdom is that a Republican is better for business and that if businesses do well, the country does well. I agree that when businesses do well, the country does well. But in these times I am not sure about the rest of that statement. If you asked me if the Republicans deserve to continue to hold the presidency because of their recent past performance, that would raise a whole other set of talking points far beyond my idea of viewing the president as public speaker number one for our nation. If you asked me if the Democrats deserved a turn in the White House, this too would raise all sorts of questions of recent past performance.

The Libertarians and the Greens are sentimental favorites, just because they try very hard to get their ideas into the public discussion and don’t know the meaning of the word “quit”. Rooting for either of them is like rooting for your local high school baseball team to win the World Series. However, the fact that the Supreme Court recently struck down a hand gun ban and the fact that the whole nation is talking about going Green would tell me that these two groups have been successful in not quitting. So maybe at least someone on your high school team might make the big leagues, even if the whole team won’t ever get there.

I like John McCain. I always respected his willingness to follow his own conscience. I admired him for turning some very difficult personal events into fuel for a successful career. I beat cancer too, so he and I are in the “we beat cancer club” together. I like that. Had he won the Republican nomination in 2000, I may very well have voted for him. But that was then and this is now. When I see Barrack Obama speak, he looks like a president and he sounds like a president. He thinks the way you would want a president to think. He handles himself well at the podium. He displays a good mix of humor, enthusiasm and seriousness. He crafts his speeches so they appeal to your logical side and your emotional side. When he speaks, he looks like a leader and talks like a leader and walks like a leader. What is the old saying? I believe it goes something like this: “If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it is not a halibut.”

Yes, I realize he lacks some experience. To his advantage he lacks experience in circumventing the constitution and the rule of law by setting up secret and illegal prisons and interrogation centers, instituting illegal wiretaps on American citizens and starting ill conceived and horribly managed wars on countries that posed no immediate threat to us. He lacks experience in draining the treasury dry to fund an illegal and immoral war. He lacks experience in allowing speculators and our oil suppliers to cripple our nation with a run up of oil prices that has nothing to do with supply and demand issues. He lacks experience in ignoring global environmental threats of immediate and massive proportions. So maybe it is a good thing he lacks some experience.

Barrack Obama has proven his leadership skills by creating a campaign that appeared to have come out of nowhere and appears to be placing him in real contention for November. Look at all the other candidates from all political circles that were not able to lead a successful campaign. They were all intelligent and capable people with at least a few good ideas. But it was Obama that had the leadership skill and the speaking skill to pull out in front and to keep going. We need a leader who can pull us out in front against all odds and keep us moving forward. If I am to choose between McCain and Obama for the person who would represent our nation as public speaker number one, I choose Obama.