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DUBLIN, Ohio -- As Barack Obama paces before 15,000 people with a hand-held microphone, it's easy to assume his 30-minute talk is more or less a free-associating string of talking points and applause lines.
In fact, it's a carefully organized four-part argument.
Obama delivers it without notes or changes from week to week. A campaign centerpiece for 19 months, the full-blown stump speech probably has done more than anything to rocket him to fame and to a lead over Republican John McCain in some national polls.
Obama has modified the speech over time, testing new lines and adapting to political events. The biggest change came when he finally secured the Democratic nomination and was able to sharpen his criticisms of McCain and drop his more cautious critiques of Hillary Rodham Clinton.
President Bush has been a central target from the start. And the stump speech's overall feel and organization have remained remarkably similar for at least a year. He nearly always includes several key lines, including "Now is our time, "If you will stand with me," and "We can change the world."
Obama has wowed audiences with speeches he reads from teleprompters, including his keynote address at the 2004 Democratic convention and his recent speech accepting the Democratic nomination before some 80,000 people in Denver and another 40 million TV viewers.
In many ways, the stump speech is more impressive. He delivers it from memory at large rallies, walking about the stage with his sleeves rolled up. With fairly modest shifts in volume and pace, he moves the audience to joyous chants one moment, hushed attention the next, and thunderous ovations -- and some tears -- with his call-to-arms conclusion, which he sometimes has to shout.
His recent half-hour talk at a high school football stadium in Dublin, Ohio, is a good example.
The speech starts with a brief biographical section. In this case, Obama devotes it to his new running mate, Sen. Joe Biden, rather than himself. He calls Biden "a man who's worked in Washington for decades, but who's never let Washington change him."
Obama then lays out the problem he sees for the nation. In 19 months of campaigning, he says, he has learned that Americans are generous and hardworking, but "they recognize that over the last eight years this country has gone tragically off course."
He talks about people losing their jobs, pensions, health care, savings and homes. Because "nobody was minding the store on Wall Street," he says, lenders "were giving out predatory loans, and deceptive mortgage practices were taking place all across the country."
Worst of all, he says, people are losing "the American promise," or the chance to give their children and grandchildren a better life. "That's what we're fighting for," he says. "And that's why I'm running for president of the United States of America."
Obama punctuates each word of the title, as he ends the second part of the speech to sustained applause.
The third section gets to the heart of his pitch. "John McCain has different ideas," it begins.
Americans owe McCain gratitude for his service, Obama says. "But we don't owe him our vote, because John McCain has a set of ideas that are identical to George Bush's."
At this point in Dublin, someone faints, which is not unusual in crowds that have waited for hours in the sun. Obama draws loud cheers by urging calm, directing paramedics to the spot, and tossing them a water bottle. Then he picks up where he left off.
"John McCain wants to do the exact same thing that George Bush did" on taxes, health care and college affordability, he says.
Republicans "call it the 'ownership society,' but it really means 'you're on your own,"' he says. "Your job gets shipped overseas? Tough luck, you're on your own. ... Going into poverty? You're on your own, pick yourself up by your boot straps, even if you don't have boots."
Obama outlines his plans for middle-class tax cuts, health insurance subsidies, alternative energy investments and other proposals.
His discussion of foreign policy is shorter, starting with, "I will end this war in Iraq."
Obama starts the final section by saying the campaign "will not be easy."
Republicans, he says, "are going to try to scare you. They're going to say, 'Well, Obama, he's got a funny name, and well, he hasn't been in Washington long enough."'
"But I don't think it's going to work this time," he says. "I think Republicans, Democrats and independents, they don't want to just take a 10 percent chance on change that John McCain is offering, because he agrees with George Bush 90 percent of the time."
Then comes the big windup. "If you will stand up with me," Obama begins, and thousands of listeners rise to their feet.
"If you will knock on doors with me and make phone calls with me." The people are cheering loudly now, clapping and waving signs. "If you'll talk to your neighbors and your friends with me, if you'll believe with me." Now they are screaming and jumping, and the place is in an uproar. "Then I promise you this: We will not just win Ohio, we will win this general election, and you, and I, and Joe Biden, we will change this country and change the world."
Obama can barely be heard as he says, "Thank you. God bless you and God bless America." |
