What's his name of something or other makes point that Obama's great gift is that, even though his slight political history suggests he's pretty liberal, he actually sounds like a centrist when he speaks. This similar to what I've been saying, except I'm more accurate. Obama's secret is that he comes across as so pleasingly reasonable - this appeals to lefty activists because it makes them think he's an intellectual just like them; appeals to youth because they want to feel rather than think and he lets them believe that it really is a Facebook world, with everyone just so nice and clever and doing such fun stuff; and it appeals to independents because they're just so worn out with Bush worry - they want to be soothed.
Related - sort of I guess - I read they're trying to gussy up McCain's speechifying. I think this is a mistake: possibly not feasible to jettison speech making altogether, but he's never going to get good at it and any attempts to pretend otherwise just accentuate Obama's advantage here. Best to try and turn that advantage around: Obama revels in the grandiose speech - he sees himself in those terms - but is not so comfortable in the humbler settings McCain seems to excel at. If you're smart you can turn this disparity into a question of character and not just a simple matter of style, which is why I wouldn't try to emulate Obama in any way whatsoever - not that McCain is specifically trying to emulate Obama, but how can you turn his speech giving advantage on it's head if you're trying to get better at speech giving yourself? You have to go anti-speech.
Of course presidents have to give speeches - but - do candidates for president have to give speeches? Not so sure about that. Certainly, the way it looks right now, McCain's gonna have to change some parameters if he wants to beat this guy.
