Ep 21 State of The Union Public Speaking Issues

What is the State of the State of the Union speech?

Speaking. The show about effective speaking in public to the media, at work and in life. Speaking with TJ Walker.

Folks, it's that time of the year when politicians at every level are giving their state of speech. President of the United States gives the State of the Union address. Governors, State of the State Mayors, State of the city. And this goes on all over the world as well. I want to address some conventional wisdom about State of the Union and state of speeches and really show where I disagree. Here's the conventional wisdom that they're too boring, too long, no one listens to them, they're kind of outdated relics. We should just go back to the days when presidents just sent over a written document. And not only that, but if you are a politician giving a rebuttal. So at the presidential level, whichever party is in the White House, the member of the opposing party gets to give a rebuttal. So if there's a Democrat like Barack Obama in the White House, then a Republican like Governor Nikki Haley gets to give the rebuttal speech as happened in 2016. Conventional wisdom there that this is a thankless job and everyone who does it is somehow harmed. I think that is bad conventional wisdom too. So let's address these one by one. But first, a little housekeeping business.

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So the first bit of conventional wisdom is that most State of the Union addresses are much too long. I don't care if you're Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, who it is, the pundits, the news media will often trot out people like me. And I've been asked to give commentary on numerous State of the Union addresses. But the conventional wisdom with so many is, oh, the speech is too long. It's too much of a laundry list. It went on and on and on and on. So in general, State of the Union addresses get very poor marks by pundits, so called speech experts and other professional commentators. And I think that's because they are erroneously confusing this with a campaign speech or an inaugural address. It's a different beast. It has different goals, different functions. The the one thing I've noticed with almost any president is that the public opinion of the speech is always higher than that of the pundit class. And this is not an ideological thing. It's not that the liberal media is out to get the Republicans. It cuts both ways. The public tends to be much more favorable in its viewpoint towards a State of the Union address or State of the State or State of the City address than pundits. Because for many citizens, and I think I can speak broadly around the world now, day to day, they are not focused on the ins and outs of government and how it affects them the way full time journalists and pundits are. So this is a chance once a year for them to kind of play catch up, to try to learn what's going on. So they actually like having a politician spell out in vivid detail, here's what we've done in the last year, here's what's working, here's what we want to do. People like hearing it directly from the horse's mouth. If they voted for that, even if they didn't vote for that person. There's something about democracy, and I guess some monarchies might do this too. The leader is giving in a speech like this, but there's something about hearing directly in an unfiltered way from the person who often makes decisions affecting your life. So that's part of it. Now, another common criticism of state of speeches, and even though that sounds awkward, for the rest of this show, I'm going to refer to them as state of speeches. Another common criticism is, oh, it's just empty rhetoric. It doesn't really mean that much. Not so, because the very same interest groups, lobbyists, insiders within an administration who have the most influence, they're influencing that politician to say what they want on that policy. They also happen to be the people who are putting pressure on that policy on a day to day basis. So that's why, for the most part, it's really not empty rhetoric. It's also why, again, conventional wisdom in campaign speeches where politicians make promises, the conventional wisdom is that doesn't mean that's not actually true. There's an amazingly high percentage of promises that politicians of all parties keep. Again, because the same interest groups, the same people with money, the same special interest who want a particular position taken in a speech are also the ones who are affecting hiring decisions and ultimate policies once that politician is in office. So listening to someone give a State of the Union, State of the State, State of the City address, I believe is if you strip away generic cynicism, it's actually a great way of figuring out what the priorities are for this particular politician, what's likely to happen. It's a lot more likely to give you guidance than just sitting around and talking to a bunch of pundits and folks. I don't mean to trash pundits all the time. I have put the pundit hat on my head many, many times over the last three decades. But when you just listen to pundits, quite often they are too quick to just talk about hypocrisy, scandal, inconsistency, and those things need to be talked about. Psalm 2. But governments actually do allocate resources. They actually do make decisions. They actually do have policies that affect people. And quite often that's more important than if someone was hypocritical or on something or if they gave a brother in law a contract. They shouldn't have to, not to minimize those things. But actual stated policies and positions often have a much bigger impact on citizens. And that's why these state of speeches are so important. Now, as a politician, it is important because you're virtually guaranteed of getting news coverage. As politicians, you're competing with plane crashes and professional wrestlers for attention from the media. So once a year, if you can give a state of speech, you're virtually guaranteed to get news coverage. And that means you're going to get citizens to actually pay attention. That means you have at least a chance of mobilizing public opinion on your side for an issue which can help you if you're dealing with a legislator or legislature or city council or some other state assembly. And you need support from them to back a policy because those people want support from their citizens. So it is a fantastic opportunity to get more public support for your particular positions. And that's why I think as a, as a politician, it's a great, great opportunity and it should be practiced, it should be rehearsed, every aspect of it should go just right. Because it's not a surprise. It's not like a shooting or a disaster or a challenger accident. You've got an hour before you're giving an address to the citizens. You've got a year to prepare for this speech. So everything from the substance to the style should be just right.

Body language.

Part of the beauty of these state of presentations, talks, speeches, is that there is the pageantry. There is often the politician is walking into the chamber, whether it's the United States Congress, whether it is the State House, the legislative body, whether it's the city council chamber. But the politician is frankly given a lot of respect. He normally doesn't get. He's treated like a real big shot. Even people who are normally cursing him and disparaging him have to, at least with gritted teeth, clap as the person enters, smile and act deferential. So it is a moment where the politician can look his or her best and can look whether it's presidential or gubernatorial or mayoral, whatever office you're in. And so there's great theater to this. That's why if you ever watch one of the US Presidential State of the Union addresses, you'll see the President is in no hurry to start. They're announced with great fanfare. They walk in slowly. There's the standing ovation. The President is shaking hands, smiling, winking, giving a little hug, giving, receiving kisses. They look like they are on top of the world. This is smart because it's sending a message to the audience that, hey, this person is really important. This person is respected. This person has power. Now, if you are a small town city mayor, I understand you might not get that much attention, but still, whatever it is you do, I believe it needs to be done with purpose. Now, the President of the United States is going to use a teleprompter for that and have a backup of a written speech. Some governors do that, some don't. Most mayors don't. But some do. Regardless. This is an opportunity to have a more structured speech, to go into more detail on policies, to talk about much more detail of your positions. Here's why this is important for many reasons. It's because people are studying this speech. They're not just watching your body language. Oftentimes the entire speech is printed. National papers, state papers, local papers, people are studying it. It's used as a reference point by the bureaucrats. And I don't mean that in a disparaging way. The people who work in government will often use this as a signal to figure out what should they be doing, where should they go. It helps reinforce it. So the substance is important, but the body language is important. Not just as you walk in, but when you deliver the speech. This is perhaps, with very few exceptions, the largest audience of the year paying attention to your speech as an elected official. So it certainly warrants rehearsing on video. And I know you've heard me say this before, but if you're a politician, you may say, well, T.J. i give 10 speeches a day. I can't rehearse. But you only give one state of speech per year. So that really is one that you should and can rehearse. Because much greater attention, much greater focus, a lot more eyeballs, and it's just a much better opportunity to leave a lasting impression. Now, it's not necessarily always the dominant speech that defines your career. Certainly if you're a President of the United States, there are certain campaign speeches, inaugural addresses that are likely to get more attention. But it's still a pretty big deal. And that's why I believe politicians of all stripes should pay even more attention to it should rehearse it. Certainly the greats like Ronald Reagan would rehearse on video and spend often a full day rehearsing. And this is after tweaking the speech for a long while, for weeks. So give it serious attention. Now let's switch gears to the second banana in just a moment. But first, let's not forget your questions are always welcome here. I do want to hear from you.

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Currently, there is conventional wisdom within Washington, D.C. pundits that giving the rebuttal speech to the President's State of the Union is a thankless job. I've seen recent criticism saying there's no way you can succeed because you're not surrounded by all these cheering, adoring people. It doesn't look as presidential. There's no audience to play off of. You don't really know what to say, so you can't truly rebut. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They also point out a number of people who've done this job have gotten trashed in their speaking skills and it's been a part of why their career was destroyed. Bobby Jindal was famously the former governor of Louisiana was famously ridiculed and mocked for a number of years ago his rebuttal to an Obama State of the Union address. And he was criticized for looking and sounding like Kenneth, the sad sack character from a sitcom 30 Rock. Also, Senator Marco Rubio did it a few years ago and famously was criticized. For those of you listening on the podcast, I stretched awkwardly and took a drink of water. That's what people will remember. And Michelle Bachmann once gave a Tea Party response to State the Union address and she didn't look at the camera. She appeared to be staring off into space. So that was yet another nail in the coffin of her reputation. But it didn't destroy Marco Rubio's career. He went on to become a leading presidential candidate at the time of this recording. Here's the thing. With any presentation you give, there's a chance you can fail to meet expectations and harm yourself, as was the case with Bobby Jindal, Marco Rubio at the time, there's a chance you can exactly meet expectations, no better or worse than anyone thought, and I guess help yourself a little. But there's always the chance you can dramatically exceed expectations. How do you do that? It's not because there's a big cheering audience and you're in this big, wonderful stately room. It's because you say things that are interesting and useful to people in a compelling way, with passion. If you do that, you will help your career as a politician. If your message sounds trite, cant, phony, unoriginal, and you have no passion for it, you're going to hurt your reputation. It really is as simple as that. So if I were advising any politician who's given the option giving a State of the Union rebuttal, I would say, yes, take it. Sure, there are risks, but there are a lot of other risks. As a politician, the biggest risk of all is obscurity. People not knowing anything about you, not knowing where you stand. If you're a senator, remaining one of a hundred, if you're a governor being one of 50, if you want to advance in national leadership or leadership at the state level or the city level, then you need to take every opportunity you can. Now, most states and cities don't have the rebuttal from the person of the opposite party, but certainly at the national level it has become institutionalized. My advice to any politician, Take it. Because most politicians who do go on to become their party's nominee or assume a senior position of responsibility, a future speaker of the House, Majority Leader of the Senate, at some point they have done a rebuttal. And it does give millions and millions of people an opportunity to really listen to you. And if you're a political figure, you have to create, whether you have a huge ego or not. You are in the business of trying to convince voters to your vision of a society and a public policy. So I think it's frankly irresponsible to turn down an opportunity for a speech like this or any other speech. I'm T.J. walker. May all of your presentation opportunities in life be a huge success.

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