News Analysis Democratic National Convention Speech Preview Bonus

So what are we likely to see at this week's Democratic National Convention? Last week was the Republican convention, culminating with Donald Trump's address to the nation, the last night of the convention. This week, it's the Democrats turn in Philadelphia. What are we likely to see now? If you're not a big fan of political speeches or conventions these days, you can easily tune out and watch whatever you want on a different channel. But for those of you who like politics and like or feel like you at least, should be watching political speeches, I wanted to give a brief preview. The challenge for Hillary Clinton is a little different than the nominees of most parties, in that she's been around so long. People have a very, very firm sense of who she is, what they like, what they don't like. It's not like, for example, Barack Obama in 2008, when he was still a relatively fresh face. He'd only been on the national scene for four years. Hillary Clinton has been on the national stage for a quarter of a century, ever since her husband announced his bid for the presidency in late 1991. She has been working in political circles, media circles, Washington, D.C. power circles, since the early 70s. So she's a known, known fixture. How does someone like this use a political convention for political benefit? What I'm anticipating is that in speech after speech, and especially in Hillary's speech, she's going to focus on specific plans for the future, specific policies. Many political analysts and politicians do believe the old adage that politics is about the future, campaigns are about the future. If you can paint a rosier picture of the future, of what you will do for voters than your opponent, you will, in fact, win. Now, a lot has been made of worldwide political trends this year, of insider versus outsider. Insiders are getting kicked out. Whether it's the Brexit vote, whether it's other democracies throughout Europe, Australia, etc. The outsider seems to do well. Donald Trump has certainly positioned himself as an outsider, having never held public office. So conventional wisdom is that he'll capitalize on that. We will see if Hillary and her supporters try to counter that narrative. One way, of course, may be to paint Trump as the ultimate insider, someone who has benefited from the system by paying off and giving campaign contributions to Hillary, among others, and political figures in all offices, at local, state, national office of all parties. So I do anticipate that the Democrats are going to try to paint Trump as the ultimate insider who is dealing against the interest of common people, and that Hillary has spent a lifetime of trying to fight that Part of the challenge is how do you take an old message and make it interesting? Part of it will be by celebrities, people who are seen as highly credible and interesting in their own right. One thing I do think you're going to hear more of than last week is just the use of personal story as a speech technique. Donald Trump's speech, the Trump of his the speech of his wife and some of his children was remarkable in that it just didn't reveal many personal stories about Trump the man. And you don't have to do that. But in all my experience as a public speaking expert, stories are what will connect with an audience the fastest and will resonate with audiences. I do anticipate that in Hillary Clinton's speech and in the speeches of all the people there who are vouching for, they are going to use many, many anecdotes, personal experiences and retelling stories of meetings, events, things they've done with Hillary Clinton throughout her long career. Of course you are going to see strong, forceful attacks of Trump. There's absolutely no doubt there's going to be strong, forceful, tough attacks on Trump, as you would expect of any political party attacking the fellow nominee. I'll be analyzing most of the major speeches as soon as the speeches are finished right here on this channel, whether you're watching on YouTube, Facebook or listening on itunes. So stay tuned.