TJ Walker breaks down Bernie Sanders' DNC speech, saying his message was strong and focused but his delivery was rough: yelling, awkward hand gestures, and poor posture. Walker thinks Sanders boosted his credibility with Clinton's campaign but won't become president.
Bernie Sanders addressed the Democratic Convention tonight. How did he do?
Speaking the show about effective speaking in public, to the media, at work and in Life. Speaking with T.J. walker.
Bernie Sanders speech was received very warmly at the Democratic Convention. His fans seemed to be quite enthusiastic. And he gave a speech that the Hillary Clinton campaign had to be extraordinarily happy with. He didn't just make the case against Donald Trump, as some had anticipated. He made a very positive case as to what would be good about Hillary being president, what's been good about the last eight years in the Obama presidency. So it was that combination of positive and negative in a way that came together in a forceful way. Now, Sanders is an interesting case to me as a public speaker, because by almost any definition, Sanders is a horrible public speaker, except for one, and this is a big one, and that is message. Sanders has a clear cut, focused message that resonates tremendously with a group of hardcore supporters that ranges in tens of millions. So anytime you can be a speaker, if you have a message, message can trump almost anything else. It can trump almost any debilitating aspect you have as a speaker if people find your message is different, powerful, emotional and connects. He did that throughout his campaign. He did that tonight in his speech as well. No one is as forceful of an advocate of economic populism as Bernie Sanders. He did that tonight, did it quite forcefully. For many Americans, this is the first time you really watched Bernie Sanders. He was in primetime on every network. Sure, there are a lot of Republicans out there scratching their heads, saying, wow, this is the guy everybody was talking about. Boy, I sure wish the Democrats had picked him. He'd be easy to beat again. I don't say this to take anything away from Bernie Sanders. He did much better than anyone anticipated in the election. Came pretty close to beating Hillary, won an awful lot of delegates in a lot of states. Let's talk now specifically about his speaking. I was trying to put my finger on it because I noticed and in fact, tweeted about the fact that he has awkward body language with his hands. And then somebody posted this on Twitter, a guy named Ken Norton, who said that Bernie Sanders ends every sentence by signaling for the check. And I'll never be able to look at Bernie Sanders again. Speaking without thinking that and laughing. Because sure enough, it is almost the very same hand gesture that someone makes when you're in a crowded restaurant, noisy, the waiter can't hear you but can see you, and you put your hand up as if to sign for the check. And that is, in fact, What Bernie Sanders does, other things he does that typically are not effective as a speaker. He yells the whole time. It's extraordinarily annoying to most audience members to yell the whole time. Now, the very same could be said about Donald Trump. The same could be said about Al gore back in 2000. And the same has been said about Hillary Clinton. Not all of the time these days, but certainly earlier in her career and occasionally now, she still yells. When you yell, you come across as angry. It's a sort of flat, monotone way that it forces your voice into. It's not at all the way the most effective speakers use their voice when they're speaking. Ronald Reagan didn't yell all the time. Bill Clinton doesn't. Michelle Obama tonight didn't yell. Sanders also has very poor posture. He's all sort of slumped over. When you combine the slumped over, the very odd hand gestures and the yelling, weird sort of licking lips, it's not an attractive image to, I believe, the average voter or undecided voter or voter who is not a high partisan. Again, to those who are committed members of the progressive side of the Democratic Party, Bernie Sanders is the greatest guy ever, the most charismatic speaker ever. And they will love this speech. They were wildly responsive to it in the Democratic Convention hall. We've not seen the last of Bernie Sanders. But Bernie Sanders is not going to be president. He certainly boosted his credibility on the national political scene tonight. He boosted his credibility with the Hillary Clinton campaign. If Hillary Clinton does become president, Bernie Sanders is going to have an open door policy in the White House anytime he wants it.
