Bush--"He's a cheerleader...", page 1

Love him or hate hime, Bush is not one of the best speaker's I've listened to. Here's an interesting article about his speaking style and how he compares to other presidential speakers.

One of the more curious aspects of George W. Bush's presidency is how the public relates to him. Just as the president himself tends to speak in black-and-white, with-us-or-against-us terms, so, too, do Americans fall into historically polarized camps of "for him or against him."

President Bush's rhetorical style - blunt and unelaborated, frustrating to some and comforting to others - exacerbates the polarization that is a hallmark of the 2004 campaign, political analysts say. And at a time of high uncertainty and US casualties in Iraq, with the need to keep the American public on his side growing daily, Bush's ability to woo and persuade is being tested as never before.

"He makes a very convenient target, but he also makes a convenient object of adoration; it's two sides of the same coin," says Roderick Hart, an expert on political communication at the University of Texas. Professor Hart calls Bush's verbal style direct, though lacking in poetic flourish.

"He's not elliptical like Bill Clinton often was," Hart adds. "And he doesn't have that lift of the driving dream that Ronald Reagan had, which can mystify politics, sometimes productively. Bush's style does march him out ahead of the pack. And that lets people take shots at him, but also inspires people who follow him."

'He's a cheerleader'

www.csmonitor.com...