who was the greatest presidential orator?
I think it’s the same president who used the longest sentence in any inaugural address, 727 words before coming to a stop. That’s more than a mouthful! But if you pay close attention, as I do, to his use of these 727 words, you’ll discover the culminating moments of the greatest presidential oration . . . by John Adams in 1797. You might think Lincoln was the greatest. True, Lincoln’s speeches are remembered while Adams’s are not. But in my book, Lincoln is No. 2. Adams had a greater effect on the audiences he spoke to. Q) What about modern presidents? Were any of them great orators? A) No, the development of modern media — the phonograph, radio, and television — brought an end to the era of oratory. Sound bites took the place of lengthy speeches, or to put it another way, lengthy speeches that had once been fully developed arguments became collections of sound bites. A twentieth-century president had to be a great communicator rather than a great orator. The great twentieth-century co
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