This article on originality in speeches (pointed out by the good folks at Bookninja) made me think. When was the last time you heard a memorable speech from a government figure? Our current president lacks the oratory skills of the previous president, in my opinion. But even Clinton’s speeches lacked that certain something. Nothing either of the last 2 presidents has stuck in my mind at all. You can’t compare any of them to Martin Luther King Jr.’s or JFK’s words. Sure they didn’t write those speeches. So maybe my issue is not with the presidents but with the speech writers. But I think Dan Rather was right on when he wondered out loud if it were too much to ask for the leader of the free world to write his own speech even once in four years.