![]() Bryan evoked the strength of Midwestern laborers and used Christian imagery to persuade the delegates to adopt his plank, winning the first of his three presidential nominations. Rank on the Top 100 list is noted.Īudio and text for these and other notable Democratic convention speeches are also available.Īn opponent of the gold standard and a religious fundamentalist, Mr. Some of them - along with a few other standouts - are excerpted below. Medhurst of Baylor University, included a number of convention homilies in their 1999 list of "Top 100" speeches of the 20th century, which is available online at /misc/speeches ). Even for those who have been following the campaign, he added, the speeches are probably the first opportunity to hear directly from the candidates at length. Lucas, who teaches communication arts at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. "In a day in which there are so many competing messages, these speeches may even be more important," says Professor Stephen E. Bush's 1988 convention pledge: "Read my lips, no new taxes."īut do convention speeches really matter? And Willam Safire's 1997 book "Lend Me Your Ears: Great Speeches in History" includes several convention speeches, from Willam Jennings Bryan's "Cross of Gold" address in 1896 to George H. The "Penguin Book of 20th Century Speeches" (1999 edition), transcribes six - five of them from Democrats. So what constitutes drama at a national political convention? For most Americans - and certainly for the news media, which will lean in most attentively during prime-time hours - the drama now resides almost exclusively in the speeches.Īlthough there is no guarantee that the 2004 Democratic convention, which kicks off in Boston tomorrow and runs through Thursday, will produce oratory of historic proportions, a number of speeches from past conventions have been included in anthologies and elevated by lovers of language to hall-of-fame status.Ī 1942 collection edited by Lewis Copeland, "The World's Great Speeches," included two convention speakers. Correction Appended THE nominee is a foregone conclusion and platform debates long ago gave way to choreographed displays of party unity. ![]()
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