Reagan Pushes Optimism

I was slightly farmiliar with President Reagan's first inaugural address from Chris Matthew's book, Life is a Campaign, in which he mentions it in a chapter about public speaking. I knew the key points and ideas of the speech going into it and understood how President Reagan was as a politicain so I was able to understand his goals and ambitions.



Inaguaral adresses in general hold a high standard and President Reagan was going into office facing high expectations. He had to make his case and assure the people that everything would be allright. Interestingly enough as he claimed for the factory workers and common man to be hero's his presidency would prove to be a blow to those veryy people, creating a deficit. SO it was interesting to view this speech after his legacy ha already been built.



I felt I understood what he was trying to convey and managed to convey it myself with emphisisng his true goals. In jsut picking up on his words like how he would constantly refere to "we" as aposed to you. It was a speech about "us," putting himself on the people's level, saying he was no greater. Also managing to emphasize his idealistic views on being able to dream again, and being able to be the nation of innovation. All of his goals I successfully cnveyed and got accross. My one weakness would be having glanced at the paper durring some of the suplemental parts.



Its always facinating to read speeches by people whow ere the best in the business, to see what made them who they are. What were they saying differently than the other guy that got them where they are? For Preisident Reagan it was his sense of optimism that launched him into a Republican icon. THe history behind these speeches are vital to us all as memebers of a free society. It reminds us of how lucky we are, and how much we have, and still have to achieve.

Make It Work

People seemed uncertain of what to do with their hands and overall body language at moments through out their speeches. There was also some uncetainty in people's voices with their facts,a s if we doubted the information we had. Through our body language and tone we seemed to convey doubt.

I am used to speaking about myself and the work that I have dedicated my life to which made speaking predominantly about others a bit foreign to me. I should have reviewd my notes and that would have made me feel more confident in what I was presenting. WHile my speech was the longest I by no means view it as a negative. Last week I had to give several speeches on Gay rights and at some of the speeches I had to reduce my time from 15 mins to 5 mins justas I hit the stage and was told how much time I had. Next week I'll be giving two speeches in New York City each totaling fourty five minutes. I am more than capable of varying a speeches length and adjusting to the situation. I jsut need to remind myself of my goals and to make it personal.