A big part of the NRA Annual Meetings are speeches, mostly by elected officials. There is always a sort of keynote speech by Wayne LaPierre. His message is always consistent; the left and many Democrat politicians are resolute in their intent to take guns away from Americans. While this is true, there isn’t a lot of variation in the speech. I’ve never found him to be a particularly engaging speaker, but maybe that’s because I don’t need convincing.
When the politicians speak, there’s not a lot of variance in the message. No politician going to come to a NRA function and say that he or she is in favor of gun control in any form.
What the watching the speeches does for an observer is give them an idea not of what the politicians will say, but how they will say it. Sort of a screen test for candidates, especially candidates for President, Senate, or maybe Governor.
He is my input on a few of those speeches.
Bobby Jindal presented a well written speech. I don’t know if he wrote his own or has writers, but I’d guess the latter. The problem is that as smart as he is, he’s not a dynamic speaker. The content was fine, but he’s just not charismatic. Charisma is what sells, what gets people engaged and excited.
Governor Scott Walker was next. He came out in what is rapidly becoming his style. Shirt with rolled up sleeves and a tie, but no jacket. He’s projecting a working man image, which is what carried him into office in Wisconsin. He’s very engaging, and it’s easy to see why he has won not one, but three elections for Governor (one was a recall). He brings energy to his speeches and is developing a track record of being an effective chief executive of a state.
AS I type this, former Senator Rick Santorum is speaking. He fits somewhere in the middle, but my impression is that he likes the sound of his own voice. It’s clear that he’s planning a run for President. For the record, he won the Iowa Caucuses in 2012, but it was all for naught. He’s mentioned the NRA a bit, but mostly this is a standard stump speech. It feels like he’s been speaking for hours, but it’s probably only 15 minutes or so.
I’ll listen to some more and post later, but I have to clear my mind because I can only listen to so many variations of what is essentially the same speech.