What are the communication skills employed by Bill Clinton in his public orations?

November 2, 2006 2:52 PM

What are the communication skills employed by Bill Clinton in his public orations?

Bill Clinton (IMO) is amazing when he gives public speeches. He just seems to bond with the audience no matter where he is in the world.

What verbal or non-verbal communication skills does WJC employ that enables him to build up such a rapport with his audience.

posted by jacobean to human relations (17 comments total)

google search for "bill clinton" and speech skills gives you as the first result this.

I think it's a combination of an amazing education and growing up fairly 'down home', as it were.
posted by nadawi at 2:58 PM on November 2, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

He doesn't have to pretend to be working class; he knows these people and how hard they work and he knows how to talk to them in an honest way that they appreciate. At the same time, he had to learn, in school, how to "pass" with the rich kids, and he can talk to upper class folks in a way that doesn't seem artificial to them, as well.

Mostly, he's just smart and articulate and a good judge of audience.
posted by luriete at 3:05 PM on November 2, 2006

a MASTER of body language. One example, others easily googled
posted by ernie at 3:05 PM on November 2, 2006

luriete nailed it - he's sincere. Well, except when talking about his interns. Every politician tries to master this art, very, very few succeed, and just look like stuffed shirts instead.

God, I'd love it if we could re-elect him...
posted by M.C. Lo-Carb! at 3:11 PM on November 2, 2006

I get to see him speak on the 10th. Really looking forward to it.
posted by dobie at 3:53 PM on November 2, 2006

For example, when people go after him, he knows that the audience is paying more attention to him than at any other time. He hammers his talking points at that moment. cf Chris Wallace interview.

He is careful not to say anything he does not truly believe.
posted by Ironmouth at 3:54 PM on November 2, 2006

He is careful not to say anything he does not truly believe.
posted by Ironmouth

I'm a big Clinton fan, but even I would never make that claim. You know what the difference is between successful and unsuccessful politicians? The successful politicians are better liars.

Clinton is intelligent, self-confident, well educated, seems genuinely sincere and makes great use of eye contact and body language. He is also, (at least IMO) in the right more often than not. All of those things, plus the magic X factor add up to one of, if not the all time, greatest American orators.

But he isn't above lying (I did not have sex with that woman) or stretching the truth when it suits his purpose. I'd vote for him again and would probably even buy a junk used car from him. He's that good.
posted by buggzzee23 at 5:10 PM on November 2, 2006

Buggzzee:

You want to know how to lie successfully? Always tell the truth. Always frame every single issue and question the way that your answer is the truth. Never let anyone frame an issue for you. Thus, when asked a question, reframe it in such a way so that your response is not a lie. Lying effectively is basically very hard.

Let me explain the sex thing. You know he didn't actually out lie in the deposition. Opposing counsel outsmarted himself by making sure that Clinton couldn't wiggle out of it by giving a long definition of sex before asking him if he had sex with Lewinsky. Einstein then forgot to include blowjobs. Clinton truthfully answer the question. That's al that happened.

I'm a litigator. My job is to catch people in lies. Its quite easy, really.
posted by Ironmouth at 5:26 PM on November 2, 2006

Also, I've seen him speak in several different settings and on no occasion did he use notes or a teleprompter. He used no verbal pauses (uhhs and ahhs) and when asked a question, took a second to gather his thoughts and then delivered a multi-clause sentence. Without a doubt he is the greatest orator I have ever seen in person.
posted by mattbucher at 5:39 PM on November 2, 2006

He is careful not to say anything he does not truly believe.

Got to agree with bug here. I think this sentence would work if rearranged like this:

He is careful not to say anything he does not "truly believe."

Meaning that even if he's totally full of shit he says it like it is god's honest truth. His "sincerity" is the driving force. Hell, I love the man, but I know he's full of it and I don't care. It makes me and the audience believe in what he's saying and believe that maybe he really believes it too.
posted by Pollomacho at 6:11 PM on November 2, 2006

I actually saw Clinton speak at my school today, and a few things struck me.

1. He uses actual facts (or things that sound like they should be facts at least) to support his opinions. When he was making a point, he'd list off a bunch of things that supported the point he was making.


2. He never claimed to be a common man. When talking about tax cuts for the rich, he specifically said that it benefited him.


3. He's excellent with body language. He was animated, without looking forced. The way he moved suggested that he really was serious about what he was saying. He has a great smile, and when he wants to look happy to be there, you damn well better believe he looks happy to be there.


4. He pandered to us more carefully than most. This was a big crowd of college kids, but he didn't insult us by favoring increased college spending (as part of a democratic agenda) over other issues (clearly, Iraq, immigration, energy).


5. He's personable. He's not like some John Kerry-type stuffy, boring guy, he actually seems like a human being.

Overall, he managed to make his speech seem more interactive than some of the other people that spoke. It seemed like he was speaking with us, not at us.
posted by !Jim at 6:25 PM on November 2, 2006

Having a brain and using it.
posted by dgeiser13 at 6:40 PM on November 2, 2006

He is careful not to say anything he does not truly believe.
posted by Ironmouth

luriete nailed it - he's sincere.
posted by M.C. Lo-Carb!

I don't think it's anything you can learn. He comes off smooth, friendly, down to earth, and authorative all at the same time. The man is a politician. Think about it. No way does he truly believe everything he says. No way is he sincere in everything he says, yet he makes people actually believe it. I've listened to far better speakers than Bill Clinton, but he does it as a president/former president, where the pressure is off the charts.

He could see you a non running car and make it sound like a bargain. Who knows, maybe he makes himself believe it at the time, and tha'ts part of his secret. But there's no better measure of his talent than the comments in this thread picking his honesty as the secret behind his talent.
posted by justgary at 6:42 PM on November 2, 2006

The key is charisma, a highly enigmatic quality. The only real quantitative analysis of it can be found within the roleplaying world, which probably explains a lot. :-)

Incidentally, Hitler (OMG Godwin) was supposed to have had the same effect on people. I myself experienced this with a former coworker. He was full of shit, I knew he was full of shit, and yet every time we had a discussion I came out of it finding I wanted to be on his side. Some people have this quality, and it has nothing to do with being sincere or genuine or right.

Malcolm Gladwell has a good description of this category of people in his book The Tipping Point. Basically, some people are able to empathically project their emotions and ideas onto the listeners, who absorb the mood and attitude of the person speaking.
posted by Deathalicious at 9:00 PM on November 2, 2006

Biting his lower lip and squinting. Also the Christlike spiritual aura that transcends time and space mentioned by others above.
posted by mattholomew at 1:50 AM on November 3, 2006

Even when not speaking he is always "on". I was at a presentation with a lot of politicians and cameras around. When the cameras were supposedly not around the senators and their staff would have bored looks or were goofing around. Bill Clinton on the other hand, never fell into that. He seemed to be paying attention and using his body language to affirm his attentiveness so he was never "off". I imagine that it be an amazingly rare moment when he would be caught by camera unprepared.

Another thing I noticed, in general, is that people who have a background of attending very verbal focused churches or very verbal cultures like in the south have a better ear for language. I know that is a generalization, but I noticed that people who have great rhetorical verbal skills can use the rhythms, words and feel of a language because of a developed ear because of their exposure to sophisticated rhetorical technique and method.
posted by jadepearl at 10:34 AM on November 3, 2006

Previously.
posted by MsMolly at 8:56 AM on February 24, 2007