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# What Makes A Great Speech?

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<!-- video src="https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/sPrWWrz7.m3u8" -->
## Video: What Makes A Great Speech?

[Watch (HLS stream): What Makes A Great Speech?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/sPrWWrz7.m3u8) (2:44)

![What Makes A Great Speech?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/sPrWWrz7/poster.jpg?width=720)

_Published 2016-07-29. President Barack Obama's former speech writer discusses what makes a great speech._


---

Jul 27, 2023 8:31 PM UTC

---

## More From This Series

[All Videos](https://time.com/video/)

[Watch: Obama's Speech Highlights](/video/w75pNUSr/)

### Watch: Obama's Speech Highlights

[President Barack Obama's Speech in 3 Minutes](/video/Wn5DAURd/)

### President Barack Obama's Speech in 3 Minutes

[President Obama's Libya Speech](/video/4gWJY1lq/)

### President Obama's Libya Speech

---


## Transcript

The only thing we have to fear- I grew up reading great speeches books. I'm the only person I know who wanted to be a speech writer. I was particularly drawn to President Kennedy's speeches. What your country can do for you. Robert Kennedy's speeches. Is not division. And Martin Luther King's speeches. I have a dream. There was this period in the 1960's of rhetoric that was just soaring and inspirational. And that's what made me want to be a speech writer. My name is Adam Frankel. And I'm a former speech writer for President Barack Obama. One of the most important things about speech writing is structure.

Typically, for convention speeches You have three constituent parts. You've got the biography, you've got the contrast, and you have the vision. The biography is an opportunity to say who you are, where you come from. My parents shared not only an improbable love- Why you're in this race in the first place. They shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation. The contrast is Every election is a choice. So, what is the choice here? He didn't have to struggle for the soul of America. Clinton and Clinton are on the other side and George Bush is on our side. The third part is vision. I mean, I think that in the election cycle, we've seen a lot of.

Contrasts. Crooked Hillary, Well, I mean is there anybody more crooked than this woman? Donald Trump's ideas aren't just different, they are dangerously incoherent. We've seen less of what that vision is from every candidate, right? And so this is an opportunity, I think, to paint a picture of the kind of America they believe in. And inspire people. And we stand today on the edge of a new frontier, the frontier of the 1960s. This is a time where there's a lot of uncertainty, a lot of volatility around the world. People here at home are frustrated, they're angry. And I think what both candidates really need to do, Is pursued voters that they'll be a champion for them, and that's the best way of coming up with the most powerful lines.

It's not by sitting around, thinking about what's the best sound byte you can come up with. There is not a liberal america. Read my lips. And a conservative america. It is about thinking about where the country is, what the country needs. I want to talk to you about love. This nation Is more a tale of two cities. And trying to articulate that as powerfully as you can. There is not a black America, and a white America, and Latino America, an Asian America, there's the Unites States of America. And write as well as he can. And if you do those things, a great line will emerge from that. [ MUSIC ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

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