Orator Obama, all-time role model, say Chennaiites

In every stint in front of the mike: be it his victory speeches, compelling speech at Cairo in 2009 to the extremely funny White House Correspondents’ Dinner in 2016 that gave the social media the gem of an ‘Obama out’ moment, Obama didn’t disappoint while delivering his farewell speech that got everyone emotional.

Sanjay Pinto the author of Speakers are made not born and who mentors students in public speaking says, “Obama is one leader who converts his heartbeats into words. He summed up his eight years of work in that speech. The words he chose was just right – so humble. He made it sound that his achievements were the country’s.” 

“He can give many stand-up comedians a run for their money,” says Balaji Vijayaraghavan, adding “He called himself a ‘lame duck’ in his final speech. He is a sport when people make fun of his greying hair or his wife joking about his large ears… you hardly find a leader so confident.” 

Ironically, good political orators have become a rare breed even in the State where Dravidian politics was propelled to the forefront largely due to the oratorical skills of its stalwart leaders like CN Annadurai, M Karunanidhi among others. who could enthral audiences with their fiery speeches laced with literary finesse. They were able to communicate with the masses directly and propagated their politics effectively. 

“We no longer see that in the present crop of leaders in the state. One of the reasons for this could be the changing socio-economic scenario. In the 60s and 70s, television was a rarity and politicians had to come out in the open and reach out to the public in person. 

Today, it is not necessary as they can directly address the public through TV or radio as our PM Modi is doing. In such cases, speeches need not be as fiery and can even be doctored to produce better effect,” says R Ram Mohan, sociology professor at a college in Nungambakkam. 

“One had seen Obama rekindle the raw power of oration among modern-day politicians.” Obama has also been social media’s favourite. “He has given the world some iconic moments. He came across as a humble, funny and a relatable President and people just loved him. On the other hand, his speeches were powerful and made you think about the issues that we usually neglect,” says Karthi Sekar, social media expert, adding, “I don’t think that his successor will have such an impact. In fact, we are likely to see a lot of divide in social media when Trump comes around.”