Word: speech
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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FACE-LIFT. Edward Kennedy, finally looking 20 lbs. lighter and free of the burden of presidential speculation. His speech lacked the soaring "The dream shall never die" high of 1980, but his antiphonal "Where was George?" may become the refrain of the Democratic campaign...
MOST SUCCESSFUL RESURRECTION. Jimmy Carter, although geography more than emotion drove Democrats to embrace him. The illusion of Carter was much better than the reality: his speech got less of a response than the mention of his name or his dancing the fox-trot with Rosalynn. Most frequently uttered line by former aides who claimed to have worked on the speech: "You should have seen the first draft...
BIGGEST BOMB. Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton will be remembered for The Speech That Would Not End, turning the Omni into the hall of the numb and the restless. Clinton stuck with a 19-page snoozer of a nominating speech through signals from the chairman to stop, through a flashing red light and through index fingers drawn across the throat, the broadcast symbol for "Cut it short." His humor returned the next day: "It wasn't my finest hour. It wasn't even my finest hour and a half...
...BEST SPEECH BY A NON-KEYNOTING TEXAN. Jim Hightower, who called George Bush a "toothache of a man" who takes his privileged upbringing for granted. "George Bush," he said, "was born on third base and thinks he hit a triple...
...speech that had a lilt and a majesty unlike any other he had given in his 16-month quest, Dukakis found the answer. "It is the idea of community," he said. "It is the idea that we are in this together; that regardless of who we are or where we come from or how much money we have -- each of us counts." Using the image of community as a contrast to the "cramped ideals" of the Reagan years, he challenged his listeners "to forge a new era of greatness for America...