Northwestern University Newsfeed

June 7, 2004

President Bush has launched a series of speeches to outline his strategy in and garner support for the war in Iraq. David Zarefsky, professor of communication studies at Northwestern University, says the president’s speaking skills have improved since he took office.

Zarefsky: He’s gotten a lot better at it over the time he’s been in office. He had started out not very self-confident or self-assured, and that’s certainly improved.  He tends to speak in fairly short, direct sentences with simple words, and to project a sense of definiteness and assurance. I think he has excellent writers who write very well for him so that they can write in his normal speech pattern and delivery style, and he takes it seriously and practices.

According to Zarefsky, President Bush will not likely hold more press conferences as the presidential election approaches.

Zarefsky: I think he’ll be more likely to try to find more occasions when he can deliver what’s basically a scripted performance.  I would speculate that he holds so few press conferences because that’s a situation that’s relatively unscripted and which he’s not in controlled in the same way that he is with a prepared speech, and that’s where he really tends to trip himself up.

Zarefsky says the president uses speech to demonstrate he’s in control.

Zarefsky: He’s obviously trying a communication strategy to suggest that he’s in control and has definite plans and knows what’s going on, and of course that’s partly under his control, but in large part, he’s dependent upon events he cannot control.

Compared to past presidents, Zarefsky believes Bush’s skills as a speaker are respectable.

Zarefsky: Certainly not one of the very best, but not the very worst either. Probably somewhere in the middle. In recent times I’d say for the worst I’d probably pick both Ford and Carter, neither of whom really managed public speaking presence very well and often stumbled over what they wanted to say and didn’t’ really emphasize main points and so on.  Among the best in recent times I would pick, in no particular order, but certainly Franklin Roosevelt, Kennedy and Reagan.