One of the most respected men in his field, veteran broadcaster Bob Schieffer, who is known for his intimate knowledge of Washington D.C., offered an insightful address to the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU) on Monday.
Schieffer spoke about his role in the political world over the last several decades as a reporter, and about the changing nature of politics. Journalism is also changing, he explained. Though he deeply admires both Barack Obama and John McCain, Schieffer believes that both positives and negatives came from the 2008 election.
One of the positives, in Schieffer’s mind, is that the 2008 campaigns made politics public again on a large scale. “Until last year,” he said, “politicians had pretty much given up on the idea of holding public rallies. It just wasn’t cost effective. Most of the campaigning was done on television. Suddenly campaign rallies—outdoor rallies—came back!”
“It also last year put the lie to this notion that people don’t like politics. I never believed that then, I think I can make the case now that it was never so.”
“Think about what happened this year. Barack Obama drew these enormous crowds and before the campaign was over John McCain drew large crowds as well. Who were these people that were telling us that crowds don’t count?”
Schieffer also hailed the return of politics where “words count.” He said, “Our best politicians have always been those who have mastered the dominant medium of the time.” He pointed to the founders as examples of brilliant writers, to Roosevelt as the first president to harness the power of the radio address, to Kennedy as master of the television. In reference to Obama, Schieffer said, “I think one of the reasons that Barack Obama succeeded is that he is the best communicator, certainly the best orator since Kennedy, maybe the best writer since Adlai Stevenson.”
Here’s a presidential orator Schieffer neglected to mention.
Click on the left video to watch a clip of Mr. Schieffer’s speech, in which he talks about the presidential campaigns and strategies.
In the video on the right, Schieffer relates an experience about the changing nature of America and politics from his point of view as a journalist.
Daniel Allen is an intern at the American Journalism Center, a training program run by Accuracy in Media and Accuracy in Academia.
