Acceptance Speeches in Recent HistoryAll recent presidents can trace their campaign success to their memorable acceptance addresses. And many losing candidates can chart their downfall to ill-chosen phrases or arguments, such as Michael Dukakis' emphasis on "competence, not ideology," or, even more damaging, Barry Goldwater's endorsement of "extremism in defense of liberty." In recent speeches, candidates got in the most trouble when they tried to turn negatives into positives -- Walter Mondale's tax-and-spend liberalism, Bob Dole's age -- and ended up reinforcing doubts about themselves.
THE FIVE BEST 1. Ronald Reagan, 1980: Reagan's career was built on oratory skills, but by the time he claimed the Republican presidential nomination, his talents were derided as just acting. His lyrical speech, masterfully delivered, linked his conservativism to the most resonant strains of American history, closing with a moving prayer, "God Bless America." 2. George H. W. Bush, 1988: Derided as a preppie while serving as vice-president, the first George Bush struggled with "the vision thing." His Peggy Noonan-scripted speech buried that complaint for the remainder of the campaign, inaugurating the catchphrases "kinder, gentler," "thousand points of light," and "read my lips, no new taxes." 3. George W. Bush, 2000: Even Bush's supporters had trouble defining "compassionate conservatism" before this speech, which cast Bush as a new kind of Republican. His skillful skewering of President Clinton ('"so much promise...") helped position his own campaign as advocating a return to government guided by dignity and maturity. 4. Bill Clinton, 1992: As the loudspeakers blared Fleetwood Mac, Clinton cast the 1992 race as a battle between age and youth, foreign policy and domestic policy, and ideology and compassion. The youthful smiles of Clinton, his family, and vice presidential nominee Al Gore and his family brought the point home better than words themselves. 5. Gerald Ford, 1976: It wasn't quite enough to propel him to victory, but Gerald Ford came out swinging in '76 and proved that he deserved his party's hard-fought nomination. His rock 'em, sock 'em address ended with a memorable show of confidence for a candidate way down in the polls. "And the people are going to say, 'Jerry you've done a good job. Keep on doing it.'" THE FIVE WORST 1. Jimmy Carter, 1980: After a moving Ted Kennedy defense of liberalism earlier in the convention, Carter was probably doomed to disappoint the delegates no matter what he did -- but his long-winded address, clotted with numbers and details; set a new low in disappointment. His delivery -- including the mega-gaffe of calling Hubert Horatio Humphrey "Hubert Horatio Hornblower -- also set a new low. 2. Barry Goldwater, 1964: Much of what America worried that Goldwater's conservatism was too extreme -- so he decided to prove them right. His line "extremism in defense of liberty is no vice" probably would have doomed his candidacy even if he hadn't delivered it with Dr. Strangelove-era portentousness. 3. Walter Mondale, 1984: In the days of Ronald Reagan's big tax cuts and big deficits, Mondale might have done well to stress fiscal restraint. But his ebullient endorsement of a big, eat-your-spinach tax increase surprised even his supporters. 4. Bob Dole, 1996: His democratic opponent represented youth and, to some, irresponsibility, so the septuagenarian Dole already had the votes of anyone who regarded maturity as the best credential for the presidency. But his speech, harking back to World War II, practically turned him into a fossil. While Democrat Bill Clinton promised "a bridge to the future," Dole offered a bridge to the past.
5. George McGovern, 1972: Even in a time of political turmoil, the Democrats showed signs of unifying behind McGovern -- before a chaotic convention in which procedural wrangling delayed McGovern's speech until the wee hours of the morning. It may have been good, but no one saw it. |
