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A Speech Every Democrat Should Watch

Jon Ossoff lays out a message that can work for everyone in the party.

Dan Pfeiffer

Feb 11

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Most Democratic speeches suck.

I am, admittedly, an unfairly harsh critic of Democratic speeches. The vast majority of them have no soul. They sound like a poorly stitched patchwork of phrases, focus-grouped and message-tested within an inch of their lives. They tell rather than show. They lack authenticity and passion.

I am, of course, spoiled by having worked for Barack Obama, a great writer who also happened to be the greatest orator in recent American political history.

So it’s rare for me to hear a speech that actually knocks my socks off.

But that happened this weekend, when I started seeing clips from a campaign rally speech by Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff in Atlanta.

You should watch the whole thing:

It’s genuinely good—and not just because Ossoff is a talented, charismatic speaker. It doesn’t hurt that he is also young, in a party dominated by septuagenarians.

More importantly, the speech does a few things that every Democrat can emulate, even if they are not as young or as charismatic. It offers a model for a party that is still struggling to find a compelling story about what Trump and Republicans are doing to the country.