Oratory 101

The Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, Tim Kaine, gave the keynote address today at the Conference for Public Service and the Law. This is my first encounter with him. I was up in DC when he was elected, and honestly didn't follow the campaign too closely (although I did vote --- I guess that made me a semi-uninformed voter?). So I was kind of curious what he was going to say.

I was surprised at how uninspiring the speech was. Not only did he proceed to state the obvious ("pick a community that you want to work for," "you can have a 'serial' career" (do more than one type of work in your lifetime), and "be prepared to make less money") but the speech was saturated with mistakes. Subjects that didn't agree with verbs, odd constructions (which aren't grammatical mistakes per se - but make the speech tough to listen to), and a fair number of malapropisms to boot. How did he get people to listen to him on the campaign trail?

But, I am reminded of the promise I made in the beginning, and will end this nonsense political speak right now.

The rest of the conference was engaging. A panel on criminal defense and prosecution, race and immigration law, and retirement benefits. All in all it was a good afternoon.
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to be continued...