(Leanne, Shel. New York: McGraw-Hill. 2009)Agree with him or not, there is no question that Barack Obama is an engaging speaker; a politician with the rare gift of oratory, an art that seemed to have been a lost since the time of Reagan.  Shel Leanne’s book, Say it Like Obama, does an excellent job of analyzing why Obama is so effective a speaker.  Starting with “the speech that started it all”—Obama’s keynote at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, and ending with the 2008 convention speech, Leanne analyzes the emotion, tone, construct, delivery and message of Obama’s discourse and its magnetic appeal.

A few things strike the reader in the book’s thesis.  First, Obama is not shy about staking a moral ground in which he sincerely believes and in relating that moral stance to history and faith as pertinent to his speech’s topic.  Nowhere do these anchors serve Obama best as when he addresses adversity head on.  The prime example, in my opinion, is Obama’s speech “A More Perfect Union” that he delivered after the controversy regarding Rev. Wright in 2008.  Invoking the motivation and underlying beliefs of our country’s Founders and positing his own “belief in the unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people” Obama turned the difficult subject of race into an opportunity to call for healing.  Elsewhere I have analyzed that speech, as does Leanne in the book.  It demonstrates that Obama’s effectiveness is not solely manifested by his ability to garner votes, but also by his skill in dealing with a nation’s scars.

Make no mistake, though.  Leanne’s book is not a paean to Obama’s rhetorical ability.  Good speaking starts with good writing, and Obama’s use of the English language is clearly one of his strengths.  Another welcome surprise of this book, then, is its lucid treatment of the technical attributes of Obama’s speeches.  We learn, for example about Obama’s application of erotesis (rhetorical questions); of conduplicatio and anaphora (methods of repetition); of asyndeton and polysyndeton (methods to pace and emphasize ideas); and of triadic expression (illustrating thoughts with three sequential examples).  Leanne deals with these esoteric aspects with the same facile flow of an Obama speech.

Thus Leanne, takes his reader from “what” Obama does and “why” it works so well to “how” he does it.  The book, therefore, will serve writers and speakers in all professions, yet it is far from being purely technical and dry.  To the contrary, Leanne effectively deploys the forgoing techniques in his own writing and gives his reader a lively, eminently readable and enjoyable book.