The first time I viewed this address was in the living room of my house, the evening following the terrorist attacks on the two World Trade Center towers at 8:30 PM (EST) on September 11th, 2001. President George W. Bush gave a strong, emotional, and controversial speech that night. From the Oval Office in the White House, you could feel a sense of nationalism pour from the television screen.
Although the speech was grammatically correct and well written in most cases, the content and delivery of the speech seemed unsound. As I watch the speech online again, more than 2 years later, it is easier to notice these things; especially the negative things. Although he only stumbled on words a couple of times, he seemed to mesh sentences together, take unnecessary pitch changes, and pause where more intense dialogue could have been more effective.
The words "huge" and "enemies" seem to be problem words for the President as he stuttered on both of them twice. Although small and menial mistakes, the compromised the integrity and emotion of the sentences. After making these mistakes, he also seemed to rush the following sentence. Possibly due to a time limit? I am not sure, but it only took away from the seriousness of the address.
Although his pitch varied from time to time to convey sentiment and feeling, it seems as if it was not enough. He was very composed, but did not seem as concerned about the events that had occurred. Almost as if he were expecting them to happen and was prepared for it. Pauses mid-sentence only gave an illusion of fragmented sentences, which, actually, seemed to work very well at some points. At other times, it was inappropriate and only delayed the impact of words.
I might point out the use of hand, facial, and head gestures, but I would be talking about the lack of them. Or rather, the lack of variety. The President seemed animatronic, as if being controlled by a puppeteer offstage.
