History will decide how President Barack Obama's speech this
week compares with other inaugural addresses. But most agree
that President John F. Kennedy's inaugural address in 1961"Ask
not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for
your country"was among the best ever. But when JFK started in
politics, he was a mediocre speaker. By looking at how he grew
into a great speaker, we can all learn to connect better with
our audiences. Work more important than talent I'm often asked
whether is possible to develop into a great speaker or whether
you must be "born with it." But JFK developed into a great
speaker over time with lots of practice. Kennedy's political
career started in 1946 when he ran for Congress in Boston. He
was a poor speaker, according to Robert Caro, writing in The
Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Passage of Power, his fantastic
book deals with the relationship between Johnson and Kennedy.
Describing a speech during that first campaign, Caro wrote: His
early speeches all seemed to be, a