Strong Final Statement to end a speech?

[rocktop15]

I'm doing a speech on why Bush is such a failure and I need some recommendations for a powerful final statement. I need something that hits the listener hard. Thanks guys!

[Proud_Lefty]

1. History - Does it really matter?

We'll all be dead with this pResident anyway.

[kentuck]

2. As the old saying goes.....

"Fool me once.............long pause..............won't get fooled again"

[rocktop15]

3. any more?

[salin]

4. what are the key points in your speech?

hard to come up with a culminating statement - without having a sense of the gist of the speech. And with bush and failure... the speech could cover numerous angles.

[rocktop15]

5. my main points are---

George W. Bush has failed America.

and

George W. Bush has failed the “war on terror.”

[salin]

10. what are the key subpoints

failing America (by huge deficits? by draining social security to ensure it won't exist for gen x retirements? by turning a blind eye to the Enrons? by selling environmental protection off to big donors? by assuring India that he would prevent states from enacting policies to stem the flow of jobs out of the US and to India?... so many directions that this could take)

A couple of bullet points of the areas within these big points - could help come up with a powerful closing statement.

[rocktop15]

11. subpoints...

The 3 million jobs lost, 2/3 of tax cuts went to top 10%, deficit, unjustified Iraqi war, saddam or osama, world bully, patriot act, terrorism is a never ending war. Hope that helped

[salin]

16. not as rhetorically strong as the advice below

but... could end with:

"Unlike the tv show Dallas, we won't be able to re-write the past three years as a bad dream. The only way out of this (bush-created) nightmare is for GWBush to be sent back to Texas in November."

[King_Crimson]

24. Here ya go...

This from Judge Robert Jackson's statement at Nuremberg...

"Repeatedly, nations have united in abstract declarations that the launching of aggresive war is ILLEGAL. They have condemned it by treaty. But now we have the concrete application of these abstractions in a way which ought to make clear to those who lead their nations into aggressive war face INDIVIDUAL accountability for such acts".

"If we can cultivate in the world the idea that aggressive war making is the surest way to the prisoner's dock rather than the way to honor's, we will have accomplished something toward making the peace more secure".

[Bluebear]

6. ..

"Whatever one's political leanings are, one fact is indisputable. Bush promised to restore 'dignity' to the Office and to be a uniter, not a divider. America in 2004 is divided like never before in its history since the Civil War. How will history judge the Presidency of George W. Bush? In his own words, it doesn't matter as 'we'll all be dead', and that stunning disregard for his own legacy may be the most telling aspect of his term."

[Skip Intro]

7. Can we not agree, that America is better than this?

Or that America deserves better than this or than bush or something like that?

:shrug:

[rocktop15]

8. good suggestions--anymore?

[dweller]

9. tell them

God told you so...

take it from there.
dp

[rocktop15]

12. bump

thx

[markses]

13. In traditional rhetorical theory

You would end with the strong points, but you'd wanna give it some flash with figuration. The point is to rev up the listeners, and figures of repetition tend to work really well here. So, you might try anaphora or, the repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of each clause. (Famous, of course: "We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender...Notice that Churchill's example also does a nice job of switching up the verb in the final clause - it builds to the most important point, another rhetorical technique you might use here).

So, you might bill the final paragraph as a summary that begins each clause with "Bush has failed..." if that is the theme of your speech; then arrange the ways he has failed in an orderly fashion.


And so we see the sad catalogue of failure. Bush has failed our children and teenagers with his disastrous education policies. Bush has failed our college students; he has failed our young people. Bush has failed our soldiers, our sailors, our Marines and our air force. Bush has failed our police and firefighters. Bush has failed our new families. Bush has failed our young workers. Bush has failed our middle class. Bush has failed our parents and our seniors, substituting shimmering pablum and double entry bookkeeping for solid policy and responsible healthcare. Bush has failed our cities, our once vibrant and towering cityscapes. Bush has failed our towns, our farms, our factories and our countryside. Bush has failed our mighty forests, from sea to shining sea, pumping poison into the air. Bush has failed us in every arena of life, and - with his ill-conceived foreign adventures - Bush has even failed and dishonored our dead.

But because Bush has failed us so mightily, we must succeed. We must succeed laying bare Bush's failures. We must succeed in developing responsible policy. We must succeed in repairing our alliances and rebuilding our global stature. We must succeed in caring for our kids, in caring for our seniors, in caring for our men and women in uniform, in caring for our land, our air, our water, our cities, our towns, our farms. We must succeed. Bush has always had the luxury of failure, and so he thinks that everyone has such luxuries. I do not have this luxury; We do not have this luxury; America does not have this luxury; the world does not have this luxury. No. Not the warm and pampered luxury of failure, but the cold and determined necessity of success. Bush can fail, and Bush has failed - but we - we - must succeed."

etc. You get the idea.

[linazelle]

14. Wonderful job, you're very talented

:yourock:

[markses]

15. Nothing that Cicero and Quintilian didn't know

;-)

[salin]

17. huge thumbsup

I went for clever - you went for powerful and effective - this has my vote!

[TahitiNut]

18. Extraordinary.

:thumbsup:

"... - but we - We The People - we must succeed. We must not let George do it any more."

:shrug:

[markses]

19. Yeah. I dig it.

"but we - We The People - we must succeed. We must take away George's silver spoon of failure, and instead fill our common cups with an old dream of a new America."

These are just techniques, really. I dig the Ike quotation cuz it's obviously following similar figural precepts:

Every gun that is made,
every warship launched,
every rocket signifies,

in the final sense, a theft

from those who hunger and are not fed,
from those who are cold and are not clothed.

The world in arms is not spending money alone.

It is spending
the sweat of its laborers,
the genius of its scientists,
the hopes of its children.

[TahitiNut]

20. I like that.

(I guess I don't avoid cliches as much as some. Depends on the audience.)

Yes, Ike's quotation is an excellent example of powerful, concise rhetoric. (I yearn for such 'sound bites' these days.) Besides anaphora (great term), it's also a good example of the "power of three's" ... such fraternal triplets seem to have an ancient, almost mystical, power.

[guitar man]

21. Ending

Can YOU see the Emporer's clothes? I sure as hell can't!

[Nailzberg]

22. San Dimas High School Football rules!!

:headbang:

[cornfedyank]

23. the man said a press conference question was too much pressure

if he can not think under pressure, should he be the most powerful man in the world??
about pressure. i remember once hearing a major league ball player asked about the pressure of coming up to bat late in a big game. his was the best answer i have ever heard. he said "pressure? there isn't any pressure here. pressure is having a family and trying to meet their needs with a 40hr job and no education. baseball is just a game.

well this is not a game. * is inept and about as smart as half a cup of dirt. presidential decisions affect too many current and future lives to be left to idiots and assholes.

wage peace----it's cheaper

40hrs/week x $2/hr =$80/wk x 50wks/year = $4000/year

23,000,000 iraqis x $4000 = $92 billion/year

hire them all

[Nlighten1]

25. Indeed...

Even at such low wages it would give the impression that there is social and economic justice...much more so that dropping bombs on them.