JFK's Inaugural Speech: what makes it great oratory?

[Matilda]

President John F Kennedy would have been delighted to know that his inaugural address is still remembered and admired 50 years later.

Like other great communicators - including Winston Churchill before him and Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama since then - he was someone who took word-craft very seriously indeed.

He had delegated his aide Ted Sorensen to read all the previous presidential inaugurals, with the additional brief of trying to crack the code that had made Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg address such a hit.

(snip)

The fact that so much of the speech is still remembered around the world 50 years later is a measure of Kennedy's success in knowing exactly what he wanted to say, how best to say it and, perhaps most important of all, to whom he should say it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12215248

[H2O Man]

1. It was a great speech,

with a heck of a delivery. And it really was the passing of the torch to a new generation.

[niyad]

2. this whole deal about raygun being a great communicator is nonsense. the man could barely read his

lines, and most of what he said was nonsense.

[Axrendale]

3. Easily one of the top three inaugural addresses in American history

The other two being FDR's first, and Lincoln's second.

[Goblinmonger]

4. Usually considered one of the top 3 American speeches

of all time. Usually it is JFK, FDR's inaugural, and I Have a Dream. I would probably put Nixon's Checker's speech up near the top, too. Don't know why I just thought of that.