Election 2012: A Tale of Two Speeches

A favourite line from President Obama’s speeches over the last few years has been…

The time for talk is over

And the time for talk is indeed over, for the moment. Both he and his challenger for the Presidency, Mitt Romney, have stopped campaigning as the votes pour in.

The challenger took some time today, election day, to serve up a few more speeches in Ohio and Pennsylvania. That’s in addition to yesterday’s speeches in Florida, Virginia, Ohio and New Hampshire…an 18 hour day for Mitt Romney.

Mitt Romney gets ready for another speech

This campaign might not have been marked by its oratory and rhetoric as last time around. President Obama is a known entity for his public speaking and Mitt Romney took quite a while to fashion his stump speech.

Supporter in chief Bill Clinton is an exception. His speeches are always an exception. His speech at the Democrats nomination conference remains a highlight of the whole campaign.

His solid support for the President’s campaign has earned him the Presidential sobriquet, Secretary for Explaining Stuff.

But even with the support of the former President, the polls suggest that this is going to be a close contest both in terms of the popular vote and the electoral college. The suggestion has to be that both candidates should take the time out to prepare two speeches. One for victory and the other for concession.

I sense that neither of the two candidates will really know which speech they will be called upon to deliver until the will of the people is clear tomorrow.

Until then it’s anyone’s guess.