Thanks to the persuasive powers of David Meerman Scott, I decided to take a work day to attend a Vice-President Biden rally in New Hampshire – his first.  One of the advantages of living nearby in Massachusetts is that you can easily get to this political hotspot and back in a day.  David is once again making a marketing study of the strategies and techniques of the various candidates, and he likes to attend many of their personal appearances.  He and his wife Yukari Watanabe have been to a dozen so far.

That’s no mean feat, either, as you’ll realize when you understand that in order to have any chance to get inside where the candidate is speaking, you have to show up at least an hour ahead of the published time.  And then the odds are good that the show will be running late.  It was an hour and a half after I arrived that the strains of the Beatles’ “Come Together” wafted through the pizzeria where the event was held, and after introductions by New Hampshire state representatives Tom Loughman and Mike Edgar, Joe finally took the stage.  About an hour of that waiting time was standing outside in the unseasonably cold Spring weather we New Englanders have had so far.

My interest was in the speechmaking, of course, and so let’s cut to the verbal chase.  How did the speakers do?

Tom Loughman is a pretty good speaker.  He partly read his speech, but it was articulate and delivered with some panache.  Mike Edgar was so nervous that he read his speech verbatim from a clipboard, and it was frankly a fairly weak performance.

And Joe?  Sadly, I don’t think V-P Biden is ready – yet – for prime time.  He rambled, got lost in his speech, frequently apologized for going on too long, and used the same stock phrases over and over again.  He had a roomful of supporters and came close to losing his audience.  There were only two applause lines in the entire speech.  He needs to work on becoming much clearer, more vivid, and more concise in his remarks.  He needs to tell better stories.  His best moments were in his answers during the Q and A, and his best answer was when he talked about his father, fighting the abuse of power, and his sponsorship of the Violence Against Women Act.

His body language signaled his lack of focus:  he wandered around the small stage area set aside for him, at random.  Indeed, he turned his back on one woman who had asked a question as he got lost in his answer and rambled over to the other side of the room.  She would have had every reason to feel snubbed.  I don’t think he won her vote with that answer.

Mr. Biden is a transparently decent, kind, and honorable politician.  His heart is obviously in the right place.  But he needs to sharpen his oratory or he won’t be able to go the distance.

A few pics from the Vice President Biden event.  

Joe preps while Mike Edgar introduces him.

Joe making his pitch to the NH crowd.

V-P Biden and this blogger!