McCain, Obama and their uneven gifts of gab

Take away the script and the arena, substitute an uncontrolled exchange with voters close up, and it can be a different story.

"Senator Obama does not as readily or as convincingly express empathy in these environments as does Senator McCain. Senator Obama seems detached, analytic, and professorial at times. Senator McCain has a quick wit."

Jamieson puts Obama on par with Ronald Reagan in their delivery of formal speeches, and says his windups are something to behold.

"Senator Obama makes skillful use of history to argue that his candidacy marks a major moment for America. His perorations are masterful," she said, while McCain's are flat.

Passages that rivet crowds
Yet Obama's big speeches may not be fully successful.

"Some passages in Senator Obama's speeches draw attention to their rhetorical artistry," Jamieson contends. "They seem self-consciously crafted. The text of a speech should not draw attention to its means of persuasion."

Video McCain takes questions at town hall June 26: John McCain talks about the energy and the housing crisis, plus responds to audience members' questions at a town hall meeting in Ohio. MSNBC

She says both men make effective use of their personal story to heighten the audience's response.

"In one case, audiences know that they are hearing a person whose mother came from Kansas and father from Kenya. In Senator McCain's case — a former POW who behaved heroically under all but unimaginable circumstances."

Obama's declaration that America is not a nation of red states and blue states but of United States has raised goose bumps on Republicans as well as Democrats and demonstrates how repetitious words and passages can rivet a crowd.

It's one of his signature moments — introduced at the 2004 convention. His voice rises with the phrase and he lifts his hand as if holding a pencil or handing over a train ticket.

Similarly, but more aggressively, John Kennedy wagged his index finger at quickening intervals as he asserted in his 1961 inaugural address: "Ask NOT what your country can do for YOU, ask what YOU-CAN-DO-FOR-YOUR-COUNTRY."

Robin Lakoff, a linguistics professor at the University of California at Berkeley whose books include "The Language War," said Obama has tapped Kennedy's ability to be in tune with the times, even if his phrases are not yet for the history books.

He also reflects some of Reagan's skill at making a conversational connection.

"And he does it without anything dialectal," she added, noting Bill Clinton used his Southern accent to convey warmth.

"Obama speaks purely standard American English," said Lakoff, a Democrat. "Nevertheless, he has fashioned it into this warm, folksy kind of instrument."

Lakoff sees only limited use of black rhetorical traditions in Obama's speech — not the rhyming, rhythms, cadences or flamboyance associated with Jesse Jackson, the late attorney Johnnie Cochran ("If it doesn't fit, you must acquit") or the incomparable Martin Luther King Jr.

"He doesn't sound black unless he deliberately wants to, but that's very seldom."

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