One of the key aspects to noticing a controlled candidate is the speech, cadence and distinct linguistics used during prepared remarks.
When a candidate is authentic in delivery of advocacy points, their speech is a natural flow of thoughts and ideas they create in verbal delivery. However, when a politician is delivering a speech constructed for them, using the thoughts of others, you will notice a cadence constructed around a series of soundbites that are strung together.
Ron DeSantis kicked-off his official Iowa campaign today literally reading prepared remarks that did not come from his own thought processes. When delivering a speech from the thoughts of others, there is an emphasis on the reading of it; in the example we highlight today with DeSantis the reading is extreme. You can see below.
This is not to say that speech writers are not useful, they are. Almost all politicians use speech writers to assist them in putting their thoughts into words to assist communication. The key is to use the candidates’ thoughts. However, when the thoughts themselves are not from the candidate, there is a very different outcome in delivery.
This is what becomes very visible with Ron DeSantis.
As candidates, Dr. Ben Carson and Newt Gingrich wrote most of their speech scripts and delivered their own thoughts on points of policy and advocacy. President Trump also communicates his own thoughts through speeches written from them. When the thoughts are from the candidate, you will notice a tone of authenticity in the delivery. Speeches delivered by people like Tucker Carlson and Jordan Peterson also communicate with authenticity because the thoughts conveyed are their own.
Conversely, in traditional politics there are candidates who do not convey their own thoughts and end up reading speeches that are disjointed with emphasis misplaced, syllables in wrong context, and carrying an odd syntax and cadence. The more disconnected from the thoughts of the reader, the odder the delivery.
The worst examples of reading other people’s thoughts to assist their own communication, come from Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg. Governor Nikki Haley also struggles with this, and to a lesser extent so does Mike Pence and other well-known republicans.
Three of the more noticeable political figures, somewhere in the middle of the extremes was Hillary Clinton, Jeb Bush and George ‘Dubya’ Bush. The best orator to transfer the thoughts of others into his own linguistic delivery was probably Barack Obama. One of the reasons for Obama’s success was due to his team all having the same ideological outlooks. Obama delivered convincing words because his thoughts and the thoughts of his speech writers were in synergy.
The bottom line is that when a political operation is poll-testing, highly managed and heavily scripted, there is a noticeable lack of authenticity in the speeches of the candidate. The reason is quite simple; the speeches are assembled from disconnected ‘talking points’ or ‘soundbites’ and then an effort is put toward sequencing them for candidate communication.
Once you notice the issue of reading the ‘thoughts of others‘ it is almost impossible not to see it when you watch the speech being delivered. This issue is very clear today in the remarks from Ron DeSantis in Iowa. Unbeknownst to most casual political observers, DeSantis has always been heavily influenced and managed by others throughout his career. However, now it is starting to become more noticeable.
The venue is a mega-church in Des Moines. Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds introduces Ron DeSantis to the church audience, and immediately the Florida governor starts reading the script. Watch how much time he spends literally reading the words. WATCH for a minute and you will see:
