I didn’t think much of his debate performance, but even Cllinton praises him as a “messenger”/communicator.
Bush has trouble with rehearsed speeches and saying the same thing over and over again. His stump speeches are horribly stilted and if you saw his debate oratory you probably cringed.
When he is being candid, though, or moves off the script about something in which he believes, he is an incredible speaker. I’ve seen him mess up once or twice and lose his way from the script and the real, honest speech he went with was incredible. The verbal gaffes nearly disappear, he doesn’t pause after each line and he doesn’t sound like an elementary school student reciting a memorized poem.
So, yes, Bush is a much better “real world” communicator than he gets credit for. His is horrible at planned or formal speeches. He is one of the better speakers in comfortable, informal settings.
My husband is anything but a Bush supporter, yet when he met him in person he said he had to admit he was impressed by his charisma.
He also has a great team.
What ever message they have had to get out they do. LIke Saddam has WMD and is about to give them to OBL at any moment!
I always hated those backgrounds that he has. The ones that have two words on them repeated over and over so any still image of him has those words. Phrases like “Jobs and Growth”. I guess they work.
I think he is "more likable” than is properly understood in the main stream media – and by folks to whom his politics are such that looking at him objectively as a speaker is very difficult- and partially IMO this comes from his humor which is both self-deprecating and sharp edged and almost mean.
I have rarely heard him speak off the cuff that he didn’t crack the assembled up a couple of times. This was demonstrated in the 2nd debate and in his news conference in the White House a couple days ago. In both he broke up the assembled. However it has really been a pretty constant thing, this getting the press or crowd to laugh with him or at his opponent and not AT him since 2000.
That helps, making people laugh, often enough at your expense - to make people like you. The whole “stratergy” thing has really turned a negative for him into a humanizing positive.