I just don't get it when i hear people say Obama is a great speaker–maybe because i don't have TV and those predictable pauses just cause me to switch radio channels…or maybe it's the marijuana voice.

John T Reed: Is Barack Obama really the great speaker everyone has been saying?.

He frequently pauses randomly and for no reason other than mesmerizing the audience. This has the effect of drawing the audience up onto the front edge of their chairs as they instinctively strain to hear what the person is saying. Obama’s fellow Chicagoan, the late Paul Harvey, was the master of the theatrical pause. In Paul Harvey’s hands, the pause was the tool of a mastercraftsman, strategically placed when used, not random, not a cheap trick.