Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal’s chief of staff inferred that the reason his boss’s Democratic response speech got such bad reviews was because he followed the President. “It’s a challenge for anybody to follow Obama. The guy is one of the most gifted speakers of our generation,” said Timmy Teepell.

That’s probably true. The problem is, Jindal would have also looked bad following one of the least gifted speakers of our time, George W. Bush.

One pundit described the speech as “amateurish.” I agree. What’s surprising is that a state governor and someone thought to be the future of the Republican party could have performed so poorly.

Both the content and delivery were sub par. Yes, he told stories, but the stories were stupid and out of place. His arguments for less government were superficial and not the right message for the speech he was giving. He tried to be friendly and conversational, but it came across as forced. While the delivery got a bit better as he went along, much of it was sing song with repetitive, irritating gestures.

If Jindal aspires to run for national office, he’d better get some speech coaching.

It’s one thing for CEOs in the ivory tower to make PR blunders (for example, the big three automakers taking private jets to beg for money from Congress), but a CEO who is a former PR exec? What’s his excuse?

In January, 2008, Brian Tierney, CEO of The Philadelphia Inquirer demanded a 10% pay cut from employees. Meanwhile, four months later, his own salary went up 3% to $618,000. Then, around Christmas time, he got an even bigger boost — a 38% increase to $850,000.

Tierney spent 22 years in public relations and advertising before putting together the investment group that bought The Inquirer in 2006. For much of that time he ran his own firm. He represented high profile clients such as the Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia. He was active in Republican politics, working on George Bush’s 2000 Presidential campaign and Sam Katz’s 2003 run for Philadelphia mayor. He even spoke at PRSAs International Conference in 2007.

Word got out about Tierney taking away money from his employees while lining his own pockets. How? His company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy over the weekend.

Now the not-so-savvy former PR exec has decided to give back his $232,000 pay raise. A spokesman said Tierney didn’t want the issue of his raise to become a “sideshow” to the filing.

Maybe that’s the kind of thing a so-called PR strategist should have thought about ahead of time.

Whether or not President Barack Obama can work miracles with the economy, health care, and all the other problems we’re facing, one thing we can all be happy about: once again we have a leader in the White House who knows how to communicate.

No matter what you thought about George Bush’s actions during the last eight years, you have to agree his way with words was often laughable and at times, embarrassing. Just Google “George Bushisms” and you’ll be reminded of some doozies, enough faux pas to fill 35 books offered on Amazon.com.

•    “Rarely is the question asked, is our children learning?”
•    “They misunderestimated the compassion of our country. I think they misunderestimated the compassion of the commander in chief, too.”
•    “There is no doubt in my mind, not one doubt in my mind that we will fail.”

And no matter what you think about President Obama’s political views, you have to admit that now we have a leader with speaking skills we can not only applaud, but also emulate. Bush won elections in spite of his ability to communicate. Obama won because of his abilities.

We’ve already seen plenty to showcase his talents. His first major speech, at the 2004 Democratic convention, made such an impact it rocketed him to national prominence and set the stage for his presidential run.

More recently, Obama wowed critics and pundits with his nomination acceptance speech and his speech on election night. His inauguration speech, though not a spectacular effort for the President, was far and above what many can deliver.

Content
So what does Obama do that makes him such a powerful communicator? First, of course, a good speech starts with how it’s written. Here Obama shines (with help from his writers). He knows how to phrase things conversationally, yet poetically and eloquently.

He effectively uses oratorical techniques such as repetition — “Yes we can.” He understands how to use contrasts — “…and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.” And he regularly employs the rule of three — “…our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.”

Emotion
Obama knows that abstract ideas don’t register with audiences emotionally, so he uses specifics. Instead of saying, “We are lucky to have freedom of speech in this country,” he says “We can say and write what we think without hearing a knock on the door.”

He tells stories. This skill separates run-of-the-mill speakers from awesome ones, and Obama knows how to do it right. In his acceptance speech on election night he used a powerful anecdote about 106-year-old Ann Nixon Cooper, who grew up in a time when neither women nor African Americans could vote. Yet here she was in 2008 casting a vote for a Black man.

Delivery
Once the speech flows on paper, Obama delivers. He is cool, calm and confident, yet passionate when he needs to be. While many speakers underestimate the power of their voice, Obama makes skillful use of his. He lowers and raises his volume, speeds up and slows down his pace, and most importantly, he pauses.

Obama’s not perfect
While Obama reads the Teleprompter better than most, he could learn to be better. He does too many right and left motions too quickly and too predictably, as if he’s watching a tennis match. He needs to spend longer on each side. He also should expand his eye contact points away from the prompter, including the far left, far right, and middle.

Obama also communicates well without a script. But he has one annoying habit. He continually says “ah” when he talks. It’s only going to get more irritating as we hear more and more of him. If he can quit his smoking habit for wife Michelle, he can certainly break that verbal tic for us!

If you value communication and want to improve your own, the next four years will present plenty of opportunity to look, listen and learn.

A seven minute, 42-second-long answer. A six minute answer. Three and four minute answers. Even listening to the most powerful person in the world — and a verbally adept one at that — I (and much of the rest of America) just don’t have the attention span to listen intently to someone talking that long. (A 50-second answer was a welcome relief.)

Obama is refreshingly articulate (especially compared to our last President). He “knows his stuff.”  But he needs to answer more succinctly. Whether we like it or not, this is a soundbite society. No matter how long his answer, the media (and the public) will boil it down to one sentence or ten seconds — if they even understand the bottom line.  Better for him to boil it down for us so we can focus on the essence of his answer.

Obama is such a good communicator, I know he will figure it out: he doesn’t have to show how smart he is by saying everything he knows. One of the hardest things for knowledgeable people to do is decide what to leave out.

The good: Knowledgeable, transparent, friendly and conversational. And — He handled one of the first of many questions about loose-cannon Joe Biden effectively.

The not-so-good: Near the beginning of the Q and A, he repeated a negative while answering a question about bipartisanship. “I don’t think I underestimated it.” [How hard it would be to change the way Washington works]

But, here’s the best news: at least he didn’t say “misunderestimate.”

Remember how hard reporters tried (to no avail) to get George Bush to admit he made mistakes in Iraq? Well, just two weeks into his administration, President Barack Obama has admitted that he “screwed up” by supporting nominees who had tax and lobbying problems.

“I’m here on television saying I screwed up and that’s part of the era of responsibility, is not never making mistakes; it’s owning up to them and trying to make sure you never repeat them and that’s what we intend to do.”

If only all politicians and business people understood and practiced this pretty much fail safe PR rule: admit your mistakes and move on. (I always wonder what would have happened to Richard Nixon if he had admitted and apologized about the Watergate debacle.)

For Obama, fessing up was even more important because he campaigned on “change” in government. The soundbite, “I screwed up,” is bound to haunt him some time in the future. (I can see it played in a Republican commercial when Obama is running for re-election.)

Even so, it was the right thing to do and earns him the respect of all of us humble humans who make mistakes — despite our best efforts — and try not to repeat them.