Dude, Be Obscure

If you sound like you know what you're talking about, people will assume you do.

   Oratory uses rhetoric to sell a concept; that is, to persuade others to agree with whatever is the message of the day, whether it be political, religious or a product for sale.
   Speakers skilled in the techniques of rhetoric use fact and suggestion to imply a conclusion. They build on a strong base of beliefs held by the audience, then start them on a rhetorical road and wait for them to infer a conclusion.
   When done right, the speaker leads the audience to jump to a desired conclusion, sparing the speaker the risk of saying it directly. That way, if there is a negative backlash from a larger population, the speaker can deny having said anything negative. The speaker can claim he is not responsible for erroneous conclusions and opinions made by those in the audience.
   What's better? Brevity. Say what you have to say, be done with it and stop. Longer is not necessarily better.  An editor once said, "If you can't tell the story in  500 words, you can't tell it. And the story hasn't been written that can't be cut."   
   Politics today seems to be more of a shouting match than anything else. It's a competition to see who can talk longer, louder and say less than the other guy.  It's more an appeal to emotion than to reason. That, of course, is one of the techniques of rhetoric, to appeal to emotion. One of the slogans of the Barry Goldwater presidential campaign was, "In your heart, you know he's right." However, many people vote from the head, not the heart.
   In the first Nixon-Kennedy presidential debate, those who heard it on radio felt Nixon won, while those who watched on television said Kennedy won. That's an example of image defeating reason.
   Smart campaigners use all the techniques of rhetoric and persuasion: especially image, reason and emotion, and tailor their message to the preferences of whoever the audience of the day is.