How To Make A Historic Speech

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In preparation for this night of dramatic speech-making, we encourage you to take a trip around the internet to see what history has to offer in this department. Oh look, we've done the hard work for you! Here are links to the highest ranked convention addresses from American Rhetoric's list of the top 100 speeches of the 20th century*:

Barbara Jordan in 1976 (rank on the top 100 list: 5)
[url=http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mariocuomo1984dnc.htm]
Mario Cuomo[/url] in 1984 (rank: 11)

Jesse Jackson also in 1984 (rank: 12)
[url=http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/annrichards1988dnc.htm]
Dorothy Ann Willis Richards[/url] in 1988 (rank: 38)

Jesse Jackson also in 1988 (rank: 51)

Hubert Humphrey in 1948 (rank: 66)
[url=http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/tedkennedy1980dnc.htm]
Ted Kennedy[/url] in 1980 (rank: 76)

Elizabeth Glaser in 1992 (rank: 81)

And look again, someone's done the hard work for us! Here are a handful of other people's lists of must-watch convention speeches: Readers Digest, Real Clear Politics, and U.S. News and World Report.

*This is an important distinction, because it leaves off Obama's 2004 convention speech, and William Jennings Bryan's in 1896, both of which are on virtually every other list.