The guy was looking downright presidential. He’s got that square jaw and an expensive suit. And those regular workouts don’t hurt one bit.
We’re talkin’ about the newly minted Vancouver mayor. Mr. Tim Leavitt.
Earlier this week I snuck into his State of the City address over at the Hilton.
And, overall, I’d give it good marks. He was straightforward, he spoke about the difficult days ahead and he finished with the idea that he’s an optimist.
Good stuff.
(Now don’t forget what you just read here, because I’m going to critique the address and — by definition — “critique” is a word that is joined at the hip to another word: criticism. But the criticism is intended only to make things better.
(You see, the mayor and I have a lot in common. We both want to make things better. Yes we do. Yes we can. Whatever.)
OK, me being a speech minor in college and all, I have to say the speech delivery needs some work.
It was flat and — in my view — didn’t inspire those in attendance.
Now, I’m the first to say that content is king. That is: What you say is more important than how you say it. We use that value here at The Columbian.
But that shouldn’t suggest that how you write a story or deliver a speech is unimportant.
So delivery is usually the catalyst to inspire an audience. And one way to gauge that is being interrupted by applause. Think of those State of the Union speeches that presidents deliver. The president is constantly being stopped as those in attendance crank up the volume.
When former Mayor Royce Pollard (he was there, by the way) did these, it wasn’t unusual for him to be stopped half a dozen times with applause. Sure, Pollard was a character, but still …
Leavitt’s number? Zero.
o o o
Speaking of zero, that would be the number of times Leavitt used the word “toll” in his speech. You do remember Leavitt’s campaign strategy? It was pretty simple and effective: “I don’t support tolls to help pay for the new I-5 bridge.”
There was a ton of push-back on that during the campaign — by The Columbian as well — because anyone who knew anything about this proposed bridge said it would have to include tolls. Well, anyone except Leavitt.
So when he finally brought the bridge thing up in his speech, his “no toll” view was nowhere to be found. Missing in action.
I saw it as his attempt to avoid this contentious, controversial issue. As you might imagine, Leavitt saw it differently. After the speech, he would tell me: “There is nothing new or more for me to say about that issue. No point in rehashing old news.”
Fair enough. We’ll agree to disagree.
o o o
Finally, there was that little message he sent The Columbian in his address. He told the audience he wanted to give them some straight talk, something that didn’t have to come through “sensationalized” headlines and “uninformed” editorials.
Mr. Mayor!
I had to simply chuckle at that one. But — just like me — he has opinions.
In the end, it’s important to support Leavitt. Sure, we’ll point out the bad as well as the good stuff on our opinion pages from time to time. And if I were a betting man, I’d bet that this guy is going to be good for Vancouver. And that he will, overall, do very well.
He’s actually quite likeable. And if he takes a few speech tips, you’ll see that come through.
Lou Brancaccio is The Columbian’s editor. Reach him at 360-735-4505 or lou.brancaccio@columbian.com.
