I was forced as a child to listen to all of President Kennedy's speeches at jr. high school.  That would be one reason I don't like this tripe.  It can be boring tripe. Or good quality tripe.  But these days, all this crap tells you is:

1.  In the rare case where the candidate writes his own speeches, it tells you whether he can write.

2.  Otherwise, it tells you whether he can read tripe convincingly.

In other words, it tells you nothing at all substantive.  Just because a politician uses it doesn't mean he is 'bad', only that he is Business as Usual.

In short, "Don't watch their eyes.  Watch their hands."

Obama has one big plus for me, that he originally came out against the war.  This would impress me even more if I didn't feel that it might have been a calculated ploy to get money from DFA when he was one of the original Dean Dozen.  You weren't getting money from DFA if you were Pro War in 2003/2004.

Other than that, he's a blank slate, maybe bad, maybe good.