Some commenters have suggested that I shouldn’t have conceded Barack Obama is a good speaker in my column today on the main site. I agree his recent speeches have been pretty pedestrian and even the speeches that are considered his best are to some extent a matter of taste. And of course there is the teleprompter business.

But there is one thing about his speechmaking that I don’t think is so subjecive: Barack Obama is president of the United States because of two speeches — his speech announcing that he opposed the Iraq war before it started and his keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. Even if you hate both speeches, that’s got to count for something. Well, except when it comes to governing.