Le Sixième

The most important thing that a speaker brings to their speech is credibility. If a speaker seems as if they don't know what they're talking about then there is no way the audience will listen to their message. The speakers I have encountered in the past have either captured my attention and made me really think about their message or they have made it seem like they didn't really care about the topic and seemed like they were just scripted. The speakers who I can remember having the biggest impact were very enthuastic and natural. They also used facts along with personal knowledge to make their appeal.
The speaker who made the best emotional appeal to me was my own Mom. She just had a way of digging deep down and making me think about what she was trying to get through my head. The speaker who made the most moving logical appeal was when our high school police officer gave a speech to our school about the laws around our town. She made it very easy to understand and used a lot of evidence and facts about crime and why we all needed to avoid that lifestyle. The speaker who made the best need based appeal was when I went into downtown St.Paul while the Republican National Convention was here. While I was hippying it out with awesome people I stumbed upon an older lady talking about our basic needs and how the government was supressing them. I'm not a hardcore hippy or anything like that but she was so passionate and made appeals that made sense that it was hard not to think like she was.
Embodying my Mother, a Police Officer, and a hippy in my speeches may seem like an odd combination, but really they all have something that can be learned. From my Mom I can learn how to dig in emotionally. I can learn how to deliver facts and logic to an audience from the cop. And from the old hippy woman I can learn how to use peoples basic needs to gain more support for what I am pursuading the audience to believe.

If you had the choice would you rather listen to a speech given by a Mom, a police officer, or a hippy? Who's do you think would be the most effective when trying to persuade their audience? Why?