Mr. Ford’s chief speechwriter Robert Hartman, along with a few others on the staff, worked for weeks on the speech.  The President himself studied every previous acceptance address (of either party) since 1948.  He knew that a home run performance was his best chance to get back in the game.

Ford practiced the speech on videotape.  He watched the video over and over again - even up to the beginning of the nomination roll call.  The reviews were nearly universally favorable with Time Magazine calling the address “the best of his presidency and perhaps of his career.”   Though he would lose to Mr. Carter in November, his convention appearance sparked a surge that moved him to within striking distance.   

The gold standard, however, for come-from-behind acceptance speeches, not to mention campaigns, has to be that of Harry S. Truman in 1948.  By the time of the convention, he was being dismissed as irrelevant and the election of Thomas Dewey of New York was widely considered to be inevitable.  

Even Bess Truman didn’t think her husband could win.       

The party was divided several ways, the Republicans had won big in the off-year elections two years earlier, and Truman himself didn’t seem to inspire anyone.  The Democrats gathered in Philadelphia where the Republicans had met three weeks earlier.  The city of brotherly love was strategically located along the path of a new coaxial cable, thus conducive to television coverage. 

Something happened then and there to the Man from Missouri when he addressed a fractious convention and weary television viewers.  He reached down deep into himself and found a spark that would be fanned into a flame.  The great Methodist preacher, John Wesley, once revealed the secret to his success as a speaker: “I set myself on fire and people come to watch me burn.”  That’s what Mr. Truman did that night – and for the rest of the campaign.

Far from the tightly scripted and carefully choreographed moments we have come to expect from political stars today, President Truman had to give his important speech while circumstances were spinning out of anyone’s control.  His nomination wasn’t secured until 1:48 a.m. and some wanted him to wait a day to deliver the speech.  But Harry was ready and didn’t want to delay at all.  The convention hall was overheated and the convention agenda far behind schedule – yet he was able to maintain his edge and couldn’t wait to come out fighting.

Then, just as he was ready to come to the platform and during Sam Rayburn’s introduction, a woman carrying a large Liberty Bell made of flowers seized the microphone.  She had a point to make.  Her flower arrangement was accompanied by four dozen “doves of peace,” and she set them free.  The birds went crazy, having been caged for hours in the heat.  One publication reported that, “the dignitaries on the platform cringed and shrank away like troops before a strafing attack.” 

That was a tough act to follow, but Mr. Truman ignored the distractions, as well as the problems in his party, and gave the speech of his life.  It had been decided that the president would not speak from a manuscript, but rather from an outline describing basic talking points.  Aides had recently noticed a tremendous difference in how their boss had been able to connect with audiences when he departed from a prepared text.  It set him free and, as one biographer said, “he was suddenly a very interesting man of great candor who discussed the problems of American leadership with men as neighbors.”

Robert Schlesinger, in his book, White House Ghosts: Presidents and Their Speechwriters from FDR to George W. Bush, has calculated that only about forty percent of Truman’s words that morning were actually written in his notes.  It was a technique he would further develop to perfection during his whistle-stop campaign that fall. 

The recent forum at Saddleback Church in California showed Americans a side of Mr. McCain that is reminiscent of the Truman transformation sixty years ago.  He was relaxed, witty, informal, and transparent.  And Obama played the Dewey role that night. 

As the conventions convene, followed by the campaign to come, it remains to be seen if McCain can continue to compete so effectively.   Some polls now have him in the lead.  But there is one thing for sure - by developing and delivering the speech of his life with passion, conviction, and vision, he could teach young Mr. Young-Whipper-Snapper-Rock-Star a thing or two about politics – and leadership.   

Maybe John McCain should try to spend a night or two out on Long Island at Gurney’s Inn.  The Skipper’s Cottage can be rented for a mere $1,600.00 a night these days.    

By the way, Richard Nixon went back out there after his election in 1968.  He stopped for a pineapple sundae at a local ice cream stand and got his picture in the town paper.  It would be thirty years before local residents would have another chance for a presidential glimpse.  The Clintons went there in 1998.