Sorry, just catching up.
You're right, of course. Look, I'm an admirer of concision, but not necessarily in speeches. What works as a speech--these days I think of Joseph Lowery or Cecil Roberts--doesn't necessarily work as a document. If you've never heard a series of African American preachers outdoing each other you've really missed something, but this is to be heard, not read. Such a speech starts out low, monotone, almost inaudible, laying down layers of fact until the facts themselves seem to create a disturbing rumble which over the course of twelve or twenty minutes generates an avalanche of indignation and fury for which the speaker is merely the vehicle and which makes it seem probable, even to an atheist like me, that god is just now about to hurl down fiery rocks on the perpetrators of injustice. So maybe Everitt fired up the troops, and Lincoln summed up the war.
I've had the experience of trying to make cogent points in 3 minutes at rallies and it's not so much that one can't spit out points--one hopes in an interesting way--but that it's hard to so quickly engage people so they'll give a damn what you're saying.
Jenny Brown