Is Obama Winning Because Of His Voice?

I've half-seriously mentioned it in previous posts as an asset, but didn't really think much about it beyond that. Turns out it may be more of an asset than I realized. Here's an interesting article in Salon discussing vocal timbre and its political…resonance. 

Choice cut:

What is it about Barack Obama's baritone?

Aside from the symbolism of finding a new hero who might displace the shame and fear that has poisoned American public life since Martin Luther King's murder in 1968, there is something in the very essence of Obama's voice -- its tone, its timbre, its resonance -- that has struck deep chords among Americans and foreigners in this year's campaign season. Not since King's "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963 has a black American moved so many other Americans, white or black. And once the matter of voice was raised for Obama, a not always flattering parallel immediately arose concerning the voice of the first real female candidate in U.S. history: Hillary Clinton.

Eager to probe deeper into the chords of the candidates, I called two of the world's specialists on what moves us as listeners to others' voices, Lotfi Mansouri and Rick Harrell, who have coached singers at the San Francisco Opera and the San Francisco Conservatory opera program.