William F. Buckley Jr. was an American political commentator, very active on TV public forums speaking everywhere author, pundit, columnist, from the 1950s when he was in his 20s, until just a few years ago, when he passed away he had a tremendous impact on the political culture and the culture of letters in America. He had a very distinctive speaking style. Look at the clip below. One of the things you may notice is he would jack his tongue out while speaking. I don't recommend that. He did a number of things that simply don't work most of the time for most people, he could not resist using really, really big long words.

He likes to show off his vocabulary. Most people who do that come across as ridiculous for him, it kind of worked. He Was this almost caricature of the elite intellectual looking down all of the muscles and he had this accent from a summer he spent in Europe. So he didn't have the standard American accent. It was a very patrician accent. But when he spoke, he came across with humor, with wit, with insight and unlike a lot of political debate, especially in America today, you got the sense when he was interviewing people, he actually listened to what they said he actually responded to their arguments.

And even though I wasn't in exact alignment with all of his policies, he's someone who really drew me in to the whole culture of political debate. I started watching him in the mid 1970s on his program called firing line. So he's no longer with us, but he does leave a legacy. look below and see what you think of it.