How To Give A Great Acceptance Speech

"Acceptance speeches didn't used to be at all autobiographical," says former Clinton speechwriter David Kusnet.

"Roosevelt didn't talk about recovering from polio. John F. Kennedy didn't talk about PT-109 or being Catholic or being the grandson of Irish immigrants. Eisenhower didn't talk about WWII. The first candidate to be autobiographical in a convention speech was Richard Nixon. And after Nixon, every candidate from an unprivileged background talked about how he came up from poverty, and every candidate from a privileged background went searching for something in his background that would humanize him."

This quote from a story called Speech Therapy from The New York Metro Magazine highlights the challenges facing the rich and powerful, everyone from movie stars to Presidents, in giving an acceptance speech.

The quote Kusnet was refering to was the one Richard Nixon gave at the 1968 Republican convention.

"I see another child tonight. He hears the train go by at night and he dreams of faraway places where he'd like to go. It seems like an impossible dream. But he is helped on his journey through life and tonight he stands before you - nominated for president of the United States of America," Nixon said.

Halle Berry's emotional acceptance speech at the 2002 Oscars was one of the most memorable in the history of the Academy Awards.

She didn't leave many dry eyes in the house with her tearful acceptance speech for 2001's movie Monster's Ball.

"This moment is for Dorothy Dandridge, Lena Horne, Diahann Carroll," she said. "It's for the women that stand beside me