John McCain tries to loosen up at the podium

McCain gets speech-giving counsel, corporate blogs getting duller all the time, Australian politician accused of seat-filling and former Bush speechwriting czar joins Burson-Marsteller

John McCain—by his own admission, says The New York Times, “not a great orator”—is struggling to ratchet up his formal speaking skills. The presumed Republican presidential candidate, reports The Times, is better at off-the-cuff speaking, but has hired a raft of experts to help him smoothly deliver key addresses, like his acceptance speech at the Republic National Convention this September. Among other skills, McCain is reported to be working on reading from a teleprompter, limiting facial tics and extraneous hand gestures, and sounding less stiff.