Do you know each other? citalopram fluoxetine paroxetine sertraline cmi Not only was the president's Galesburg speech too lengthy, he delivered it right at lunch hour. President George H.W. Bush used to be very careful about keeping lunchtime speeches short because he assumed that the audience would rather eat than listen to him. Heading into a noon speech, he once said to me, "I hope they have pickles on the tables!" Obama would do well to abide by a basic rule of speechwriting: Respect the audience's time.