Debatrix trainers Lars Duursma and Victor Vlam are back from the United States, having spent time there to visit speeches from all the key players in this years election and having campaigned for both Barack Obama and John McCain. Barely able to shake off the jetlag, Lars will give a lecture today to all the speechwriters at Dutch governmental departments about his findings, experiences and conclusions from the trip to America.

Lars and Victor arrived a few weeks before the election, rented a car and drove through the swing states where all the major candidates – and their spouses – give speeches to usually big crowds. After the speeches, some lucky people get to shake hands with them. Lars and Victor were among those lucky ones.

Every speech by Barack Obama seems to be better than the previous. But did you know that he reads verbatim from the teleprompter?

Lars and Victor also did volunteer work for both campaigns. Here’s Victor persuading a voter. Every caller gets a complete script from the campaign with some dirty little tricks!

At a Joe Biden rally, the Democratic candidate for VP, speaks mostly to diehard fans.

The real audience for the Biden speech? The local TV audience because the press area is almost as big as the area for the audience.

After the speech, Biden poses with Lars for a picture.

Do people really make those signs themselves?

No, they don’t. This is is what we saw when we entered a still empty room.

Both John McCain and Sarah Palin spoke at this rally. We asked Republicans who attended this rally for whom they came. The answer was unequivocal: Palin.

Bill Clinton, who spoke without notes or a teleprompter, gave a speech that we thought of as heartfelt and very personal. Until we watched Meet the Press that is. To our surprise we heard prominent Democrat John Kerry say the exact same things. Apparently Clinton just recited the campaigns talking points. Nonetheless, he did it well.

In the next couple of weeks Lars Duursma and Victor Vlam will giving various lectures about their trip and the speeches they saw.