A few weeks ago, we had a forum discussion on some of the great political speeches in American history, so I was very much interested in a segment of Fareed Zakaria GPS which aired on CNN on Friday, discussing the not-so-great ones. Zakaria's panel of speech-writing experts included Peggy Noonan (who wrote for Ronald Reagan), Rick Hertzberg (Jimmy Carter), Pat Buchanan (Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan), and John O'Sullivan (Margaret Thatcher).

Noonan, Hertzberg, and O'Sullivan were in solid agreement as to the worst-ever speech given by an American president, George W. Bush's 2nd inaugural address from January of 2005. Hertzberg said that this lofty speech "had no bearing on reality," while Noonan pointed out that it "outlawed tyranny in the world, something a god can do, but not an American president." O'Sullivan concurred, adding that "Bush's aides spent the next day fanning out about Washington trying to qualify the over-optimistic statements."

Only Buchanan disagreed that Bush's 2nd inaugural address was the worst presidential speech in history. He chose Bush's good vs. bad-us vs. them "Axis of Evil" speech from January of 2002. "It began the ideological path to his own destruction."

Back on the positive-speech end of the spectrum, Zakaria's "Question of the Week" is, "What particular line from history has inspired YOU over the years? Whether spoken by a president, or a Prime Minister, or a King, what quotation did you find most powerful? " To submit your own answer, go here.