Many people like to know whether their president is a good public speaker. President here refers to no particular one but any president of a given place at a given time. Rating any politician’s public speaking skills in a risky business. If you say something nice about the speaker, people who oppose the politics of that politician immediately pull out their swords against you and deem you an idiot. The opposite is true as well, with supporters of a politician writing you off as a foolish political hack if you criticise their speaking skills.
That is why it is better to let a little time go by as compared to giving an objective statement when they are in office. Calling Abraham Lincoln a remarkable speaker will not attract controversy in this age, with many accepting his Gettysburg Address as one of the top five speeches in English speaking history, if not the best. On the other hand, not many people talk about the speaking skills of James Buchanan. There are some exceptions, of course, as in the eighties, most people, regardless of whether they agreed with Reagan’s policies would say he was a good speaker.
However, when Bill Clinton was in office, saying that he was a good speaker would garner you tremendous hate and condemnation. But it is to be admitted that Bush improved through time as he used to be frozen, stiff, and scared when looking at the teleprompter in his earlier years but gradually got more comfortable and relaxed in the later ones.
Most politicians, especially those that get presidency, even if they don’t have great public speaking skills that stand up to all traditional methods of good speaking, typically have something that resonates with certain audiences in certain circumstances. If they didn’t they wouldn’t be where they are.