It maybe is a British/American thing. There are different styles of public discourse in and between the two countries. The Martin Luther King "I have a dream" speech and the Gettysburg address have clearly different styles, and both are different from Churchill. But the Obama-style of aping King's speech, especially the threefold repetitions, has a creepy, hollow ring over here. On the other hand, perhaps rhetoric, especially in my clumsy hands, does not go down well in America. In any case, how a speech or article goes down is always a bit of a mystery in any country. I was amazed to learn that the marvellous Gettysburg address at the time was considered a very poor speech.