A fairer statement is that the speech helped make the topic a serious part of the national conversation.

Will students and fans show up for speeches without an entertaining concert to help the medicine go down?

At last Merry seemed to think a speech might help matters.

For that reason, the speech may not help him keep his job, since Mr. Yeltsin alone will decide whether he does.

It's thought that her speeches and letters helped to end the practice of force-feeding.

"But the speech also helped to keep me motivated to make sure that all the votes are counted where I live."

The speech helped provide one final push for the United States to declare war.

This speech will help to build up people's confidence in him.

That speech may have helped Amos, when he came to think the matter over, to decide to dissociate himself from the resistance effort.

But I do not think that any speech will help me.