[mindcrime]

I've given more than a few public talks, and I ran for Lieutenant Governor of NC a few years ago, and did some campaign speeches as part of that... what I have found is that they key is to be able to improvise your entire talk if need be. That is, if you know the points you want to make, and a rough order you want to make them in, you can construct the talk as you go if need be. Then you never have to worry about "forgetting your lines" or whatever. If you can develop this ability to give a speech totally unscripted, you can then choose whether or not you want to use notes or whatever to help you stick more precisely to the plan... but in the worst case, you're never totally screwed with no ability to proceed.

FWIW, when I ran for office, I never memorized a single speech, nor did I use notes. I mentally rehearsed the key points and structure on the way to the venue, and then improvised. Take the fact that I didn't get elected however you want, vis-a-vis the effectiveness of my approach. :-)