Mike Dunford at The Questionable Authority takes on the false dichotomy between style and substance In Defense of William Jennings Bryan.
Why think about Bryan now? Just this: when you have a public figure who is completely lacking in style (bad orator, out of touch with current culture, and generally a dud) his supporters will always say of his opponent “All style no substance”. Or “All hat, no cattle” or any of several variations. It’s a canard: style and substance are not mutually exclusive and may be orthogonal to each other. Not that any current examples of this dynamic come to mind.